Actually, as of Sat July 12th, this AREVa plant has to be permanently, not temporarily,shut down. Link:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/12/10317
From an Agence Presse article. Excerpt:
“But site operator Socatri, a subsidiary of French nuclear giant Areva, said it would permanently shut down the facility at the Tricastin nuclear plant in Provence as part of a previously-planned upgrade. France’s ASN nuclear safety authority cited a “series of faults and human negligence that is not acceptable” when it ordered the closure following an inspection at the plant on Thursday.

Residents in the Vaucluse region have been told not to drink water or eat fish from nearby rivers since the leak on Monday night, in which 75 kilogrammes (165 pounds) of untreated liquid uranium spilled into the ground.” [I don’t believe this figure. The nuke industry usually lies about accidents. Jo]

AREVA plants not only leak, they also pollute–
contrary to Sen. Larry Craig, whose recent gumshoe trip to visit AREVA operations in France revealed only sweetness and light.
Craig did not report about the radioactive wastes emitted into the sea and air from AREVA’s reprocessing center at La Hague, on the Normandy coast. These have contaminated area beaches and seas to the far north, plus raising leukemia rates near La Hague. Their discharges have been measured as 17 million times more radioactive than normal sea water.
Source: http://www.beyondnuclear.org/

Smoke that one, Larry.

Well, all you Chicken Littles out there, what’s the problem? All this story tells us is that the system works! The problem was discovered, nobody was killed. It just goes to show how inherently SAFE nucelar energy really is!

This story also shows us how important it is to get the oil companies out there exploring for more offshore oil, so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.

What I don’t understand is why an oil company would want to go to all the risk and expense to drill for oil out on the high seas, when there is virtually unlimited energy available in the form of waves, tides, currents, wind, thermal, and etc. without having to explore and drill. Well, yes I do understand why. They’re OIL companies.

Yaaaaa! 5 days later the Statesman finally printed a story about this. Damn I’m proud of these folks.