French National Assembly

After the declaration to the French National Assembly on 19 June 1997, of the decision to finally shut down the Creys power plant, and after 6 months of alternating hopes and disappointments as to a possible restart in order to complete the use of the 1st core, and perhaps even the 2" core, the first structured strategic reflection for definitive shutdown began in February 1998. One of the main aims of this reflection was to prove the technical feasibility of this dismantling based on the assumption of reasonable costs and time limits. In this context of technical doubt, fuelled by the media, a very determined attitude had to be adopted. 

The metric system was begun by the French National Assembly in 1790 and has undergone many modifications. The International System of Units or Systeme International (SI), which represents an extension of the metric system, was adopted by the 11th General Conference of Weights and Measures in 1960. It is constructed from seven base units, each of which represents a particular physical quantity (Table C.l). 

No such uniformity of weights and measures existed on the European continent. Weights and measures differed not only from country to country but even from town to town and from one trade to another. This lack of uniformity led the National Assembly of France during the French Revolution to enact a decree (May 8, 1790) that called upon the French Academy of Sciences to act in concert with the Royal Society of London to deduce an invariable standard for all of the measures and all weights. Having already an adequate system of weights and measures, the English... 

Almost everything we own—clothes, house, food, vehicle—is manufactured with measured parts, sold in measured amounts, and paid for with measured currency. Measurement has a history characterized by the search for exact, invariable standards. Our current system of measurement began in 1790, when the newly formed National Assembly of France set up a committee to establish consistent unit standards. This effort led to the development of the metric system. In 1960, another international committee met in France to establish the International System of Units, a revised metric system now accepted by scientists throughout the world. The units of this system are called SI units, from the French Systeme International d Unites. 

The French nation not being capable of assembling individually, to exercise all its rights, it ought to be represented. It is necessary, then, to declare the form of its representation and the rights of its representatives. 

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