The French: World Champions of Breaking Wind

Reversible wind farms form shield.

In the event of nuclear accidents abroad, the turbines will turn to face the wind, switch to blow, and repel the approaching radioactive cloud.

A secret trial of the technology in the 1980s proved a success, when in 1986 French weather forecasters announced that an area of high-pressure over the country had spared the country, pushing radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear power station north to Britain and south to Corsica.

It seems that Britons and Corsicans must have neglected to thank them for this.

The project was scrapped by President Mitterrand, who believed it would be interpreted as an apology to Greenpeace, but was reinstated by Nicolas Sarkozy last week.

Radiating your neighbors – is that “European solidarity” or what?