Eugene Riguidel, one of France's most famous sailors and a member of the Atlantic Nuclear Free Flotilla, is released after a 24 hour detention in the Arsenal of Cherbourg.
The nuclear companies are further seeking to keep the
international organisation from getting closer than 100 m from the
road that the nuclear transport will take from the harbour to the
La Hague plant (1).
"Once more the nuclear industry is trying to gag peaceful
protest. They have nothing to fear from Greenpeace, rather the
courts time would be better focussed on the threat posed by 140kg
of bomb grade plutonium traversing the high seas and France's
highways," said Tom Clements of Greenpeace International. The
hearing will take place in Cherbourg Court tomorrow, Tuesday
October 5th, at 2:30 p.m.
The plutonium, sent by the US National Nuclear Security
Administration (NNSA), left the port of Charleston, South Carolina,
on September 20. The Pacific Teal and Pacific Pintail, operated by
BNFL, are approaching Cherbourg where an international flotilla of
French, English and Irish protest vessels are waiting.
In contrast to recent statements made by the U.S. Government and
BNFL this is not a one-off shipment of plutonium It is the first
instalment of 68 tonnes of plutonium from US and Russian stockpiles
to be put on the world's roads and seas at a time when terrorists
are actively seeking such material.
Greenpeace wants and immediate end to plutonium production and
separation and believes current stocks both civil and military
should be treated as nuclear waste not shipped around the world as
reactor fuel. Plutonium should be mixed with radioactive waste,
solidified or vitrified, and stored. This approach would be
cheaper, faster, safer, and more secure.
Earlier today, Eugene Riguidel, one of France's most famous
sailors, John Castle of Guernsey and Pernilla Svenberg from
Greenpeace International were released from the military arsenal in
Cherbourg. They were arrested yesterday for mounting a peaceful
protest inside the military port against the plutonium
shipment.
"We have a military exclusion zone in Cherbourg against small
yachts while plutonium transports are free to threaten the lives
and livelihoods of everyone in their wake, it is the trade in
nuclear bomb material that should be banned not peaceful protest,"
said Eugene Riguidel, after spending a night in jail.
Notes: For background information see:http://www.stop-plutonium.org http://www.nuclearfreeflotilla.org/flotilla.htm Notes to editors:(1). Greenpeace is threatened with a € 300,000 penalty (€ 150,000 going to Areva the other € 150,000 going to BNFL) for each recorded violation at sea, and € 150,000 for each recorded violation on the road between Cherbourg and the plant in La Hague, to which some € 19,000 lawyer expenses also have to be included.