Environment Ministers from 15 countries and the European
Commission will meet tomorrow to decide the future for
environmental protection of the North East Atlantic. High on the
agenda will be discharges of radioactive substances from nuclear
reprocessing plants at Sellafield in the UK and La Hague in France
- the 'Dirty men of Europe'.
Ministers will be faced with a stark contrast as they adopt
guidelines promoting offshore wind energy against a background of
continued and increasing radioactive discharges from reprocessing
of spent nuclear fuel to the sea. These guidelines are designed to
facilitate and speed up the development of offshore wind, in an
environmentally sustainable way (1).
"This meeting mixes the old and dirty with the new and clean,
nuclear power and renewable energy. Many countries are angry at the
legacy of nuclear power and want to see clean offshore wind
providing the energy for the future", said Simon Reddy, Greenpeace
delegate to OSPAR. "These guidelines are a positive step forward,
but any initiative Ministers would have gained from their adoption
will be lost unless they are also prepared to tackle radioactive
discharges head on", he explained.
The meeting of Ministers, under the OSPAR Convention (2), is the
first since the historic meeting in Sintra, Portugal, in 1998,
which set groundbreaking commitments for action on radioactive
discharges - all parties committed to "progressive and substantial
reductions -, hazardous chemicals and dumping of oil platforms.
Since then, however, the UK and France have simply failed to live
up to their promises. In fact, discharges from UK reprocessing
activities have actually increased since 1998 and are set to rise
further under current business plans.
Greenpeace is following the proceedings in Bremen where progress
on reducing discharges is supposed to be reviewed. The problem,
says Reddy, is that there is no progress to review. In a cynical
move by the UK this week, they indicated their intention to
announce a nine-month moratorium on technetium99 discharges (3).
This, according to Greenpeace, has been timed to draw attention
away from the fact that the UK has increased its discharges over
the past five years." Technetium has a half-life of over 200,000
years. A nine-month moratorium is useless unless it leads to a
permanent ban and an end to reprocessing and all nuclear
discharges," he said.
German Environment Minister Jurgen Trittin, who represents the
Green Party in Germany and is anti-nuclear, will chair the meeting.
Norway is expected to be highly critical of the UK and France over
their failure to reduce radioactive discharges. Greenpeace has
called on Minister Trittin, as chair, to ensure that the UK and
France are held to account for their failure to reduce
discharges.
"In 1998, the UK 's deputy Prime Minister John Prescott hailed
the decision to reduce radioactive discharges as the UK shedding
its tag as the 'dirty man of Europe'. The failure to do so is yet
another example of the UK Governments empty rhetoric", said
Reddy.
"Until this meeting in Bremen is over, the non-reprocessing
states can firmly lay the blame for OSPAR's failure to control
radioactive pollution at the door of the UK and France. But after
Bremen, unless they are prepared to take the dirty men of Europe
fully to task, the blame will lie with all of them", he
concluded.
Notes: (1) Guidance on a Common Approach for Dealing with Applications for the Construction and Operation of Offshore Wind-Farms. (2) OSPAR Convention deals with marine pollution, in the North East Atlantic and North Sea. Member states are; Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the European Commission. This year the Ministerial Meeting is being run jointly with that of the Helsinki Convention (HELCOM). HELCOM deals with marine pollution in the Baltic Sea. Member States are: Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany and Denmark.(3) Radioactive waste