Press release - 16 September, 2004
Greenpeace activists today entered the military arsenal in the port of Cherbourg, Normandy to protest a planned U.S. shipment of plutonium later this month. The activists, arriving in canoes, hung a 'Stop Plutonium' banner along the military dock. Eleven activists are currently being held by local authorities.
The 'secure' dock is where British Nuclear Fuels and French
state nuclear company Areva (1) plan to unload 140 kilograms of
weapons-grade plutonium. The radioactive cargo will then be
transported by land over one thousand kilometres to Cadarache in
Southern France, to be manufactured into nuclear reactor fuel.
"Today's protest is intended to send a clear message to the
Chirac and Bush administrations - plans for shipping this deadly
plutonium should be abandoned before any further accidents or worse
take place," said Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace International. "Last
night, more than a hundred U.S. citizens protested in the port of
Charleston, U.S. where the nuclear material will be loaded sending
the same message - stop this madness and treat plutonium as waste
not fuel."
Last week, the Cadarache nuclear plant that is due to process
the U.S. nuclear material suffered an accident, which caused worker
contamination inside the old plant. It was confirmed yesterday by
French safety authorities that the accident was more severe than
first stated (2).
Over the past two years Greenpeace in France has tracked and
filmed regular transports of plutonium from Normandy to Provence,
through various routes including via Paris. Many thousands of
kilograms of nuclear material each year are transported in France
in standard unarmed containers, and a low level of security
protection.
Opposition to plans to use weapons-plutonium into commercial
reactors is based upon the major security, safety and environmental
hazards involved. Members of the United States Congress have
challenged the Bush administration over the vulnerability of the
planned transport, in particular to deliberate attack.
The Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal are due to arrive in at the
Charleston Naval Weapons Station, South Carolina, where they will
pick up their cargo of nuclear material. The ships plan to cross
the Atlantic under a security agreement negotiated with between the
UK, France and U.S. governments, including defence and homeland
security departments, are lightly armed and with a squad of
anti-terrorist police on each.
Notes: 1. Areva has a stockpile of between 70-80,000 kilograms of plutonium at its la Hague plant, near Cherbourg.2. Five cells, instead of one, were contaminated.See www.stop-plutonium.org for background documentation and images of the U.S. shipment and French plutonium program.Video footage and pictures available upon request: Amelie Dupuy, +33 673895502