GREENPEACE REVEALS COGEMA IS LEAVING NUCLEAR WASTE
AT SEA JUST 250 METRES OFF PUBLIC BEACH September 14, 1997
(La Hague)- Greenpeace today revealed that
Cogema has taken radioactive waste from around its radioactive waste
discharge pipe and left it on the seabed, just 250 metres off the
public beach where the pipe enters the sea. The waste is in just 7
metres of water. Greenpeace divers found two nuclear waste drums, a
filtration chamber and approximately 20 metres of pipe. Measurements,
taken under water, show that these items emit dangerous radiation
levels, between 100 and 4,000 times background.
The drums and filtration chamber which where discovered today appear
to come from Cogema's attempted clean-up at the end of the pipe. "It's
already clear that Cogema's operations have little to do with
cleaning. Now it appears to be even worse. Instead of removing at
least some of the heavily contaminated seabed, Cogema has now chosen
to leave the dangerous waste on the seabed. It's absolutely
irresponsible behaviour even if it's not a permanent dump site", said
Diederik Samsom of Greenpeace.
In June Cogema announced that it wanted to undertake an operation to
remove the radioactive crust from the inside of its nuclear waste
discharge pipe. Before the operation, Greenpeace called for a full
Environmental Impact Assesment. Greenpeace said it did not trust the
environmental safety of the removal of the crust from the pipe.
However, the French Environment Minister, Dominque Voynet, said she
was assured by the safety authorities there would be no release of
radioactive material into the environment. Last Tuesday, as Greenpeace
returned to resume sampling operations, the French Government
admitted that the process had resulted in a spillage of 50 kg of waste
on to the seabed.
Divers from Greenpeace discovered that Cogema's so-called cleaning
operation had, in fact, resulted in an enormous nuclear mess at the
end of the pipe. Greenpeace found that Cogema has built a small
industrial site on the seabed, and in a desperate attempt to cover up
the real impact of its operations has been trying to remove the
nuclear debris from the seafloor. Greenpeace has filed a legal
complaint against Cogema's polluting operations. (1)
The environmental organisation is calling on the French Environment
Minister to urgently intervene in La Hague. "We need to know whether
the Minister was informed about this nuclear waste site so close to
shore and what she is prepared to do to stop this insanity," said
Penelope Komites of Greenpeace France. end
For more information:
- Penelope Komites: mobile (+33) 606763301
Video footage is available from Reuters, Paris
NOTE
(1) See Reuter wire-story Friday 12.9 on the follow up of the
complaint.
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