GREENPEACE ACCUSES COGEMA OF ARMED ROBBERY

PARIS, France 17 June 1997

Greenpeace has revealed that the state-owned plutonium company COGEMA has used divers and armed men to illegally remove sampling equipment installed by the international environmental group. Greenpeace is in the process of filing legal papers with the public prosecutor in Cherbourg calling for an investigation of the crime and the return of the sampling equipment. Greenpeace has vowed not to be deterred by COGEMA "thuggery" and promises to continue its monitoring of the company's radioactive pollution.

Greenpeace is filing charges this morning at the "Tribunal de Grande Instance" , with the Public Prosecutor of Cherbourg. The organisation has charged that divers hired by COGEMA, accompanied by at least two armed men, removed buoys and a line, plus sampling equipment positioned at the opening at the opening of the discharge pipe through which COGEMA discharges nuclear waste into the Atlantic, off the Cap La Hague. The armed intervention took place around 8:00 PM last night and was witnessed and filmed by Greenpeace activists.

This is the second time in two days that COGEMA has removed Greenpeace buoys and sampling equipment. Early Sunday morning, under cover of darkness, COGEMA divers had also dived on and removed Greenpeace's sampling equipment.

COGEMA illegally removed Greenpeace sampling equipment after the international environmental group released preliminary sampling results on June 13th, which showed that COGEMA's radioactive discharge have turned the ocean floor into a nuclear waste dump. The sediment sample analysis showed that stones covering the ocean floor were so radioactive that EC regulations would require that they be treated as controlled nuclear waste.

Greenpeace has brought the laboratory equipped ship "Rainbow C" to the Cap La Hague in order to publicise radioactive discharges and contamination from the La Hague plutonium reprocessing factory. La Hague annually discharges some 230 million litres of nuclear waste into the Atlantic ocean - - only a few miles from the Channel Islands and Southern English coast. La Hague plant is the single largest source of radioactive contamination in the European Union.

"COGEMA is clearly desperate to block our efforts to inform the public about radioactive contamination from the La Hague plutonium factory," said Damon Moglen of Greenpeace. "Given their criminal negligence in dumping nuclear waste into the sea, it is not hard to believe that COGEMA would adopt such illegal behaviour. These people are thugs and will stop at nothing to protect their dirty business. This will not stop us from getting this information to the public."

Despite harassment from COGEMA, Greenpeace has pledged to continue its sampling efforts and provision of information to the public.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Damon Moglen, Greenpeace International: +33-2-33-94-80-22

Luisa Colasimone, Greenpeace Press Desk: +33-6-53-12-89-07