Waste Contracts With Germany Turn France into Nuke Dump

[the.greenbase@green2.greenpeace.org]

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Original-TO:      World Press (Green2:Green2:Gnl:INET)
Original-Cc:      The Greenbase (Green2:Green2:Gnl:Main)
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               GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE
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>> NEW WASTE CONTRACTS WITH GERMANY TO TURN FRANCE INTO
NUCLEAR DUMP; FRENCH OFFICIALS SEEK TO SUBVERT LAW AND PUBLIC
WILL 
 
PARIS, February 12, 1996 (GP) Greenpeace revealed today that
the French plutonium company COGEMA is in the midst of signing
secret nuclear waste storage contracts with German reactor
operators.  The international environmental group has warned
that the contracts, which violate French law, could turn
France into an international nuclear dump.
 
"No wonder COGEMA and the German utilities are negotiating in
secret--these contracts are illegal and will never be accepted
by the French public," said Jean-Luc Thierry of Greenpeace
France.  "COGEMA must be stopped from turning France into an
international nuclear waste cemetery." 
 
"Germany should deal with its own nuclear waste problem," said
Helmut Hirsch of Greenpeace Germany.  "German government and
utility officials are playing a very cynical game: on one hand
they call for consensus talks involving the opposition but at
the same time they are in the midst of secret negotiations
which make those talks a masquerade."
 
Greenpeace provided details on the secret negotiations based
on a document and information leaked by internal sources. 
According to the leaked information, COGEMA, the French
governmentally-

controlled reprocessing company, has entered into one on one
negotiations with a number of the utilities which operate
German nuclear reactors.  The powerful Prussenelektra is
leading the talks on the German side and is in the final
stages of closing on a new contract.  While many of the
utilities signed plutonium separation or "reprocessing"
contracts in the past, most if not all of the companies have
become concerned about the lack of commercial justification
for continued reprocessing and plutonium stockpiling.
 
COGEMA has therefore desperately changed its marketing
strategy: they are offering to store the utility's nuclear
waste and plutonium.  This offer has great attraction for the
German utilities whose efforts to store their nuclear waste
domestically have met with great public and political
resistance.
 
Accordingly, COGEMA has offered contracts which would allow:
*The storage of the irradiated nuclear fuel generated by the
German utilities' nuclear reactors.  There is no requirement
that the fuel be reprocessed and the storage offer can
apparently be extended through contract renewals after 10 or
15 years.
*Should the fuel be reprocessed, COGEMA has offered to take
control of the resulting plutonium.  In addition they offer to
at least temporarily store the resulting high level nuclear
waste and permanently store the tremendous volume of so-called
low and intermediate nuclear waste.          
 
In support of its contention that the contracts offered are
prohibited by domestic law, Greenpeace re-released a memo that
the current French Environment Minister, Corinne Lepage had
prepared in 1994.  At that time, Ms. Lepage, a well known
lawyer, provided Greenpeace with a memo analyzing a leaked
document detailing the new contract negotiations.  In her
memo, Lepage concluded that various elements of such contracts
would be questionable under French law.
 
Now as a Minister in the Chirac government, Ms. Lepage has not
only denied knowledge of the contract negotiations but is
herself implicated in the process of closing on the illegal
deal.    
 
"It would appear that entry into the government has given
Minister Lepage a case of nuclear amnesia," said Greenpeace's
Thierry.  "This is a political scandal of major proportion."
 
Ms Lepage is in fact scheduled to meet with her German
counterpart, Environment Minister Angela Merkel at COGEMA's la
Hague reprocessing plant on Tuesday, February 13.  It is
believed that the meeting may well be the occasion for the
signing of the first of the German waste storage contracts.
 
"We call on Ministers Lepage and Merkel to take advantage of
the meeting at la Hague to publicly reveal the details of the

waste contracts under negotiation," said Damon Moglen of
Greenpeace International.  "It is clear that these contracts
will affect public health and the environment for many
generations to come so this decision can not and must not be
made in secret without public consultation and agreement."
 
Greenpeace has pledged to work against the signing of the new
contracts.
---End---
 
Contact: Damon Moglen/Jean-Luc Thierry, Paris,33-1-4770-4689   
      Hemut Hirsch/Heinz Laing, Hamburg,49-40-31186-169\171    
     Blair Palese, London, 44-171-833-0600
 
 
 
 
 
 
COGEMA'S SECRET CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS;
SUSPENDING THE LAW AND COMMON SENSE
 

Background
 
The international plutonium industry is in considerable
trouble.  As the nuclear industry world-wide has failed to
build any commercially viable plutonium fuelled and producing
Fast Breeder Reactors, the industry has no justification for
its continued plutonium separation or "reprocessing"
activities.  Like the story of the Emperor who was wearing no
clothes, COGEMA's grandiose plans and fantastical
justifications have been shown to be a laughable but dangerous
lie.  
 
The bottom line is that France and Britain's continued
reprocessing activities threaten to place hundreds of tonnes
of weapons-usable plutonium into international commerce
despite their being no justifiable commercial purpose.  German
support for continued plutonium separation is in direct
conflict with moves by the international community, lead by
the United States, to restrict access to weapons-usable

fissile materials.  In addition, reprocessing produces a
tremendous, additional volume of nuclear waste which is either
discharged into the environment or must be stored in either
the reprocessing or client nation.
 
In response, COGEMA's clients have been increasingly unwilling
to fulfil existing and/or negotiate new reprocessing
contracts.  This has left COGEMA in a desperate situation as
it has spent huge sums of money to build reprocessing plants.
COGEMA has acted with the desperation of a company facing
ruin; it has sought to give its potential clients what they
want at any price they can get.  Accordingly, COGEMA has
secretly offered nuclear waste storage contracts to its
foreign clients.  Under the guise of these being "reprocessing
contracts" COGEMA has sought to subvert the law and mislead
the public about its new role.  In turn, French government
officials, otherwise faced with the demise of the 
governmentally-controlled and funded plutonium industry, have 
similarly lied to the public and sought to subvert the law.
 
COGEMA's Secret Negotiations Revealed to the Public
 
In July of 1994, a document detailing COGEMA's desperate
negotiations for foreign waste storage/reprocessing contracts
was leaked to Greenpeace.  The document, which Greenpeace
released to the public, detailed adaptations that COGEMA would
make to ensure a contract with the powerful German electrical
utility PrussenElektra (PE).  The options offered included:
 
1. The storage of irradiated nuclear fuel (INF) from German
reactors at COGEMA'S la Hague reprocessing site.  The INF
could be stored in France regardless of whether or not it was
reprocessed.  COGEMA apparently also offers to renew storage
of PE INF after fifteen years and/or 2015.
 
2. The retransfer of separated plutonium arising from COGEMA's
reprocessing of German INF.  Specifically, COGEMA offered to
take title to any reprocessed plutonium (at no charge) or it
would agree to retransfer such plutonium to un-named third
parties. 
 
3. Should reprocessing of German INF occur, COGEMA guarantees
that it would retain rather than re-export the overwhelming
proportion of the nuclear waste generated by such activities. 
 
In response to the airing of their secret negotiations, COGEMA
stated that these were "only" discussions and as such not
illegal.  In turn, French officials, despite their obvious
involvement, stated that they were not aware of the details of
the negotiations but could assure that all foreign nuclear
waste would be returned as required by law.  While making
light of the contract negotiations in public, COGEMA and its
governmental supporters have suppressed further information
about the negotiations and continued to woe its foreign
clients in secret.
 
COGEMA PREPARES TO SIGN SECRET STORAGE CONTRACTS IN 1996
 
While recent press reports have covered new contracts for the
fabrication of fuel from German plutonium already reprocessed
and stored at la Hague, COGEMA has withheld all information
about the larger, comprehensive contracts it has been
negotiating with the same German clients.  Confidential
sources have notified
Greenpeace that COGEMA has continued its secret negotiations
with numerous German electrical utilities and is close, if not
in the process of signing new contracts based on the
discussion paper Greenpeace was leaked in 1992.   The imminent
new contracts will include the following options:
 
a. German spent fuel can be stored by COGEMA at la Hague
whether or not the fuel is ultimately reprocessed.  Such
storage after 10 or 15 years can apparently be renewed for an
indefinite period without the client assuming any obligation
to reprocess.
 
b. Should the German utilities instruct COGEMA to reprocess
fuel delivered/stored at la Hague, COGEMA is prepared to take
the resulting plutonium for no charge.
 
c. COGEMA also proposes to work out an agreement with EDF in
which EDF would receive subsidies to take the reprocessed
German plutonium and use it in MOX or plutonium fuel for its
conventional reactors.  Should this occur, COGEMA guarantees
that the resulting irradiated MOX fuel will be stored at la
Hague rather than returned to Germany. 
 
d. COGEMA proposes to store high level nuclear waste produced
by the reprocessing of German INF.
 
e. Ultimately, COGEMA guarantees that it will only return a
small proportion of the volume of nuclear waste actually
generated in the course of its reprocessing of its German
clients INF.  This would constitute a "swap" between different
waste categories and is controversial in Germany.  
 
These contracts are in effect irradiated nuclear fuel, nuclear
waste and plutonium storage contracts masquerading as
reprocessing contracts.  Should such contracts be signed,
despite the French law's prohibition against the storage
and/or disposal of foreign nuclear waste, French will become
an international nuclear dump.
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