Radioactive Contamination on French Beach

["greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org>]

SIGNS WARN OF RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION ON FRENCH BEACH; WASTE
DISCHARGE PIPE IS 3,000 TIMES BACKGROUND RADIATION 
 
Paris, March 13, Unusually low tides have left exposed a
highly radioactive discharge pipe on a public beach near the
la Hague plutonium reprocessing plant on France's northwest
coast.  Greenpeace has warned that the pipe and its discharges
pose unacceptable hazards to the environment and public health
and has called on the French government to stop pumping
radioactive waste into the sea.
 
"Finding this pipe is like finding "the smoking gun" after a
murder," said Je an-Luc Thierry of Greenpeace France.  "This
pipe fully attests to the guilt of the French government for
directly discharging nuclear waste into the sea.  For now,
authorities can try to cover this up by posting signs on the
beach, but what will they do about the billions of gallons of
nuclear waste they have already pumped into the sea?"
 
The la Hague reprocessing plant, operated by the government-
controlled nuclear company COGEMA, separates weapons-usable
plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel from Belgian, Dutch,
French, German, and Japanese nuclear reactors.  
In conjunction with the independent French laboratory Criirad,
Greenpeace took radioactive readings from the exposed
discharge pipe on March 11.  It was found that the radiation
at the pipe's surface was as much as 3,000 times greater than
naturally occurring background radiation.   Given the
significant level of radioactivity, people on land or on the
water near the pipe could receive within hours doses of
radiation beyond the annual limits set by the European
Community.  Local activists living around the la
Hague site have pledged to file a legal complaint against
COGEMA in the next few days.
 
COGEMA has already found itself under attack after the
publication of a study associating the la Hague reprocessing
plant with leukaemia in the region.  The French
epidemiologist who conducted the study, which appeared in the
British Medical Journal on January 11, suggests that the
plant's radioactive contamination of area beaches and local
fish and shellfish may be the cause.                 
"The French government and COGEMA must immediately stop their
discharge of nuclear waste and reprocessing of plutonium,"
said Thierry of Greenpeace. "French is acting with clear
disregard of its international obligation to reduce and
eliminate nuclear discharges to the environment.   European
nations should force France to live up to its legal
obligations at the upcoming OSPAR Commission meeting."   At a
1992 Ministerial Meeting of the OSPAR Commission, France
agreed to "reduce or eliminate radioactive discharges in the
marine environment".  OSPAR is the intergovernmental
commission which regulates marine pollution in the Northeast
Atlantic.  The next ministerial meeting of the OSPAR
Commission will take place  in September.
 
For More Information Please Contact: Laurence Mermet in Paris
53 43 8585 Karen Richardson in London + 44 171 865 8281