NEW DATA ON AERIAL DISCHARGES REVEAL HIGH LEVELS OF RADIOACTIVE CARBON CONTAMINATION AROUND THE FRENCH REPROCESSING PLANT

12 November 1998

PARIS - Greenpeace today released sample data for radioactive Carbon-14 contamination around the Cogema reprocessing plant at La Hague that show worrying levels of this significant isotope.

The University of Groningen in the Netherlands (1) analysed the samples of organic material such as herbs and leaves, collected on different locations around the plant in September. The results show increases of between 2 and 7 times above concentrations that are normally present in the environment.

"It is clear that the whole region around La Hague, and especially the part under prevailing wind directions, is significantly contaminated with radioactive carbon," said Diederik Samson of Greenpeace. "Official authorities have known about the C-14 problem, but not taken any action to prevent further contamination."

"The conspiracy of inaction and incompetence between the plutonium industry and the regulators continues at the expense of people and the environment," said Samsom.

Carbon-14 loses half of its radioactivity in 5730 years (half-life) and is easily absorbed and stored by all living organisms, from plants to people, because carbon is the basic component of all living cells. The C-14 releases not only affect the population around the plant, but contribute to the artificial radiation dose of the world population. The Cogema funded agency CEPN (Centre for Nuclear Safety) identified C-14 as the most important isotope in reprocessing discharges, in terms of human health impacts.

Cogema, however, does not give any official discharge data and has rapidly increased its C-14 discharges. Estimated discharges from C-14 were 5.8 TBq (TeraBecquerels - 1,000,000,000,000 becquerels) in 1990, by 1996 this had risen to 19 TBq a year. A dramatic three fold increase in just 7 years.

The health impact of radioactive carbon from reprocessing has been acknowledged for decades but was only very recently taken into account by the French authorities. The problem of C-14 was mentioned last year in a report from the radiation safety authorities OPRI (Institute for Radiation Protection)which stated that there was a lack of data and that the local impact of C-14 'is significantly underestimated '. OPRI recommended a regular monitoring program. However, Cogema still does not release data on its discharges and a comprehensive monitoring program is still not in place. The special French regional investigation commission, Groupe Radioecologie Nord Cotentin, complains in its report from December 1997 that 'there is a lack of data on C-14 '.

The only data available before Greenpeace did its research were some samples taken by OPRI at the end of 1996. From this data OPRI concluded that the dose to local population could be up to 50 microSievert due to gaseous C-14 alone (2). This contrasts sharply with the Cogema figure of 4 microSievert. Greenpeace sample results, taken two years later and higher than OPRI's by 50-70%, can only add to the concern.

"It is clear that Cogema's estimates of the radioactive dose to the population are totally wrong". said Samsom of Greenpeace. "All the data we have collected so far lead to the same conclusions : impacts are seriously underestimated and comprehensive data is not available. For an industry that has been polluting the environment for over three decades that is just unacceptable,"

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
- Greenpeace International website:
http://www.greenpeace.org/~comms/no.nukes/reprohn.html
- Diederik Samsom: Greenpeace (31) 20 524 9513 or (31) 65 3506 595 (mob)

- Jean-Luc Thierry : Greenpeace office number/33 60876 3301 (mob)
- Jon Walter: Greenpeace Communications, Amsterdam - 31 20 523 6222

2- French government submission to the Oslo Paris Commission (OSPAR)in September 1997, available upon request.