GREENPEACE INSTALLS WEBCAM AT THE END OF FRANCE'S NUCLEAR REPROCESSING DISCHARGE PIPE 'TO OPEN THE EYES OF GOVERNMENTS'

26 June 2000

MV GREENPEACE, LA HAGUE, FRANCE -- Greenpeace installed a webcam at the end of the discharge pipe of France's nuclear reprocessing facility at La Hague, where over one million litres of liquid radioactive waste per day is dumped into the ocean.

At 30 meters depth, 1.7 km from shore in an area known for its vicious currents, an underwater camera and a transmission station have been installed. Images of the pipe are transmitted to a van on shore and put on the Internet.(1)

This unprecedented under water radioactive webcam programme coincides with today’s opening of the annual meeting of the OSPAR Commission in Copenhagen, at which a decision on a proposal for an immediate prohibition of nuclear reprocessing will be made.(2) On a big screen at the OSPAR conference centre Greenpeace will show live images of the discharge pipe.

Two Greenpeace divers also placed a giant 6 metre banner in the shape of an arrow above the radioactive waste discharge pipe. In a direct message to the OSPAR delegates and their Governments, the banner reads: 'Ban this now!'

Greenpeace will continue to broadcast the images of the radioactive waste discharge pipe for the duration of the OSPAR meeting, until a decision on the ban is taken. A decision is expected by Thursday at latest. Web surfers can express their opinion on whether they think these discharges should be banned.

An opinion poll commissioned by Greenpeace and published this week-end found that eight out of ten people who live in the European countries which have spent nuclear fuel reprocessing contracts with Sellafield (United Kingdom) or La Hague (France) believe that discharges of radioactive waste into the sea should be banned.

"Government representatives and diplomats who decide on environmental issues are always far too removed from reality", said Remi Parmentier, Greenpeace International’s representative at the OSPAR meeting. "By bringing live footage of the discharges, we hope they will open their eyes, and ban nuclear reprocessing at long last".

The filming of the pipe follows the release of images of another nuclear legacy: radioactive waste barrels dumped at sea from ships. Thousands of barrels of radioactive waste dumped by the United Kingdom between 1950 and 1963 are rusting away at 100 metres depth in the Hurd Deep, 15 kilometres northwest of Cap La Hague. (3)

"Dumping radioactive barrels from ships at sea and discharging nuclear waste through land-based pipes is essentially the same. However, while nuclear waste dumping from ships is banned, each day from La Hague the equivalent of 50 nuclear waste barrels is discharged into the sea. The nuclear industry’s irresponsible 'out of sight-out of mind' approach must now stop for good", said Greenpeace nuclear campaigner, Diederik Samsom, on board the MV Greenpeace, currently off the coast of Cap de La Hague.

Last year, in an unprecedented public relations effort, Cogema, the operators of the La Hague reprocessing facility, launched a website as part of their so-called new 'policy of openess'. Cogema shows images from ten webcams installed around La Hague on its website, but Greenpeace says that Cogema forgot one.(4) Jean-Luc Thierry, Greenpeace France campaigner on board the MV Greenpeace, said that:"Greenpeace is happy to now complete the picture".

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Remi Parmentier +45 209 920592 in Copenhagen
- Jean-Luc Thierry +336 15910237 on board the MV Greenpeace
- Diederik Samsom +31 653106595 (m)
- Mike Townsley +31 62129 6918 (m)
- Luisa Colasimone +31 62129 6920

Stills and video available from: +31 621296920
Further information from www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/ospar2000/

(1) www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/ospar2000/livecamconf.html

(2) The OSPAR Commission is the intergovernmental organization that regulates marine pollution in the North East Atlantic, from Gibraltar to the Arctic. For the proposal to ban nuclear reprocessing to be adopted this week, it requires a ¾ majority vote (at least 12 votes). The member states of the OSPAR Commission are: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK as well as the European Union. The meeting takes place in Copenhagen from the 26th to the 30th June

(3) In 1993, the Contracting Parties to the London Convention, the United Nations treaty that regulates the dumping of wastes at sea, banned the dumping of all radioactive wastes from ships, aircraft, platforms and other man-made structures at sea. However, the agreement does not cover the dumping of radioactive wastes in the sea from a land-based pipeline.

(4) www.cogemalahague.fr/