From: Greenpeace via Jym Dyer <jym@mica.berkeley.edu>
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive,alt.activism,talk.environment
Subject: NEWS: Greenpeace Blocks Gates to French Plutonium Factory
Followup-To: talk.environment
Date: 16 Oct 1992 23:30:41 GMT
Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu

[Greenpeace Press Release from Environet -- Redistribute Freely]

      GREENPEACE BLOCKS GATES TO FRENCH PLUTONIUM FACTORY

CAP DE LA HAGUE, France October 13, 1992 (GP) Around 100 Greenpeace
activists from across Europe chained themselves to the main gates
of the French plutonium factory, or "reprocessing" plant, known as
"la Hague" this morning.

The 1.7 tonnes of plutonium intended for the upcoming sea
shipment from France to Japan must be moved 20 kilometres south
east of "la Hague" to the sea-port of Cherbourg where the
Japanese freighter, Akatsuki Maru, is expected to arrive for
loading at any time.

"We are here to demand the cancellation of the imminent shipment of
plutonium from France to Japan," said Greenpeace spokesperson,
Jean-Luc Thierry. "Plutonium is a dead-end no matter which
country produces it or which country uses it."

The Greenpeace activists from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, the
Netherlands, France, Belgium and the UK, chained themselves to both
of the exit gates which could be used for the transport of
plutonium to Japan.  The activists unfurled banners which read
"Stop Plutonium" and "Plutonium is a Dead End".

Yesterday in Cherbourg, the Greenpeace vessel, Beluga, was
confiscated by French naval police and four Greenpeace activists
arrested after the Beluga anchored in the military zone where the
Akatsuki Maru will dock.

The planned plutonium shipment to Japan has created increasing
national and international concern and protest.  While numerous
countries and international organizations have raised questions
about the safety and security of these shipments and commerce,
Japan and France are pushing ahead without providing critical
information.  Countries in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, the
Americas, the South Pacific and Europe having demanded
information about the route to be used and safety measures to be
applied, have been met with silence and have therefore banned the
shipments from territorial or economic zone waters.

At the international level, the International Maritime
Organization (IMO) has scheduled meetings in October and December
to specifically discuss potential environmental impact and the
adequacy of safety provisions for the plutonium shipments.

The Deputy Director of the  International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) has repeatedly stated that commercial production and
stockpiling of plutonium is leading to an "international
political and security crisis" has recommended the creation of
internationally controlled storage sites for plutonium.

Greenpeace has campaigned against plutonium production for over
twenty years.  While separated plutonium is a serious
environmental, health and proliferation risk, reprocessing also
exacerbates the nuclear waste problem.  In the process of
separating plutonium from the other nuclear waste that comes from
nuclear reactors--the overall volume of waste is increased 160
times.

"For over 45 years plutonium's primary use has been to threaten the
existence of human beings," Jean-Luc Thierry said.  "While it has
been suggested that bomb fuel secondarily can be used for energy
generation, these programs have met with abject failure at an all
but unparalleled cost in the history of the industrial era.  Either
way, humans and the environment are threatened with death in a
flash or through the longer-term effects of cancer and genetic
alteration."
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive