Greenpeace protests arrival of nuclear waste

29 September 2004

AMSTERDAM — Police were called in on Wednesday to remove 11 Greenpeace activists who had chained themselves to a storage depot in Vlissingen East in protest at a transport of nuclear waste from France.

The activists climbed on top of the depot and unveiled a large banner saying: “Nuclear waste = 240,000 years”. Police removed them by late morning, Dutch public news service NOS reported.

The recycled nuclear waste from the French recycling plant Cogema arrived in Vlissingen East at about 10.30am. The waste originated from the Borssele nuclear power plant during four years of full operating power, the reactor’s managing authority EPZ said.

In total, 15,000kg in waste is being transported to and stored for at least 100 years at a new depot operated by the Central Organisation for Radioactive Waste (COVRA) in Vlissingen. The nuclear waste is dissolved in glass and stored in metal drums.

Greenpeace claims that nuclear waste remains radioactive for 240,000 years and the environmental lobby group is demanding that the Netherlands abandon its nuclear energy programme as soon as possible. It claims safe nuclear energy is a myth.

The Borssele nuclear power plant is earmarked for closure in 2013. The only other power generating plant, at Dodewaard, was closed in 1997.

Subject: Dutch News