Feature story - May
29, 2010
AREVA, the French
nuclear energy company, admitted Friday
that their contract to ship nuclear waste
to Russia has been halted four years early,
ending this July. Transports we have tirelessly
highlighted, taken action against and lobbied
to have ended. But , where to now with all
their dangerous waste? AREVA says it plans
to let the, ahem, "stocks" build
up in their facilities at home.
zoom Greenpeace activists
along side the transport ship carrying AREVA's
nuclear waste, bound for Russia
For Greenpeace campaigners, activists, and
supporters, it's a well-earned occasion
to celebrate and reflect on over 25 years
of efforts to expose and oppose these scandalous
nuclear waste shipments to Russia.
The contract between
AREVA and the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom
was due to expire in 2014. However, the
Russians have decided to end the collaboration,
which began in 1972, effective 11 July 2010.
Last month our ship
the Esperanza pursued the Russian transport
ship Kapitan Kuropte, on its way to Russia
carrying nuclear waste from France. Activists
in rubber boats got along side the ship
displaying banners reading "Russia
is not a nuclear dump", before being
sprayed with water canons.
We were in St. Petersburg
too, when the Kapitan Kuropte arrived with
its hazardous cargo. Greenpeace activists
unfurled a banner reading "Stop Nukes",
drawing more public attention to AREVA's
nuclear waste as it arrived in the historic
Russian port, on the Baltic Sea.
Naturally AREVA and
Rosatom won't mention the fever pitch of
international controversy that surrounded
their nuclear waste shipments. On Friday
their spokespeople told journalists basically
the same story: we planned to stop this
year anyway, nothing to see, please move
along. But this letter (PDF document) from
Russia's energy minister confirms that the
uranium shipment contract had four more
years to run, until 2014.
Nuclear waste shipments
exposed by Greenpeace
In 1984, following the sinking of the freighter
Mont Louis off Zeebrugge (Belgium), Greenpeace
discovered that the ship was carrying containers
of uranium hexafluoride. We uncovered a
massive scandal: without public scrutiny
or knowledge, France had been shipping nuclear
waste to Russia since 1972. It's taken more
than a generation of campaigning and investigation
to raise enough awareness and pressure to
finally stop the shipments.
A documentary aired
on the pan-European TV station ARTE in October
2009, "Waste: The Nuclear Nightmare",
catapulted the issue of AREVA's nuclear
waste onto centre stage in France. AREVA's
story was so unconvincing that it prompted
the French Minister of Environment and Energy
to call upon the High Committee for Transparency
and Information on Nuclear Safety to begin
a formal investigation. Originally scheduled
for January 2010, the results of this investigation
will now be made public by the end of June.
AREVA's lies
Ever since they were first exposed by Greenpeace,
AREVA's only defense has been to argue that
the nuclear waste sent to Russia was in
fact be returned to France as fuel for French
nuclear power stations. Uranium is shipped
to Russia, enriched, and returned – that's
their official line. But it's not true.
A Rosatom representative
speaking formally to the High Committee
investigation in France let slip in November
2009, that adioactive materials from France
are not intended to be re-enriched. It's
waste, and around 90 percent of it never
comes back.
A senior official of
France's Ministry of Environment and Energy
has provided figures (PDF document, French)
on the final material flows between France
and Russia between 2006 and late 2009: 32,200
tons of waste was exported to Russia, while
only 3,090 tons of materials came back.
Greenpeace welcomes
decision to stop the scandalous and immoral
transporting
Exporting radioactive waste to Russia is
contrary to Russian environmental law, which
bans the importation of nuclear waste. It
is also contrary to the European Directive
of 2006 (PDF document) on the supervision
and control of shipments of radioactive
waste and spent nuclear fuel.
The European law states
that the sender of nuclear waste must ensure
that the waste will be stored and processed
under safe conditions in the country of
destination. Today, neither AREVA nor EDF,
or even the French authorities, are able
to monitor security conditions in Russia,
as confirmed by the French Nuclear Safety
Authority (ASN).
To end the nuclear age
Nuclear waste is produced at every stage
of the nuclear fuel cycle, from uranium
mining and enrichment, to reactor operation
and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
Much of this nuclear waste will remain hazardous
for hundreds of thousands of years, leaving
a deadly legacy to future generations. And,
so the struggle for a green and peaceful
future continues.
Luckily for us, this
latest story confirms that persistence and
nonviolently bearing witness pays off in
the end.
