Nuclear Protest during visit of Jacques Chirac in Bellizona

Greenpeace activists are protesting during the visit of French president Jacques Chirac to Bellinzona against the reprocessing plant in La Hague. With a banner reading in French "Arrêtez La Hague, Monsieur Chirac!" (Close down La Hague mister Chirac!) they ask for the immediate closure of the "plutonium factory" in northwest France, where the Swiss nuclear waste is reprocessed. Since early 1997, a heated debate about the blood cancer risks associated with the plant in La Hague has stirred up in France. Just like the surroundings of the British plant at Sellafield, French scientists measured a higher than average risk of cancer for children and adolescents who lived within 35 miles of La Hague. The Atlantic Ocean is contaminated because of the dumping of radioactive liquid waste. The radioactive trace from the reprocessing plants extends from Scandinavia to the Arctic and the shores of Canada. Residents from La Hague have filed a criminal complaint at the the Federal Prosecutor's Office against the Swiss nuclear power industry this summer. Greenpeace has launched a measurement program at La Hague this week, in order to document the immediate risks of the disposal of radioactive materials. The reprocessing has been developed for military reasons. The focus was the use of plutonium to build nuclear bombs. Separated plutonium is a permanent danger for future generations. It is highly toxic and its half-life is several thousand years. The reprocessing of nuclear waste makes no sense. Greenpeace calls on President Chirac and Cotti, to begin with the stop of plutonium production and thus make a contribution to the reduction of military and civilian nuclear threat.