OSPAR moves to end nuclear reprocessing - lobbies

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

OSPAR moves to end nuclear reprocessing - lobbies
  
COPENHAGEN, June 29 (Reuters) - The OSPAR group set up to protect the 
northeast Atlantic marine environment adopted on Thursday a 
resolution to favour dry storage of spent nuclear fuel over 
reprocessing, environmental groups said. 

Britain and France -- the only countries in Europe operating nuclear 
reprocessing facilities -- abstained, a spokesman of Greenpeace, 
which has observer status at the 15-nation Oslo-Paris Commission 
(OSPAR) meeting, said by telephone. 

Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, 
Spain, Portugal, Iceland, Germany, Norway and Finland voted for the 
resolution, which won the three-quarters majority needed for passage, 
he said, adding Luxembourg did not vote. 

``Twelve out of the 15 voted in favour so we got a qualified majority 
behind the decision,'' a spokesman of the Danish Environmental 
Protection Agency told Reuters. 

The OSPAR meeting was closed for the media until a news conference at 
0730 GMT on Friday and independent confirmation of the vote was not 
immediately available. 

Sellafield in northwestern England run by state-owned British Nuclear 
Fuel Ltd (BNFL) and La Hague in northern France operated by French 
state-owned Cogema account for 90 percent of radioactive waste 
pouring into the northeastern Atlantic marine environment, Greenpeace 
says. 

The OSPAR resolution is legally binding for countries voting in 
favour. Greenpeace said it believed that the OSPAR document will 
increase political pressure on France and Britain, eventually 
prompting their governments to close La Hague and Sellafield. 

When OSPAR banned sea dumping of nuclear waste from ships, platforms 
and aircraft early in the 1990s, Britain and France initially opposed 
the ban. Both changed position and joined the ban one year later. 

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Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
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