Dutch protesters delay two nuclear waste shipments

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

Dutch protesters delay two nuclear waste shipments

  

OOST-VLISSINGEN, Netherlands, March 1 (Reuters) - Dutch 

environmentalists launched two anti-nuclear protests on Thursday, 

delaying waste shipments headed for processing plants in France and 

Britain. 



A train carrying spent nuclear fuel from the Borssele nuclear plant 

to a French processing plant at Le Havre was stuck at a station in 

Oost-Vlissingen as protesters blocked railway lines in the southwest 

of the Netherlands. 



The protesters, from the Omkruit group, climbed inside six oil 

barrels loaded on railtracks and used specially designed devices to 

lock their arms together. 



"There are a lot of police here now," one Omkruit activist, who 

identified herself only as Yvonne, told Reuters. "It's probably going 

to take a while to get them off the tracks." 



In a separate protest, Greenpeace activists tried to block a road to 

prevent a truck carrying spent nuclear fuel rods from the defunct 

Dodewaard plant from reaching the port at Vlissingen. Police said 

they made seven arrests. 



That truck reached the port after the protesters were cleared from 

the road, police said. The fuel was destined for the British Nuclear 

Fuel processing centre at Sellafield. 



In January, Greenpeace protesters delayed train shipments of spent 

nuclear fuel from Borssele to Le Havre. Greenpeace did not take part 

in Thursday's railtrack occupation because a court ruled last month 

it had no legal right to block shipments to France, it said. 



The Borssele plant, owned by utility EPZ, is the only nuclear reactor 

in operation in the Netherlands. The government has said it wants the 

reactor to shut in 2003, although EPZ is trying to delay the closure. 





The Dodewaard facility's electricity generation was halted in 1997, 

although the plant is still in the process of shutting down. 

Thursday's shipment of spent nuclear fuel is the third of 19 planned 

from the facility to Sellafield. 



------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    

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Personal Website: http://sandyfl.nukeworker.net

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com



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