RE: COGEMA Says No to LNT

[Jack_Earley@RL.GOV]

They haven't taken science into their own hands--they've only applied it

consistently with its results. What the parent company decides and does in

France has no impact on how they operate in the U.S. Sounds like someone's

ego is wounded. Maybe he should change his opinions. Good for COGEMA, but

then France has been the world leader in nuclear power application for a

long time.



Jack Earley

Radiological Engineer





-----Original Message-----

From: Richard F. Orthen [mailto:rorthen@EARTHSCIENCES.NET]

Sent: Friday, May 10, 2002 11:19 AM

To: Radsafe BBS

Subject: COGEMA Says No to LNT





>From today's IEM news launch:



May 10, 2002 - IEER Press Release (05/07/02) - French company with US

contracts choosing its own science and radiation risk estimates - U.S.

Subsidiary Should Be Barred From Plutonium Work Pending Investigation of

Parent Company, New Study Recommends. COGEMA, the French nuclear giant,

which reprocesses more commercial plutonium in the world than any other

company, has taken the science of radiation protection into its own hands,

overriding official scientific bodies and regulations, a new report claims.

The report, COGEMA: Above the Law? Concerns about the French Parent Company

of a U.S. Corporation Set to Process Plutonium in South Carolina, was

released today by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER)

and the Safe Energy Communication Council (SECC). COGEMA, Inc., a U.S.

subsidiary of COGEMA (Compagnie Générale des Matières Nucléaires), is part

of a consortium that is designing a plant to produce plutonium fuel from

U.S. weapon-grade plutonium at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, South

Carolina. The report found that COGEMA had arbitrarily established its own

threshold for radiological dose impact in Europe. Furthermore, the report

uncovered several instances of disregard by COGEMA of French nuclear waste

laws, prompting the law's author to declare that COGEMA was setting itself

"above the law." COGEMA is more than 85 percent owned by various French

government entities. "COGEMA has simply declared by fiat that there is a

threshold below which it will assume that radiation doses have 'zero

impact'," said Dr. Arjun Makhijani, president of IEER and a co-author of the

report. "This is an ominous and disturbing development. A company ought not

to be taking law and science into its own hands. U.S. and international

scientific bodies and regulatory authorities have repeatedly rejected the

idea of a threshold for radiation damage, most recently in 2002. COGEMA's

subsidiary should not be allowed to process plutonium in the United States

until it explicitly rejects the position of its parent company in a legally

binding declaration."



Rick Orthen







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