Update on English Channel closing

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@ix.netcom.com>]

This is a follow-up to the closing of a part of the English Channel 
near the La Hague nuclear reprocessing plant.
------

PARIS, July 11, (UPI) _ French Environmental Minister Dominique 
Voynet says only a small zone on the English Channel near the world's 
largest commercial nuclear reprocessing plant has been closed off. 

Voynet said public reaction to an order from the Office of Protection
against Ionizing Radiation Thursday closing a beach beneath the plant
and channel waters near the plant was overblown. 

She said ``We are just taking precautionary measures.'' 

The area that is closed to fishermen, pleasure craft and swimmers
includes a 400 meter area of channel water around the plant discharge
pipe in a section of Normandy west of Cherbourg. 

The order followed a meeting Thursday among the ministers of
environment, health and industry in Paris and repeated published
concerns by Greenpeace about its radiactive readings in the area. 

The closed section in Normandy is located at the tip of La Manche at
Cap de la Hague and includes a beach area of 1.7 kilometers in front
of the plant. 

The action followed her ministry order of 15 days ago to require study
of the level of radiactive discharge from the plant. 

Meanwhile, the environmental action group Greenpeace has been taking
samples of the water and sealife directly around the discharge pipe,
claiming its radioactive readings are many times higher that what
Cogema, the company operating the plant, acknowledges. 

The region involved, Lower Normandy, has been convulsed in debate over
discharge from the plant since mid-January when the British Medical
Journal published a study that disclosed a three-times higher than the
national average leukemia rate among children who reside near the
plant. 

------------------
Sandy Perle
Technical Director
ICN Dosimetry Division
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Office: (800) 548-5100 x2306 
Fax:    (714) 668-3149
  
mailto:sandyfl@ix.netcom.com
mailto:sperle@icnpharm.com

Personal Homepage:
http://www.netcom.com/~sandyfl/home.html


"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -