French probe nuclear rail shipments

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

Was it external contamination, OR, exposure from the sources 
themselves from within the containers? I suppose if you're a Green 
Party member, and there is an agenda, that answer doesn't really 
matter!

PARIS, May 8 (UPI) _ The French government today launched a full
inquiry into reports that trains carrying nuclear waste from across
Europe to Normandy were contaminated at up to 500 times the normal
level. 

The government on Thursday suspended the radioactive shipments to a
town near the reprocessing plant at La Hague, after tests proved that
allegations raised in the French daily Liberation were accurate. 

Meanwhile EDF _ the French electricity company responsible for sending
the waste _ and Cogema, the state-owned company which runs the
reprocessing plant, have acknowledged knowing for years about the
contamination. 

In Paris, Environment Minister Dominique Voynet, one of the Green
Party leaders who is part of the government, furiously denounced as
``outrageous'' the electricity company and waste reprocessing
officials for failing to report the contamination. 

Voynet said the national nuclear safety agency had confirmed in its
own recent tests that numerous waste containers from Germany and
Switzerland had radioactive levels ``that far exceeded norms''. 

She also denounced Cogema and EDF for failing to alert rail and truck
workers, who handle the transport and who do not wear protective
clothing. 

Specifically, the trains are used to ferry spent fuel from foreign
nuclear reactor plants to the town of Valognes, near Cherbourg. Trucks
carry the material some 18 miles further to the La Hague. 

EDF acknowledged the containers showed readings of radioactive
cobalt-60 and caesium-137 at well above acceptable levels. 

This morning EDF agreed there had been ``a lack of rigour'' in fixing
and disclosing the problem, but claimed there had been no health
hazard. 

------------------
Sandy Perle
Technical Director
ICN Dosimetry Division
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Office: (800) 548-5100 x2306 
Fax:    (714) 668-3111
  
sandyfl@earthlink.net
sperle@icnpharm.com

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

Personal Homepage:
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/1205

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              - G. K. Chesterton -

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