Greenpeace today (6th November 1998) issued a computer simulation that, for the first time, graphically demonstrates how the radioactive plume from the La Hague nuclear reprocessing plant on the French coast drifts over the Channel Islands and the south coast of Britain before spreading across the entire country.
"This model shows the passage of the nuclear clouds churned out daily from the French plant. They hit Britain in a matter of days," said Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Dr Helen Wallace. "These gases pose a daily threat to the health of millions of people and to the environment.
This is an intolerable situation. The plant must be closed immediately."
Jersey Senator, Stuart Syvret, today expressed grave concern over the news and plans to visit the French nuclear plant next week. "This is a wholly unacceptable situation. We gain no benefit from the French reprocessing industry yet we are being subjected to the risks against our will. We already have to live with the threats posed by our own Sellafield plant, and now we find yet another source of contamination on our doorstep."
The radioactive gases hit the Channel Islands first which are less than 20 miles from La Hague, then the south coast of Britain which is less than 80 miles away. The radioactive gases include krypton-85, iodine-129 and tritium. There is no safe dose of radiation.
The model predicts that concentrations of radioactivity in air on the south coast of Britain reach up to 100 Becquerel (Bq) per cubic metre within five days after the radioactive gases leaving La Hague's chimneys. This compares with global background levels of just over 1Bq per cubic metre.
The computer model uses the actual weather data for September 1st-5th 1998, when the prevailing winds were west-south-west. It predicts that, within hours, the discharge plumes engulf the islands of Alderney, Guernsey and Jersey. In a little over 72 hours from moment of discharge, the radioactive plumes drift over the south coast of England from Kent in the east to Devon in the west. The contaminated air then moves rapidly throughout the remainder of the UK's atmosphere.
More than 60% of krypton-85 in the atmosphere comes from La Hague's nuclear reprocessing plant. Nuclear reprocessing separates nuclear weapons-useable plutonium from nuclear waste fuel. Krypton-85 can cause cancers by external radiation of people's bodies. Other radioactive gases from La Hague can build up in foodstuffs and the human body.
Greenpeace is currently conducting research into discharges of radioactivity into the atmosphere from La Hague and will be releasing the results next week.
Greenpeace on the Internet at http://www.greenpeace.org
(1) A copy of the computer simulation, designed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) air resources laboratory, is available upon request from Greenpeace.
(2) In Sintra, Portugal, in July at a Ministerial meeting of the OSPAR Convention on Marine Pollution, fifteen governments and the European Commission agreed that nuclear discharges were causing marine pollution and that these discharges should stop. They promised "substantial reductions or elimination" of discharges by the year 2000.
Discharges of radioactive gases cause radioactive contamination of both the land and sea.
(3) Photographs of the La Hague reprocessing plant are available on request
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