Belgians file complaint against French Gravelines nuclear power station


nsnbc : A group of residents from Belgium’s West-Flanders region have lodged a complaint with the French police against the nuclear power plant at Gravelines in France, some 30 kilometers over the border.

Centrale nucléaire de Gravelines avec ses 6 réacteurs dans leurs enceintes de confinement en béton. Photo courtesy Douchet Quentin, GNU 1.2

Centrale nucléaire de Gravelines avec ses 6 réacteurs dans leurs enceintes de confinement en béton. Photo courtesy Douchet Quentin, GNU 1.2

The group of Belgians is not the first to complain. Residents of neighboring Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland have lodged similar complaints against the French authorities over the nuclear power plant in their backyard. The NGO Greenpeace is backing protests against the Gravelines power plant.

The group of West Flemings crossed into France aboard a bus that set off from the coastal town of Ostend on Saturday morning. There they went with French environmentalists to a police station in Dunkirk to lodge a complaint against the French authorities and the energy company EDF that operates the Gravelines nuclear plant.

The protesters and their communities accuse the French authorities and EDF of “putting human life at risk”. Gravelines is one of France’s oldest nuclear power stations. The Gravelines Nuclear Power Station is the sixth largest nuclear power station in the world, the second largest in Europe, after the nuclear power station of Zaporizhia, Ukraine, and the largest in Western Europe.

It is located near the commune of Gravelines in Nord, France, approximately 20 km (12 mi) from Dunkerque and Calais. Its cooling water comes from the North Sea. The plant consists of 6 nuclear reactors of 900 MW each. In 2006 the plant produced 38.14 TWh, 8,1% of the whole amount of electricity produced in France. Two reactors entered service in 1980, two in 1981, and two in 1985.

French authorities want to extent the nuclear power station’s life and many of those that live near to Gravelines, including West Flemings, are concerned. Eloi Glorieux of Greenpeace told reporters that “West Flemings would be in the frontline if there was ever a nuclear disaster at Gravelines. The prevailing winds along the coast mean that a nuclear cloud would reach the border straight away.”

CH/L – nsnbc 04.12.2017



Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/12/04/belgians-file-complaint-against-french-gravelines-nuclear-power-station/

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