France Greenpeace Activist Paraglides, Throws Smoke Flare Onto Nuclear Plant

* Greenpeace enters nuclear site, drops smoke flare

* Intrusion just days before presidential runoff

* France's high use of nuclear is issue in campaign

* Man entered Civaux plant's security zone (Adds separate intrusion, details)

PARIS, May 2 (Reuters) - A Greenpeace activist dropped a smoke flare as he flew over a French nuclear reactor on a paraglider on Wednesday, seeking to draw attention to what green activists call gaps in nuclear security four days before a presidential election runoff.

The plant's owner, EDF, confirmed an engine-powered paraglider had landed within its Bugey nuclear site in southeastern France.

The pilot flew over the plant and threw a red-smoke flare on the roof of a building before landing, television images showed.

"At no moment was the safety of the installations at risk," EDF said in a statement, adding that the pilot was caught by the police in charge of protecting the site.

Separately, another man entered the Civaux nuclear site in southwestern France through the truck gate and remained hidden for an hour in a thicket in the "surveillance zone" before being arrested, EDF said.

France's dependence on nuclear energy has been much debated ahead of the vote. France is more dependent on nuclear energy than any other country, relying on it to produce 75 percent of its electricity.

"This overflight shows the vulnerability of the French nuclear site to an air attack," Sophia Majnoni d'Intignano, in charge of nuclear questions at Greenpeace, said in a statement.

"While Germany took account of a plane crash in its safety tests, France still refuses to analyse this risk for our reactors."

Similarly, in December, Greenpeace activists entered the Nogent-sur-Seine plant near Paris, climbing onto one of the domes that houses a reactor, while other activists entered other nuclear installations.

Socialist presidential candidate Francois Hollande has said he would shut France's oldest nuclear plant if elected.

After the Fukushima disaster in March 2011, France along with other European countries, pledged to carry out safety tests on its 58 nuclear reactors to test their capacity to resist flooding, earthquakes, power outages, failure of the cooling systems and operational management of accidents.

But those did not include terrorist attacks, or the possibility of a plane crash. (Reporting by Thierry Leveque and Sybille de La Hamaide, additional reporting by Marion Douet, editing by Maria Golovnina)

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Comments

[Callme Ish]

06:34 PM on 05/06/2012

Strong evidence against all nuke, you been poisoned, well if you have been breathing this last year.

http://nukeprofessional.blogspot.com/p/uranium-aerosolized-into-atmosphere.html

http://nukeprofessional.blogspot.com/2012/03/plutonium-admission-by-epa.html

[PoloniumMan]

12:11 AM on 05/03/2012

I see Greenpeace is out serving their Russian gas masters. If you can't take western Europe by force then manipulate them into becoming dependent on you for heating and electricity.

[Callme Ish]

06:33 PM on 05/06/2012

The Euro currency will get that job done, at least then Germany and Russia can team up to control northern asia.

[Genders]

02:58 PM on 05/11/2012

The new meme?

Anti nuke folks are pro gas.

Paid gas shills.

That's the talking point memo they all got with their subscription to World Nuclear insider.

Yeah, even fracked gas is better than nukes.

But I'm against fracked gas. we don't need it.

rooftop solar is enough for peak afternoon electricity including charging our electric vehicles, and wind blows when the sun does not chine, and finally waste bio fuels backs up the whole system using existing fossils generators.

I would guess there are some paid gas industry shills here, I'm not one of them.

I volunteer my advocacy for green energy because it's the right thing to do, because it will make our world much safer and better.

Good for Greenpeace to bring up the issue of cancer causing nuclear power right in time for the election.

That's good pr, and they are experts.

It it helped the anti nuke guy win the election.

[Genders]

11:55 PM on 05/02/2012

Heroes!

Trying save us from the Nuclear Apocalypse nuclear power promises.

Nukes are millions of cancers disasters, million years millions of cancers waste and civilization ending proliferation.,

Rooftop solar is cheaper than nukes,

Wind and waste are half the cost of nukes.

all of them are faster to replace all fossils and nukes than the time needed to build one new nuke: 10 years.

Solar cheaper than nukes and energy source amounts: http://cleantechnica.com/2011/08/23/solar-power-intro-3-key-solar-power-points-top-solar-power-news/ Note the fossil and nuke numbers are totals, the solar wind and waste are PER YEAR!

http://www.ncwarn.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/NCW-SolarReport_final1.pdf

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Comparative_electrical_generation_costs
shows overlap in solar and nukes costs at around 13 cents.

http://cleantechnica.com/2011/05/29/ge-solar-power-cheaper-than-fossil-fuels-in-5-years/

http://nukepimp.blogspot.com/p/renewable-and-energy-efficiency.html 3 cents per KWH rooftop solar.

http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm

Then see what subsidies you can get, there are lots of them: http://www.dsireusa.org/

[Jtt]

03:20 PM on 05/02/2012

Enviro-terrorists quite literally. If the socialist leader is elected and makes good on his promise to cut 50 percent of France's nuclear by 2025 ALL of Frances renewable power installed and to be installed will be negated.

[ThinkCreeps]

10:10 AM on 05/03/2012

And if one of the plants that continues to operate melts, there'll be a trillion dollar loss to the country.

Which makes more sense?