(Reuters) – French police arrested 57 Greenpeace activists who used a truck on Tuesday to ram their way into a nuclear power plant operated by EDF in eastern France, the organisation said.
The activists hung anti-nuclear banners from the Fessenheim plant, the oldest in operation in France.
Greenpeace activists have a history of breaking into nuclear plants in France and about 30 were arrested last July after entering EDF’s Tricastin plant in southern France.
France’s nuclear safety authority said that in the latest protest, the activists did not enter buildings and the Fessenheim plant’s security was not compromised.
[…]
After police wound down the protest inside the plant, more activists arrived on a canal outside on inflatable rafts and unfurled anti-nuclear banners.
President Francois Hollande has promised to close Fessenheim by 2016 and cut France’s reliance on nuclear energy to 50 percent of its electricity mix from 75 percent now.
Greenpeace wants Fessenheim’s two 900-megawatt reactors, which have been in operation since 1977, to be shut immediately.
“The Fessenheim plant is a symbol,” Greenpeace activist Cyrille Cormier said. “Its planned closure must be the beginning of a series of plant closures in Europe to limit the accidental and financial risks linked to ageing (plants) and to start the energy transition.”
The activists hung a banner from the roof of the plant that said “stop risking Europe”. They called on Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to commit at an EU summit on Thursday to generating energy from alternative sources.
Read more at Greenpeace activists arrested in French nuclear break-in
