Francenuc.org
7/18/08: Of French Wine and Uranium Leaks
The French nuclear industry has met its match, the French wine industry. Wine producers in a corner of the Rhone Valley no long want their wine to carry the name of Tricastin, the nuclear center in their neighborhood. They have asked the Institut national des appellations d'origine (National Institute for Labels of Origin) to substitute a new name for the "Coteaux du Tricastin" (Slopes of Tricastin) now on their products. They do not fear that the nuclear industry has contaminated their wine, they say, because they are actually forty kilometers from the site; but, because of a widely publicized leak of uranium at Tricastin, they fear the associations of the name. "It is useless for a producer to try to sell a bottle of Coteaux de Tricastin." "People will laugh in our faces."
The night of July 7 to July 8, as the result of a leak from a retaining tank at the installation Socatri at Tricastin about 74 kilograms of uranium entered waterways around the site. Authorities at Socrati delayed several hours in reporting the accident to the Nuclear Safety Authority, ASN. The accident has had major repercussions, including residents of the area being asked not to drink or bathe in or irrigate with the water that they normally use (a requirement still in effect July18); Areva's firing the director of Socatri; the French minister of ecology's expressing his intention of having the groundwater tested around all French nuclear reactors (actually Socrati is not a reactor, but carries out various tasks for the nuclear fuel industry); the Greens calling for a parliamentary inquiry; and the recently formed High Committee for Transparency and Information on Nuclear Security asking for a report on the history of radioactive and chemical pollution at Tricastin. The association Crii-Rad charges that waste from the former military uranium enrichment plant, Pierrelatte, is the cause of pockets of polllution in the groundwater at Tricastin. Anne Lauvergeon, president of Areva's directorate, was scheduled to visit Tricastin July 18.
July 17 FBFC, a producer of nuclear fuel, also a subsidiary of Areva, reported a leak from a pipe at its site at Romans. ASN, which dispatched inspectors to the factory, says that the initial analysis indicated that around 700 to 800 grams of enriched uranium were involved and that the incident was not on the same scale as the Tricastin leak.
Sources:
"Areva: nouvelle fuite sur un site de la Drôme, la PDG attendue à Tricastin," AFP dispatch, July 18, 2008.
"Nucléaire: questions sans réponses sur le site de Tricastin," Le Monde, July 18, 2008.
"Une nouvelle fuite d'uranium relance la controverse," Reuters, July 18, 2008.
"Vin: les producteurs de Coteaux du Tricastin veulent changer leur nom," Les Echos, July 18, 2008.