Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Greenpeace Breaks Into French Nuclear Plant

Posted by Soulskill on from the they-thought-plant-meant-something-different dept.

dotancohen writes "Greenpeace activists secretly entered a French nuclear site before dawn and draped a banner reading 'Hey' and 'Easy' on its reactor containment building, to expose the vulnerability of atomic sites in the country. Greenpeace said the break-in aimed to show that an ongoing review of safety measures, ordered by French authorities after a tsunami ravaged Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant earlier this year, was focused too narrowly on possible natural disasters, and not human factors."

10 of 561 comments (clear)

  1. What if it turned out the other way? by slapout · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And if they'd gotten shot doing this, would they be saying how mean the French are?

    --
    Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
    1. Re:What if it turned out the other way? by Luckyo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'd like to see how that "measurability" was established, considering that scientists can't even figure out if minor increase in radioactivity is net negative or net positive, as there are different factors at play, which represent both directions.

      Oh, you're probably referring to stuff like being exposed to elements for prolonged time, having to eat dirty food, and so on. Bad news: that was earthquake and tsunami. They also killed over thirty thousand people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

      There was this really funny research on survivors of people who were putting out Chernobyl fires. Of those who survived the ordeal and a couple of months after it (when most people who got lethal dose died), there was a greater portion of them alive now then there was of general population. This was (at least partially) attributed to significant increase in health checks of the rescue crews, which allowed medics to find many problems and fix them rather then have them evolve into something incurably lethal (as is the case with many cancers).

      So should we now state that Fukushima accident will likely increase life expectancy of the workers who were fixing it like it was in Chernobyl. We'll know in a couple of decades.

    2. Re:What if it turned out the other way? by JonySuede · · Score: 4, Interesting

      measurably shortened life span

      You are wrong about the certitude of the shortened life expectancy. Marie-Curie who worked without any protection with Radium, Polonium and Uranium, died at 66. She was 1 years older than the US female average life expectancy at that time. You could counter argue that her husband, Pierre-Curie, died younger at 46. However his dead was the result of his skull crushed by the heavy wheel of an horse drawn cart, nothing to do with radiation at all...

      And Fukushima is not in the same league as Chernobyl. Therefore on what do you based this affirmed mesurability ?

      --
      Jehovah be praised, Oracle was not selected
    3. Re:What if it turned out the other way? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      On the contrary, I've never seen so many guns as during any of my trips to Europe. Particularly in airports, trainstations and around tourist spots. I think they're more paranoid than we are about the whole terrorism thing.

      And I can promise you, the farm I lived on briefly in France had a few firearms on premises. If I remember correctly, the Swiss have among the highest percentage of armed citizens you'll find.

      Don't let your TV spoon-feed you generalizations about very large and diverse places. They're often wrong.

    4. Re:What if it turned out the other way? by Luckyo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's worth noting that not only was there a major change, but there also is an issue of significantly increased checks for cancers commonly associated with irradiation (but which may or may not be caused by radiation), which in turn results in more findings of said cancers and ironically, more people that survive those cancers as they are found early enough to be able to treat them.

      Real killer in the territory around Chernobyl, and across all former USSR members is alcohol, and it's also by far the biggest factor in the shortening of life-spans (observable also by remarkable difference between average age of men vs women).

    5. Re:What if it turned out the other way? by jpmorgan · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Suppose you did. This is a 100psi+ containment building you're talking about. What would you expect to accomplish... maybe scratch the paint?

      There is no man-portable weapon that is a real threat to a nuclear facility.

  2. A very clever plan. by Kaenneth · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That involved being on the other side of this airtight hatch.

    How long would it take to actually penetrate the containment building?

    From Wikipedia:

    The containment building itself is typically an airtight steel structure enclosing the reactor normally sealed off from the outside atmosphere. The steel is either free-standing or attached to the concrete missile shield. In the United States, the design and thickness of the containment and the missile shield are governed by federal regulations (10 CFR 50.55a), and must be strong enough to withstand the impact of a fully loaded passenger airliner without rupture.

  3. Re:Great comments! by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's the whole point. Security was so lax nothing like that happened.

    Umm, no. Greenpeace called the French authorities and told them that they'd sent men sneaking into nuclear power plants, and the French authorities then stood down their snipers and allowed the Greenpeace guys to finish climbing the building and deploy their banner before arresting them.

    So, the phone call saved the lives of the Greenpeace protesters, which hardly shows that security of the plants was lax....

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  4. Re:Good thing nobody hates the French by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Funnily enough, the whole tongue-in-cheek thing was started by a frenchman
    I forget the exact details, but he was sarcastically complimenting an englishman on his "invention", that the french had actually done years before
    pressing your tongue lightly against your cheek prevented you from accidentally smiling after making a sarcastic comment

    Sabotage is also a French word - throwing shoes into the machinery.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  5. Re:To say nothing of their own reputation by DavidTC · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What I find astonishing about Fukushima is learning that we've decided to keep nuclear waste in a manner that is not failsafe. That we need to actively cool.

    That is possibly the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. It's not like it's an infinite amount of heat.

    Spread it out, pour some iron on it, and put in some giant heat sinks or something.

    Christ, it's like everyone is an idiot or something. 'Hey, this generates a set amount of heat per second, forever, and if it ever gets above a certain temperature it will melt through things.'. 'Herp derp, let's pump water past it. There's no way that could go wrong.' 'Maybe we could rig it where it just distributes the heat to the air or the ground or something, which would only fail if the sun started consuming the earth and heated the atmosphere up massively?' 'Nope, takes too much space. Water pump, that's the plan!'

    I understand reactors having problems when shut down, but the waste? Seriously?

    --
    If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?