[Vision2020] Areva Uranium Spill

[tim lohrmann]

> To: "Snake River Alliance Members & Friends." 
> IDAHOANS SHOULD TAKE NOTE OF AREVA'S FRENCH NUKE SPILL
> 
> The French-owned company that Idaho legislators and other officials lured to
> Idaho Falls with taxpayer-funded subsidies is battling public outrage at 
>home over its handling of a uranium leak at one of its French nuclear plants. 
> 
> The leak from the Areva plant occurred while a tank was being cleaned 
>between Monday night and Tuesday morning local time, but it was not detected until Wednesday. 
Non-enriched uranium poured onto the ground and into two nearby
rivers that flow into the Rhone River.  Authorities in Vaucluse banned
>drinking well water, fishing and eating fish from the rivers. They also prohibited swimming in or irrigating crops with the affected waters.  Since the spill Areva, has lowered its estimate of the leaked solution to 18,000 liters (4,755 gallons) -- down from the 30,000 liters (7,925 gallons) that they first suspected of losing.
> Idahoans know Areva best for its aggressive efforts earlier this year in the
> Idaho Legislature, which over the objections of the Snake River Alliance and
> Idahoans statewide passed two bills to attract the French company's $2
> billion uranium enrichment complex to a site just west of Idaho Falls. 
> 
> The tax giveaways pushed Idaho over the top in a multistate sweepstakes to
> attract the uranium enrichment plant that will spew tons of depleted uranium
> hexafluoride waste that will remain at the plant site for at least a 
>generation
> - until a U.S. plant is built to process that waste. 
> 
> Andrea Shipley, Executive Director of the Alliance, noted the irony of the
> accident occurring less than one week after Idaho Sen. Larry Craig was in
>France for a tour of Areva's nuclear operations.  "The purpose of our
> trip is to visit the plants of Areva, Idaho's newest energy partner, and
> others to see firsthand the successful experience France is enjoying with 
>clean
> nuclear energy," Craig said.
> 
> As recently as May of this year, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
> announced it was looking into a violation by Areva regarding a shipment of
> equipment to the Watts Bar nuclear plant in Tennessee in February. A 
>shipment
> of cleaning equipment to that plant for use by Areva's Field Services Group
> was scanned for radiation and it was determined the shipment contained 
>excessive
> radiation levels. The NRC this month decided not to fine Areva for the
> infraction, but instead warned similar violations would result in civil 
>fines,
> and Areva was placed on higher enforcement status.  
> 
> The Snake River Alliance has a long history of advocating for the cleanup of
> the radioactive legacy from the Cold War at the Idaho National Laboratory 
>and
> protecting the Snake River Aquifer that lies underneath the contamination. 
>It
> also advocates clean energy alternatives to nuclear and fossil fuel power
> generation. 
> 
> READ THE ENTIRE PRESS RELEASE PREPARED BY THE SNAKE RIVER ALLIANCE at
> www.snakeriveralliance.org, Featured Articles.
> 

  Our postal address is
> PO Box 1731
> Boise, Idaho 83701
> United States
> 
> 
>