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West Flemings file complaint against French nuclear plant

A group of residents of West-Flanders have lodged a complaint with the French police against the nuclear power station at Gravelines, 30 kilometres over the border. Residents of Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland have lodged similar complaints against the French authorities against other French nuclear power stations that are in their backyards. The protest is being backed by the environmentalist organisation Greenpeace.

The West Flemings crossed into France aboard a bus that set off from the coastal town of Ostend on Saturday morning.

There they went with French environmentalists to a police station in Dunkirk to lodge a complaint against the French authorities and the energy company EDF that operates the Gravelines nuclear plant.

They accuse the French authorities and EDF of “putting human life at risk”.

Gravelines is one of France’s oldest nuclear power stations. Its reactors came into service in the early 1980’s. The French authorities want to extent the nuclear power station’s life and many of those that live near to Gravelines, including West Flemings, are concerned.

Eloi Glorieux of Greenpeace told VRT News that "West Flemings would be in the frontline if there was ever a nuclear disaster at Gravelines.

The prevailing winds along the coast mean that a nuclear cloud would reach the border straight away.”

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