reprinted with permission from Poison Fire, Sacred Earth, TESTIMONIES, LECTURES, CONCLUSIONS, THE WORLD URANIUM HEARING, SALZBURG 1992 pages 268-269 All of this has lead to my telling you very briefly about the nuclear problem on the whole in France, and I wish to pose a question which I feel you may find interesting: How can a country with the highest percentage of nuclear energy in the world -- 80 percent of its energy is supplied by nuclear power plants -- succeed in pursuing its program when it is said that its population is, for the most part, highly suspicious of nuclear energy and that this suspicion turns into absolute rejection when it comes to talking about living next to a nuclear waste storage area? The Cogema manages that with publicity. This Commission has nothing to sell, but pays 40 million francs, this means eight million dollars, for a publicity-campaign. And the EdF, the Electricity of France, pays every year ten times more for its publicity than the Ministry of Industry does for renewable energy sources. And we still have not mentioned all those secret budgets for the reporters, functionaries and politicians. . . . We could talk here about extortion. If we had to believe our politicians and the partners of the branch, atomic energy is in the worst case a burden that we do depend on. Our energetic independence, our power in the world, our national security depend on the complete use of our nuclear resources. So, those people in France who are against an atomic plant or atomic waste are accused of being betrayers of the national community. There still would be so much to say, but let me express here our fraternity to those peoples of the planet that are under the yoke of this terrible French nuclear power. I would particularly like to express my solidarity to our struggling friends in the South Pacific. In my opinion, we Limousins have much in common with them. We are being treated with the same arrogance and disdain, we hear the same lies, the same dissimulations, and more, we have to bear the shame. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Martine Deguillaume Martine Deguillaume, France. Medical doctor, member of CRII-Rad (Commission de Recherche et d'Information Independante sur la Radioactivite). (This speech was held originally in French) Hello! I'm here to represent the French opposition to uranium mines and I'll try my best to explain to you the situation in France. The French still have no consistent way of handling the radioactive waste that remains from the treatment of uranium-pitchblende. For 40 years, nobody has thought about the massive storage of radioactive parts in the ancient mines or quarries exploited by the French. So, people living in the small region of Limousin in the heart of France, where I am from, were completely petrified two years ago when they heard from our association that they were sleeping on more than 8,000 Curies of radium-226 due to the exploitation of uranium. The Cogema, the Committee for Atomic Energy and the political authorities declare that nowadays the situation is perfectly under control. But what will happen tomorrow? We know that the radium has a period of 1,600 years; who is going to watch over it, to control it and who is going to pay for it? There is no answer to that. In France, both legal and administrative rules are very complex, and this does not help the damaged population in any way. It's a fact that it is the exploitants that fix the rules of the game. For instance, in 40 years, there has been only one milk analysis on the French miners' sites. And as those responsible for this mess may control it by themselves, they also have the right to transgress those laws they had once established. So, not long ago, the highest authority in French administrative jurisprudence, the Privy Council, had been appealed to by three ministers who admitted their incompetence referring to the legal status of the radium parts in the mines. As we are neither experts in jurisprudence nor in elementary physics, the Privy Council stated that Cogema was right, but we heard later on that this brilliant little surrealistic master-piece text about the legal status of radium had been written by two experts of the Commission of Atomic Energy. Nevertheless, the associations working in France still can do something. For the first time in 40 years of uranium exploitation, the mining sites will be independently inspected by the only really independent laboratory. Actually, two mining sites are being inspected in France. But there is a very difficult problem concerning all mining sites of the world: Exploitants are using them to store radioactive or chemical waste that nobody wants. Thus, in our region Cogema has buried hundreds of thousands of barrels, and goes on with yellow cakes that have nothing to do with the extraction of uranium, and thousands of other radioactive materials, and who cares anyway at the point they are! So, we decided to inform the press, and the announcement about Cogema's projects in this sector was made last Monday. In the Limousin, Cogema wants to bury different sorts of radioactive waste being refused everywhere else in France and is producing a scandal all over the country. And last Wednesday, after our association had officially announced that the Limousin had to become the French radioactive waste-bin, Cogema just confirmed that information by giving more details about it and declaring with the following words, "that the rules in efficacy will strictly be observed". Well, I can tell you that before becoming radioactive, we might die of laughing too much because there is no rule in efficacy in France at this time. That makes it easy for the Cogema to respect them. There is no fundamental security rule, not even a treatment technique for this waste and no arrangement for it. Apart from these details, Cogema is, of course, going to strictly observe the rules. All of this has lead to my telling you very briefly about the nuclear problem on the whole in France, and I wish to pose a question which I feel you may find interesting: How can a country with the highest percentage of nuclear energy in the world -- 80 percent of its energy is supplied by nuclear power plants -- succeed in pursuing its program when it is said that its population is, for the most part, highly suspicious of nuclear energy and that this suspicion turns into absolute rejection when it comes to talking about living next to a nuclear waste storage area? The Cogema manages that with publicity. This Commission has nothing to sell, but pays 40 million francs, this means eight million dollars, for a publicity-campaign. And the EdF, the Electricity of France, pays every year ten times more for its publicity than the Ministry of Industry does for renewable energy sources. And we still have not mentioned all those secret budgets for the reporters, functionaries and politicians. We also have to underline the lack of medical control and investigations in France. On this point, the French Scientific Community shows no interest but a perfect submission. There is not one report on the medical effects of weak doses in France. Roger just told you before about the studies concerning the miners. We could talk here about extortion. If we had to believe our politicians and the partners of the branch, atomic energy is in the worst case a burden that we do depend on. Our energetic independence, our power in the world, our national security depend on the complete use of our nuclear resources. So, those people in France who are against an atomic plant or atomic waste are accused of being betrayers of the national community. There still would be so much to say, but let me express here our fraternity to those peoples of the planet that are under the yoke of this terrible French nuclear power. I would particularly like to express my solidarity to our struggling friends in the South Pacific. In my opinion, we Limousins have much in common with them. We are being treated with the same arrogance and disdain, we hear the same lies, the same dissimulations, and more, we have to bear the shame. In France, like anywhere else, there are two kinds of citizens: those who are for and those who are against atomic energy. But fortunately, big fights as those of Plogoff and Cresse Malville have not been forgotten. And we have the only check-laboratory in the world that is completely independent of the State and public control. It is called the CRII-Rad (Commission for Independant Research and Information on Radioactivity). Everybody here can ask for the address, and this laboratory is at the disposition of any of your groups or any suspecting citizen who might want a radioactivity-check on spots presumed to be dangerous. Before finishing, I would briefly like to remember to our friends and to our European neighbours that we can't cry "victory!" in this anti-atomic-energy-fight after blocking up an atomic waste storage point or after refusing the start of a nuclear program. We should be careful and each time ask ourselves where the energy in Europe comes from, and, more, if we are not buying energy from the same French country, after having struggled so much to keep our own place safe from it. The same goes for the radioactive atomic waste and its dispatching, we also have to ask ourselves: Where does the waste we don't want go? Does France manage with it? I would like to conclude now by saying that in my opinion, we'll never be able to find a proper solution for anyone if we don't ask ourselves the following question: Is this atomic bullshit (excuse me for saying that) here to help humanity or to help economy and goods trade? Thank you.