Greenpeace Escapes Fine At Nuclear Plant

A French court rejected Monday a nuclear treatment plant’s request that fines be imposed against Greenpeace for sneaking divers into its runoff water to test for radioactivity.

But the court did acknowledge that the environmental group probably had broken the law by entering an off-limits area around a discharge pipe at the state-owned COGEMA plant on the Normandy coast.

The court said police could prosecute Greenpeace for trespassing, but the court would not get involved in the case by imposing fines.

Last week, COGEMA had asked the court to fine Greenpeace $83,000 each time it approached the waters around the discharge pipe, which is being cleaned by the company. French maritime authorities have ruled the immediate area off-limits during the cleaning.

COGEMA officials said the plant’s divers removed 100 tons of tartar and other debris from the three-mile-long underwater pipe in an operation that began in July.