France Beefs Up Missile Defence At Nuclear Reprocessing Plant

SPACEWAR

forget the suitcase, after 56 years of making bombs and boiling water to make electricity we are swimming in waste that will need high security for thousands of years. AFP Photo by Mehdi Fedouach - Copyright 2001

La Hague (AFP) Nov 21, 2001
The French air force said on Tuesday it had stepped up defence at the country's international nuclear reprocessing plant, placing a third battery of ground-to-air missiles near the site at La Hague.

In reaction to the September 11 kamikaze plane attacks on the United States, the air force installed two batteries of Crotale ground-to-air missiles near the plant in northwestern France on October 26 and extended the no-fly zone around the site to 10 kilometres (six miles) from one.

The local commander said at the time a radar unit had also been installed and any aircraft which ventured into the no-fly zone and failed to respond to warnings could be shot down.

Crotale missiles have a range of eight kilometres and can reach an altitude of 300 metres (1,000 feet).

Nuclear specialists have warned that the consequences of a plane crashing into La Hague, which is owned by state-owned firm Cogema, would be more terrible than the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine, the world's worst civil nuclear accident.

A convoy of nuclear waste from Germany leaves the train station of Valognes on its way to the reprocessing plant of La Hauge 11 April 2001. AFP Photo by Mehdi Fedouach - Copyright 2001
The air force information service (SIRPAA) said the new Crotale missile system, consisting of a radar vehicle and a missile launcher, had been installed two kilometres from the reprocessing plant at the weekend.

Some 150 military personnel are currently positioned near La Hague.

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