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Swiss nuclear company Axpo using Russian fuel from polluted area

Greenpeace blasts Swiss nuclear power over Russian fuelSource:  AFP October 5, 2010 Environmental group Greenpeace sharply criticised Swiss power stations Tuesday for using nuclear fuel from a Russian reprocessing centre at Mayak, claiming it was one of the world’s most polluted.

Greenpeace Switzerland said in an open letter to energy firm Axpo that executives had acknowledged “for the first time” that reprocessed nuclear fuel from Mayak was used in two nuclear power stations in central Switzerland.
Mayak in central Russia reprocesses spent nuclear fuel rods from Russian submarines and ice breakers and is regarded as “one of the most radioactive places on the planet,” according to the campaign group.

“The Swiss nuclear industry is complicit in grave harm not only to the environment but also human rights,” Swiss Greenpeace spokesman Nicolas de Roten told AFP.

De Roten described Mayak as second only to Chernobyl in terms of radioactive pollution with “frightening” cancer rates and childhood birth defects in the area….Greenpeace blasts Swiss nuclear power over Russian fuel – Yahoo! News

October 7, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, politics international | antinuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, reactors, reprocessing