REPORTAGE
After 43 years of service and years of debate around the oldest nuclear power plant in France, the shutdown procedure for the second Fessenheim reactor began on Monday. This will be completely disconnected before the gradual dismantling of the plant.
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"The culmination of 50 years of a common struggle"
To celebrate the event, French and German environmentalists have met on a bridge that spans the Rhine, on the border between France and Germany. "It is the culmination of 50 years of a common struggle to protect our living environment in this region of the Upper Rhine," exclaims one of them.
The two processions then joined before throwing a buoy, symbolizing the nuclear industry, into the river.
During this time, French and German anti-nuclear activists gathered on the Rhine bridge in Breisach a few kilometers away for a symbolic gesture above the Rhine! # Fessenheim # nuclearhttps: //t.co/83y4XyPAZypic.twitter.com/ZtvdPjzcNW
- StopFessenh (@StopFessenh) June 29, 2020"Either we stopped the plant, or it freaked us out!"
The demonstration took place some 15 kilometers upstream from Fessenheim. The environmentalists did not want to provoke the workers of the plant, after decades of a sometimes heated struggle.
"It is a great relief", expresses one of the leading figures in the anti-nuclear fight within the Stop Fessenheim association, at the microphone of Europe 1. "In any case, there were two solutions: Either we shut down the plant, or it freaked us out! It's still better that we shut it down! ", he continues. Welcoming an important step, the latter still evokes the" 56 other reactors to be shut down in France".
If the fight against the Fessenheim nuclear power plant comes to an end, environmentalists still keep an eye on the plant, worried about the radioactive nuclear fuel which will still be stored in swimming pools for three years.