Three Greenpeace protesters come down from crane at nuclear construction site

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Three of the six Greenpeace activists who climbed into a giant crane at the construction site for a new commercial nuclear reactor in Olkiluoto on Finland's west coast came down from their perch on Wednesday afternoon.
      The demonstrators - one French and two British citizens -started to climb down at about 2:00 PM on Wednesday from a hight of 60 metres. Police waiting for them at ground level took them into custody.
      Three other activists, all Finns, remained in the crane.
      Meanwhile, the European Commissioner for Energy, Andris Piebalgs of Lithuania, is to visit the construction site, and the two reactors that are already operational in Olkiluoto.
     
In the crane, Lauri Myllyvirta an energy campaigner of Finnish Greenpeace, said that the three might continue their protest until the visit of the Commissioner if their demands are not met.
      "Those who are left here have enough food and water for a longer stay, and after all, this is specifically a Finnish nuclear project", said Myllyvirta.
     
Greenpeace wants the Finnish utility TVO to make public the 1,500 deviations from quality control standards that have been recorded at the construction site.
     
TVO says that many of the items were noted in the work of a host of subcontracting firms, and have since been fixed. However, TVO feels that it cannot publish issues linked with the work of other companies.
      Some of the demonstrators taking part in the latest effort spent two days in a similar protest at a nuclear reactor construction site in Flamanville, France in April.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Greenpeace stages protest at nuclear construction site - Finnish authorities want explanation (29.5.2007)

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