Greenpeace breaches French nuclear plant security

Hopefully they punish these loons to the fullest extent of the law.Breaking into nuclear power plants should be a serious offense.

Greenpeace breaches French nuclear plant security - Yahoo! News
Environmental group Greenpeace said Monday it had exposed the "vulnerability" of French nuclear sites after its activists broke into an atomic power station near Paris before being arrested.

jamesrage said:

Hopefully they punish these loons to the fullest extent of the law.Breaking into nuclear power plants should be a serious offense.

Greenpeace breaches French nuclear plant security - Yahoo! News
Environmental group Greenpeace said Monday it had exposed the "vulnerability" of French nuclear sites after its activists broke into an atomic power station near Paris before being arrested.

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Aww, what-sa-matta, J? They're just excercising their 1st Amendment rights. :rofl

French authorities admitted to security "lapses" after the incident ...

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"The aim is to show the vulnerability of French nuclear installations, and how easy it is to get to the heart of a reactor,"

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would prefer to have greenpeace expose this vulnerability so we can address it instead of al qaeda breaching the facility and precipitating mass destruction

justabubba said:

would prefer to have greenpeace expose this vulnerability so we can address it instead of al qaeda breaching the facility and precipitating mass destruction

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Let me break into your home and steal some stuff.When I am caught I can just say that I was testing for security vulnerabilities of your home and see if you think that is okay.

justabubba said:

would prefer to have greenpeace expose this vulnerability so we can address it instead of al qaeda breaching the facility and precipitating mass destruction

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there are better ways to expose vulnerability.

justabubba said:

would prefer to have greenpeace expose this vulnerability so we can address it instead of al qaeda breaching the facility and precipitating mass destruction

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So the French hired Greenpeace?

matsuiny2004 said:

there are better ways to expose vulnerability.

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what we know is that there was a nuclear facility vulnerability which was not exposed but for the efforts of greenpeace

those other "better" ways failed to accomplish that

jamesrage said:

Let me break into your home and steal some stuff.When I am caught I can just say that I was testing for security vulnerabilities of your home and see if you think that is okay.

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my home does not provide an opportunity to perpetrate mass destruction

other than that, your comparison was spot on

American said:

So the French hired Greenpeace?

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Only if it was Sneakers 2.

i'm with Greenpeace on stopping whaling (which has largely succeeded), but protesting the one energy source that has the potential to transition us away from fossil fuels is very poor policy.

Helix said:

i'm with Greenpeace on stopping whaling (which has largely succeeded), but protesting the one energy source that has the potential to transition us away from fossil fuels is very poor policy.

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but exposing their vulnerability to abuse by those who would inflict mass destruction was an act of kyndness

"The aim is to show the vulnerability of French nuclear installations, and how easy it is to get to the heart of a reactor," said Sophia Majnoni, a Greenpeace nuclear campaigner.

I highly doubt that they actually got to the "heart of the reactor". First of all, the reactor room is most likely padlocked to prevent anyone from opening it while the reactor is operating. And if they had gotten past into the reactor space while the reactor was in operation, they would be suffering radiation sickness, at the least. Second, there would likely be several watch standers (not exactly sure how France's nuclear plants run, but they still would have people monitoring equipment) that would see them and attempt to stop them. They would not have been able to evade police for that long had they been at the heart or operational control even of the reactor.

roguenuke said:

"The aim is to show the vulnerability of French nuclear installations, and how easy it is to get to the heart of a reactor," said Sophia Majnoni, a Greenpeace nuclear campaigner.

I highly doubt that they actually got to the "heart of the reactor". First of all, the reactor room is most likely padlocked to prevent anyone from opening it while the reactor is operating. And if they had gotten past into the reactor space while the reactor was in operation, they would be suffering radiation sickness, at the least. Second, there would likely be several watch standers (not exactly sure how France's nuclear plants run, but they still would have people monitoring equipment) that would see them and attempt to stop them. They would not have been able to evade police for that long had they been at the heart or operational control even of the reactor.

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then explain for us how the greenpeace members penetrated the facility ... in the same manner which would have allowed terrorists such as al qaeda

justabubba said:

then explain for us how the greenpeace members penetrated the facility ... in the same manner which would have allowed terrorists such as al qaeda

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It is quite possible and even likely that they got into the area, even some restricted places (since they were arrested for it and the facility admitted to it), without actually having been capable of causing any issues/problems from those places that they were able to access. Getting into restricted areas of a nuclear facility does not mean that you have any sort of control of the reactor, nor does it mean you can actually cause serious reactor problems just from being in those areas.

Yes, it is a concern that they got in. But not every restricted area is because that particular area alone could lead to the destruction/misuse/accidental meltdown/etc. of a reactor within a nuclear plant. Especially when dealing with nuclear power. Much of nuclear power facilities are off-limits/restricted access simply because the radiation is at a level that is mandated to be monitored.