'Atomic Warrior' outrage swells

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Opposition is growing in France to a nuclear-sponsored America's Cup entry, nicknamed the Atomic Warrior.

Groups opposed to a $33.7 million sponsorship deal with nuclear firm Areva will hold a press conference on Thursday at Vannes on the Brittany coast, where the boat is being built, to outline planned non-violent actions against the French entry.

The anti-nuclear group Sortir du Nucleaire, Greenpeace, the Greens and the Breton Democratic Union, which has been fighting plans for nuclear plants in Brittany, are among the opponents.

So, too, is Jo Le Guen, a French rower who was forced to abandon an attempt to row solo across the Pacific from Wellington two years ago when he became seriously ill and had to be rescued.

Mr Le Guen was trying to raise public awareness about the oceans.

Christian Guyonvarc'h, deputy mayor of Lorient where the challenge team have their training base, told the Herald that there would be strong demonstrations in coming weeks unless the French Government dropped Areva as a sponsor.

The French Government controls 5.2 per cent of Areva directly, and a further 79 per cent indirectly through the Atomic Energy Commission, which developed France's nuclear arsenal and monitored nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific.

Areva was formed in 2000 from France's nuclear and fuel power plant industries, and embraces the entire power cycle from uranium mining to power plant decommissioning.

It has 50,000 employees and a turnover of about $20.4 billion.

Areva's support of the French team is bound to raise hackles and act as a reminder of French agents sinking the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in Auckland in 1985, causing the death of a Portuguese photographer who was on board.

"We are not against the French entry Defi in the America's Cup in New Zealand," said Mr Guyonvarc'h, who is also president of the Breton Democratic Union.

"We just refuse the kidnapping of the sailing competition by the nuclear lobby, because it is clear that Areva wants to use the America's Cup in New Zealand as a big publicity stunt."

Mr Guyonvarc'h said it was important "to keep the sea and the America's Cup clean and free".

Alain Rivat, from Sortir du Nucleaire, said the group would use all possible non-violent means to block and interrupt the boat when it was launched in May.

Greenpeace in New Zealand is also planning protests against the boat, which is due to arrive in the nuclear-free waters of Auckland in mid-August.

But Frenchman Bruno Trouble, spokesman for the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series, told France's Le Monde newspaper that no one in Auckland cared about the nuclear sponsorship deal.

He said most of the challenger entries came from countries that used nuclear power.

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