Plogoff

Plogoff (Plougoñ in Breton) is a commune in the French département of Finistère, Brittany. It contains three small ports suitable for very small vessels: Pors-Loubous, Feunten-Aod and Bestrée. The local industries include tourism, traditional biscuitery, agriculture and fishing.

1 Demographics
2 Nuclear plant project
3 See also
4 Gallery
5 External References
6 External links

[edit] Demographics

Inhabitants of Plogoff are called Plogoffistes.

As of the census of 1999, the village has a population of 1,563.

[edit] Nuclear plant project

In the early 1970's, Plogoff was proposed by the French state power company, EDF, as a site for a nuclear power plant. Local residents blocked access to the site in 1976, with renewed protests in 1978 and 1979.

In 1980, the national government and EDF attempted to fulfill their statutory obligations to allow the project to proceed by displaying the public utility inquiry documents in the local mairie or city hall. Local officials burned the documents and refused to allow replacement documents to be displayed. In response, the national government set up mobile mairies annexes to display the documents in town centers. These mairies annexes became the focus of the protest movement. For 45 days, the riot police (CRS), the military police (gendarmerie) and some parachutists (EPIGN) guarded the mairies annexes while coming under attack from the protesters.

Once the obligation to display the documents had been met and the documents were withdrawn, the protesters occupied the proposed site of the facility.

In 1981 François Mitterrand was elected President of France. Mitterrand carried out his campaign promise to cancel the project.