BNFL and the nuclear wastes trade

BNFL and it's subsidiary Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd, owns 7 ships which transport nuclear waste fuel and other nuclear materials, including plutonium, around the globe.
The ships carry nuclear waste fuel from BNFL's overseas customers in Japan, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands to its notorious Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria. The ships also carry nuclear waste fuel from the same overseas customers to the French version of Sellafield, La Hague.

The routes taken by the ships carry them around the world. Many countries along the routes have objected to the ships sailing through their waters because of the environmental and security risks the transports pose (1).

Greenpeace has in the past tracked shipments of plutonium and high level nuclear waste being sent from Sellafield and La Hague to Japan and ensured that countries along the routes were aware of the risks they were being forced to bear.

The degree of security surrounding the ships varies: for nuclear waste fuel transports, the ships are unaccompanied. For some plutonium and high level waste transports, the ships have been escorted by armed vessels, for others, the ships are protected merely by armed police.

Under the Government's proposed Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act, the publication of information on the PNTL ships and their role in BNFL's international plutonium trade will become illegal. This would deprive people both in the UK and overseas of their right to know about the ships, their routes, and the deadly materials they are carrying. Greenpeace, however, will continue to make information available about these ships and the risks they pose.

Notes:
(1) The governments and parliaments of many countries oppose plutonium and other nuclear shipments from Europe to Japan. Opposition has come from Australia, New Zealand, the Bahamas, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, the 14 governments of Caribbean organisation CARICOM, South Africa, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Ireland, Malaysia, South Korea, Mauritius, and the nations of the South Pacific Forum. In December 2000, the New Zealand Foreign Minister has recently called for nuclear transport ships heading for Japan not to enter the country's 200-mile Economic Exclusion Zone.