16 Devember 1999 - Japan's Industry Ministry (MITI) today said that no more plutonium-MOX fuel will be accepted from British Nuclear Fuels following revelations that quality assurance data cannot be guaranteed. This represents a fatal blow to BNFL's plans to open the unauthorised £300 million Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP).
Kansai Electric, a Japanese power utility, simultaneously announced that it will abandon plans to use plutonium MOX fuel from BNFL. The utility made the announcement at a press conference earlier today in Japan, completely vindicating Greenpeace's suspicions over the falsification of data relating to this consignment of fuel.
Pete Roche, Greenpeace UK Nuclear Campaigner, said: "Over 50 years of nuclear activity at Sellafield has confirmed British Nuclear Fuels as a world leader in nuclear cover-ups. It cannot recover from this blow and its MOX business is now dead-in-the-water. The whole rationale behind reprocessing Japanese fuel at Sellafield has now collapsed."
Kansai took delivery of the first ever shipment of MOX from BNFL to Japan in October. Governments en-route issued statements condemning the shipment and Greenpeace protested at both its departure from Sellafield and its arrival in Japan [2]. The MV Greenpeace was temporarily banned from UK waters as a result, and a Greenpeace International bank account was frozen.
The announcement by MITI is a fatal blow to BNFL's prospects for securing large-scale MOX contracts with Japanese utilities. Such contracts are essential if BNFL is to receive approval to produce MOX at the new, but as yet unopened Sellafield MOX Plant. The UK government is currently considering whether to approve or refuse its start-up. Ministers have already expressed concern that the costs of dealing with the resulting nuclear wastes will fall to the taxpayer if BNFL fails to win new business in Japan.
A letter dated 8 th November, released to the UK press yesterday by Greenpeace, from the UK's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) to the Japanese Embassy in London, confirmed that plutonium fuel shipped to Japan was associated with suspect quality control data.
Greenpeace and Green Action in Kyoto released an analysis by Professor Hidiyuki Koyama, of Osaka Prefectural University, as long ago as September which cast doubt on the data related to the MOX fuel (which at the time was in transit from the UK to Japan). But BNFL has consistently claimed that the data falsification scandal only related to fuel not yet dispatched to Japan.
Notes to editors:
[1] Kyodo Wire Service, 16/12/99
[2] Beta footage and stills available from Greenpeace UK Press Office The data falsification scandal first emerged in September when the UK Independent newspaper revealed that fuel quality control data that assures the dimension of the plutonium MOX pellets intended for Takahama-3 reactor was confirmed as having been falsified by BNFL. However BNFL claimed at the time that none of the fuel already shipped to Japan was affected. As a result of the scandal BNFL's MOX demonstration facility was closed on September 12 and it remains closed today.
Three workers accused by BNFL of undertaking the falsification, have been fired from their jobs, and have recently lost their second round of appeal against dismissal. They are currently considering further legal action to regain their jobs, and claim that BNFL has made them scapegoats.
Copies of the letter from the NII to the Japanese Embassy available on request.
Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace press office on: 020 7865 8255
