Despite international opposition two armed British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) ships set sail from Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria this morning, on the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster (1). The two vessels are bound for Japan to collect nuclear material containing enough plutonium to build 50 nuclear bombs. The dangerous cargo is to be delivered to the controversial Sellafield nuclear plant, which is currently the focus of a major campaign by Irish celebrities calling for its shutdown.
The 'MOX' a mixture of plutonium-uranium oxide is being returned following its shipment to Japan in 1999, after it was revealed that the manufacturer, BNFL, had falsified safety data during its production. The scandal will cost the British taxpayer around £13 million.
Greenpeace has this week written to the UK Government and BNFL calling for the transport to be abandoned, on the grounds that not only is the shipment a health and security risk but that bringing the material into the UK would be in defiance of both international and UK law (2). The MOX has no foreseen use and will be stored at Sellafield as nuclear waste.
Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Pete Roche said,
"The UK and Japan have started the countdown to this dangerous shipment on the anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. They could not have chosen a more fitting date to remind the international community of the arrogance and risk-taking nature of the nuclear industry."
"When the BNFL MOX fuel first arrived in Japan the country was experiencing its worst ever-nuclear accident at Tokai-mura. The nuclear industry has clearly not learned from its mistakes, and continues to show total disregard for public safety, international security and the environment".
The plutonium shipment would also violate an undertaking given by the UK Government to Irish Government at an international tribunal last November. Following a challenge against the newly approved Sellafield MOX Plant by the Irish Government, the UK told the Tribunal that no imports of MOX fuel relating to the Sellafield MOX Plant would go ahead before October.
The two vessels, the Pacific Pintail and the Pacific Teal, one acting as an armed escort, the other carrying the plutonium, would face a barrage of international opposition if they make their journey. The ships plan to pick up the plutonium MOX material, at Takahama in Japan in June, and return it to the UK in early August. The nuclear industry is keeping the route a secret but it if it goes ahead it is likely to take one of three possible routes:
- via the Panama Canal, Caribbean, Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea
- via the Pacific, Cape Horn, Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea
- via the Pacific, Tasman Sea, Cape of Good Hope, Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea.
Caribbean countries have already this year voiced their "implacable opposition" to nuclear shipments through their region and Latin American countries have also voiced protest. During a shipment of MOX to Japan through the Tasman Sea last year, a flotilla of small yachts sailed from Australia and New Zealand to oppose the PNTL vessels. The flotilla protest was supported by the New Zealand Government.
There are also serious concerns about the safety of the shipment. The cask in which the plutonium is to be transported has not yet been licensed by the Japanese authorities. An earlier licence was revoked when it was discovered that levels of the single largest source of radioactivity in the cask, the radioisotope Americium-241, will be up to twice as high as originally estimated.
On its present schedule, the plutonium shipment will take place right in the middle of the FIFA World Cup in Japan. Greenpeace has already written to FIFA to warn that the resources needed to guard the shipments would divert security away from the tournament. Pete Roche added
"The industry is creating a floating terrorist target and an environmental hazard simply in order for BNFL to save face and get new contracts with its Japanese customers. This would result in yet more dangerous shipments of plutonium fuel, perhaps as many as 80 over the next decade."
"BNFL has already lied to the world about the falsification of safety data; countries along the routes have every right to be concerned that a company with such a dangerous and discreditable history should be in charge of the safety of this or any future shipments."
Notes to editors:
- Today is the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident, the worst disaster in the history of the nuclear industry. More than 100 emergency workers on the site of the accident on 26 April 1986 suffered radiation sickness and 41 of them died. There has been a significant increase in childhood thyroid cancer, normally a very rare disease, which has increased more than 60-fold in Belarus and 40-fold in Ukraine.
- Under international law the shipment cannot go ahead unless authorised by the US. The US has given approval on the basis that the plutonium is to be recovered and returned to Japan in the form of fresh MOX fuel assemblies. Yet the UK government has told parliament that the faulty MOX is to be imported and stored at Sellafield while BNFL decides what to do with it. And the UK has promised the Irish Government and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), that there will be no transports associated with the Sellafield MOX plant before October 2002. The import must be in breach either of the US authorisation or the undertakings given to ITLOS.
Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255
