Two British Nuclear Fuels ships carrying a dangerous cargo of faulty and unusable plutonium fuel set sail from Japan just a couple of hours before a High Court Judge in London was due to decide whether to grant an injunction to stop them. The two vessels, which departed at around 8.00am this morning (Thursday 4th) are carrying enough plutonium in the batch of unusable fuel to make fifty nuclear bombs.
Greenpeace had applied for a High Court injunction to stop the ships setting sail for the Sellafield nuclear complex, which a Judge had decided should be heard in court at 10.30am today (Thursday 4th).
Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Pete Roche said,
"In sneaking this deadly cargo out on its voyage halfway across the world, BNFL is not only showing absolutely no regard for public safety and security but is disregarding the legal process too. A couple of hours later and BNFL's lawyers would have had to defend in court their decision to take this floating terrorist target out onto the high seas."
Nuclear scientists have confirmed that it would be relatively easy to separate out the plutonium in the discarded fuel to create a nuclear weapon. Military analysts have warned that the ships are inadequately protected and that the cargo would be coveted by Saddam Hussein or al-Qaeda (1).
The rejected MOX (mixed plutonium and uranium oxide) fuel caused a diplomatic incident between the Japanese government and BNFL in 1999 when it was revealed that BNFL workers had falsified key safety data. The Japanese rejected the MOX and are insisting that the unusable material must be returned to the UK before they will sign any contracts with BNFL to buy more fuel from their new £70m Sellafield MOX plant.
Greenpeace has also asked the High Court for permission to 'judicially review' the Environment Agency for its failure to treat the faulty MOX as radioactive waste, and follow the internationally required procedure for nuclear waste imports which include getting consent from en-route countries (2). There has already been international opposition from several countries concerned about the vulnerability of the shipment to catastrophic accidents and terrorist threats.
Greenpeace says the faulty fuel is clearly waste since it believes there is no credible foreseen use for it. BNFL has recently told the Environment Agency that it intends to separate out the plutonium and uranium from the rejected MOX but the UK already has considerable stockpiles of both (3).
Over 30 countries in the Caribbean, Latin America and the South Pacific opposed the original shipment of the MOX fuel to Japan in 1999. The return is certain to generate even greater opposition. Campaigners in Wales and Ireland are already planning to launch a protest flotilla to meet the shipment in the Irish Sea. Other protest flotillas are planned around the world.
For more information please contact Greenpeace Press Office on 0207 865 8255
(1) William Hopkinson, former Assistant Under Secretary of State at the MoD and Jane's Foreign Report, May 1999 (quoted in Observer 9 June 2002).
(2)Greenpeace says that the faulty and rejected MOX should be classified as radioactive waste, and should not be imported. No import of nuclear waste can happen without authorisation from the Environment Agency, who must ensure compliance with international law. The Environment Agency (England and Wales) has not authorised the shipment of the material to the UK, in accordance with the Transfrontier Shipment of Radioactive Waste Regulations 1993 (as amended) ("the 1993 Regulations").
(3) A total of 26 tons of plutonium belonging to Japan will be accumulated at the Sellafield site over the next five to ten years if existing reprocessing contracts are carried through. This is sufficient plutonium for as many as 5,000 nuclear weapons. If all of this plutonium were to be fabricated into MOX fuel it would amount to more than half a million kilograms of MOX, requiring between 25 and 50 sea shipments to Japan.
