Tokyo, September 28th 1999 - A cargo of deadly weapons-usable plutonium MOX fuel is expected to travel today through the pristine environment of northern Japan, through the Tsugaru Straits and past the island of Hokkaido, warned Greenpeace. The two British-flagged armed freighters, the Pacific Pintail, carrying some 225kg of weapons-usable plutonium in half a ton of MOX fuel, and the now empty Pacific Teal, began the three-day journey from Fukushima on Monday afternoon, bound for the Takahama nuclear facility in Fukui prefecture.
The two vessels are expected to arrive at Takahama on Friday morning. As of 12h00 am today, the two vessels had yet to enter the Tsugaru Straits, but were expected to do so by late afternoon. They will take approximately seven hours to pass through the Straits, before entering the Sea of Japan and heading south to Fukui Prefecture. According to Greenpeace calculations, they are expected to pass as close as 3 to 7 miles from Aomori Prefecture, and a similar distance to Hokkaido. Greenpeace believes that the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary will be responsible for security of the two armed freighters on the voyage, with the Japanese Maritime Security Agency (MSA) playing a back-up role. Japanese authorities originally intended the ships to transit through the straits between Korea and Japan, strong opposition from South Korea forced a change of plan.
The Pacific Teal unloaded its cargo of plutonium MOX yesterday at Fukushima, after the MSA deployed massive maritime security against the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise. The environmental group had already stated its intention to `bear witness' to the first commercial delivery of weapons-usable plutonium fuel to Japan, enough for some 60 nuclear weapons. The MSA also sought to deny Greenpeace the right of 'innocent passage' through Japan's territorial waters.
"Northern Japan has nothing to gain and everything to lose from being on this international plutonium transport route. As many as 80 shipments of plutonium fuel from Europe could arrive in the next ten to fifteen years, many travelling through the narrow and dangerous waters between Honshu and Hokkaido, risking accidents and environmental contamination. The people of Northern Japan have had no say in whether they wish to be threatened by this weapons-usable material. The government in Tokyo is ignoring their democratic rights along with those of tens of endangered nations and millions of people around the world who are opposed to these plutonium shipments," said Kazue Suzuki of Greenpeace Japan on board the Arctic Sunrise.
The Arctic Sunrise is due to enter the Straits early afternoon today arriving in the Sea of Japan later tonight.
Tens of governments around the world have expressed their opposition to this shipment. Only last week, the Foreign Minister of the Federated States of Micronesia, President Leo A. Falcam, speaking to the United Nations General Assembly in New York stated: "(.) accidents and terrorist attacks could happen, and the consequences to our people and to the Pacific marine environment could be devastating (.) I am not yet satisfied with the situation, and we have notified the Government of Japan." (1)
The government of Fiji is also fiercely opposed to the shipments, comparing them to French nuclear weapons tests in the South Pacific. Fiji called on the ships not to enter its waters. However, such is the disregard of the plutonium industry for the concerns of enroute nations that Captain Graham Bates, a senior representative of the ships owners, [UK-based Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd], said: "No one has the right to interfere with the freedom of navigation. If we considered it necessary we would enter Fijian waters." (2)
The plutonium industry along with the Japanese, British and French governments have total disregard for the rights of nations to protect their peoples and environments from dangerous and unjustified nuclear transports. How would Japan feel if another nation decided to use the straits between Hokkaido and Honshu as a nuclear highway. This obscene trade in nuclear weapons material must stop," said Suzuki.
Notes to editors:
(1) Statement of Foreign Minister to Opening Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, September 1999.
(2) As reported in Fiji's Daily Post, September 12, 1999. PNTL, the operators of the transport ships, are owned by BNFL/ British Nuclear Fuel Limited (62.5%), Cogema (12.5%) and Japanese utilities (25%).
