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| Arctic Sunrise - taking action against nuclear power |
As BNFL's two armed plutonium ships arrived in Japan today, Greenpeace UK called on the Government to reject the company's application to open its new Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP).
"After last week's revelations about faked safety checks at Sellafield, Tony Blair should alert the Japanese Prime Minister to the fact that Britain cannot guarantee the safety of this fuel in use", said Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Pete Roche.
The two British-flagged ships which arrived in Japan today, the Pacific Teal and Pacific Pintail, were confronted by the Greenpeace ship MV Arctic Sunrise and three inflatables carrying the message "Plutonium Kills" at 5.30am (Japanese time) this morning. The BNFL ships sailed from Barrow-in-Furness on 19th July and are carrying enough weapons-usable plutonium fuel contained in mixed plutonium/ uranium oxide (MOX) fuel elements, to make around 60 nuclear bombs. This raises the spectre of nuclear-weapons proliferation in the Asia-Pacific region.
The MV Arctic Sunrise was surrounded by ten Japanese Maritime Safety Agency (MSA) ships carrying commandos in full riot equipment as it bore witness to the arrival of the plutonium ships. A further 20 MSA vessels were in the immediate vicinity and the MV Arctic Sunrise was warned that it was no longer entitled to "innocent right of passage".
Last week, Japan's confidence in Sellafield's plutonium (MOX) fuel production was seriously undermined by revelations that vital quality checks on MOX, produced in the existing MOX Demonstration Facility for the Takahama reactor by BNFL, had been bypassed and data sheets falsified. While BNFL may claim that the data falsification scandal does not apply to the MOX on the current shipment, there is still a major question mark over the fuel arriving in Japan today.
The MOX arriving in Japan today was made in a small demonstration facility. BNFL is awaiting a Government decision on whether start-up of its full-scale Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP) can be legally justified.
"The economics of the SMP were already open to serious doubt and heavily reliant on Japanese utilities signing up to new contracts for MOX fuel", said Roche, "Which utilities in their right mind are now going to order MOX fuel from BNFL - their reputation has been devastated in Japan".
Burning plutonium fuel is already riskier than conventional nuclear fuel. It also carries major security implications for nuclear power stations, which do not normally handle direct-weapons-useable material. The Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO), which runs the Takahama reactor, now has to decide whether to trust blindly in BNFL despite the faked safety check revelations, or demand their money back.
"The UK Government should take this opportunity to pull back from its headlong rush into this new - deadly plutonium trade", said Roche.
The UK Government also needs to consider the damage that this shipment has caused to its reputation abroad. There has been a massive outcry of opposition from en-route States who are particularly angry that there has been no prior consultation or international environmental assessment into the risks of transporting plutonium fuel. Nor has there been a proper assessment of the risks of nuclear proliferation posed by transporting plutonium into a part of the world, which is especially volatile at the moment.
Among those who have lodged strenuous objections with the Japanese, French and British Governments are: Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, Mauritius, Fiji, the South Pacific Forum, South Korea and the Association of Caribbean States.
"Unless the Government acts now to end this trade, this shipment will mark the dawning of a deadly new era, in which vast stocks of weapons-usable plutonium fuel are transported to Japan. This weapons-usable material poses not only a risk along the entire 20,000 mile route from Europe, but it also threatens to spark a major proliferation crisis in the Asia Pacific region", said Roche.
Today's arrival at Fukishima marks the final destination of the French/Belgian part of the shipment. The Pacific Pintail, carrying Sellafield-made plutonium fuel, will continue sailing on to Takahama on the West Coast of Japan.
Notes to Editors:
The Pacific Teal has a cargo of 221kg plutonium, contained in 32 elements, intended for the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. The plutonium fuel was reprocessed at the controversial La Hague nuclear complex in northern France, operated by the state-controlled company Cogema. It was then assembled into MOX elements by the Belgian company Belgonucleaire. The Pacific Pintail has a cargo of 225 kg of plutonium contained in 8 MOX fuel elements for use in the Takahama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture, on the Sea of Japan east coast. The plutonium for Kansai, the operator of the Takahama plant, was reprocessed and assembled into MOX fuel at the infamous Sellafield site in northern England, operated by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). The two ships left Europe on July 21.
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