MV Greenpeace
Greenpeace today called on the British, French and Japanese governments to ban the first shipment of plutonium fuel due to depart imminently from Europe to Japan. The international environmental organisation announced that it is sending MV Greenpeace, currently in Dublin, to Barrow, near Sellafield, where part of the deadly cargo is to be loaded. The SV Rainbow Warrior is currently travelling to Cherbourg France, where the rest of the deadly cargo will be loaded.
The plutonium fuel will be carried by two British flagged ships, the "Pacific Pintail" and the "Pacific Teal", owned by Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited (PNTL) but operated "on government service" to the UK. It is expected one of the ships will leave Barrow docks, near Sellafield, on the Irish Sea, with a cargo of eight MOX fuel elements containing some 225 kg of plutonium. The other will leave Cherbourg, near La Hague, with 32 MOX fuel elements containing 221 kg of plutonium. They will then rendezvous at sea, off the French Atlantic coast, and continue together on the 20,000 mile voyage to Japan without naval escort along a still secret route.
