japan

Greenpeace campaigners try to block whaling vessels from harpooning whales on Christmas da

As the Japanese foreign minister, Mr. Yohei Kono arrives in London to discuss Japan - UK economic relations, Japan is continuing to hunt whales illegally in the protected Southern Ocean Sanctuary. Mr Kono is due to meet Foreign Secretary Robin Cook as part of a brief European tour.

Greenpeace's ship, the Arctic Sunrise, which has now been tracking Japan's illegal whaling activities for 23 days, witnessed seven minke whales being harpooned by Japanese whalers.

16 Devember 1999 - Japan's Industry Ministry (MITI) today said that no more plutonium-MOX fuel will be accepted from British Nuclear Fuels following revelations that quality assurance data cannot be guaranteed. This represents a fatal blow to BNFL's plans to open the unauthorised £300 million Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP).

Fukui City, 13 October - British Nuclear Fuels the producers of MOX fuel for Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) are ignoring basic safety and quality standards of industrial production in an apparent attempt to reduce production costs, Greenpeace and Green Action claimed today.

The accusation comes after the two organisations commissioned an assessment by Dr. Frank Barnaby following the revelation that quality control data was falsified. Three workers accused of being responsible for the falsification were fired from BNFL last week.

Our campaign against nuclear power in Japan

The numbers of people who suffered radiation exposure during the nuclear accident at the Tokaimura uranium plant was almost certainly higher than the Government estimates of forty-nine due to the high levels of neutron radiation, coupled with the slow evacuation of the area, Greenpeace said today, based on results of an investigation around the site.

Releasing the monitoring results in Mito city and Tokyo today, Greenpeace said that it had found evidence of radioactive fallout. Greenpeace also found high radiation levels on a public road near the plant on Sunday - 24 hours after the all-clear was given by the Government - and compelling evidence of high levels of neutron radiation. Neutron radiation is the most penetrating and one of the most dangerous forms of radiation.

Commenting on the nuclear accident today at the Tokai uranium processing plant in Japan, Greenpeace said:

"The Japanese nuclear accident is a deadly reminder of the inescapable dangers of nuclear power."

"Japanese grasp of technology is world reknowned and second to none. But when it comes to nuclear power they are in the same boat as the operators of Windscale, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Mixing human fallibility and nuclear physics is not worth the risk."

Fukui politicians speak out against British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL)

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.

Today's revelations that BNFL falsified safety records on plutonium fuel threatens to cripple its future plutonium business. The first shipment of plutonium fuel (MOX) from Sellafield is currently only a week away from arrival in Japan but may now have to be sent back to the UK for additional safety checks. The Japanese Science and Environment body (MITI) has ordered that the safety checks must take place before the plutonium fuel is used. BNFL's Japanese customers are reported to be flying to Sellafield for urgent discussions.

Amid heavy police and naval security, Greenpeace activists protested the departure of the freighter "Pacific Teal" as it left the port of Barrow in north-west England bound for Cherbourg, France early this morning (Monday). This is the initial stage in the first commercial shipment of nuclear weapons-usable plutonium fuel to Japan, and could lead to a further 80 shipments over the next decade.

British Nuclear Fuels Ltd is attempting to stifle public debate by seeking injunctions today in the United Kingdom and France to prevent Greenpeace protesting against a secret shipment of nuclear weapons-usable plutonium fuel from Europe to Japan, the environment group reported today.Two British freighters, the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal, are due to leave the port of Barrow in northern England imminently to undertake the transport to Japan.