mox fuel

Greenpeace today condemned as "misguided" plans by a Japanese electricity company to return to Britain a controversial cargo of plutonium reactor fuel, whose delivery sparked international protests last year.

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).

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.

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.

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).

At around 5.30am today, amidst massive maritime security, the Greenpeace ship MV Arctic Sunrise bore witnesses to the delivery of the first cargo of weapons usable plutonium-MOX fuel to Japan from Europe. The fuel onboard the British flagged ship "Pacific Teal" arrived at the Fukushima nuclear plant on Japan's Pacific Coast. Carrying banners reading "Plutonium Kills" and "Plutonium = Destruction", the Sunrise was surrounded by 10 Japanese Maritime Safety Agency (MSA) ships carrying commandos in full riot equipment.

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.

The Greenpeace vessel MV Sirius was ordered to leave harbour and French territorial waters, during a peaceful protest against the departure of the British flagged freighter Pacific Teal from the French port of Cherbourg this afternoon.

Escorted by a military armada of naval vessels, commando inflatables,and helicopters, the British-flagged freighter Pacific Teal departed Cherbourg today at 17h00 CET with its cargo of nuclear weapons-usable plutonium fuel (MOX).

London -- The UK Government last night banned the MV Greenpeace from UK waters, a move described as draconian and anti-democratic by the international environmental organisation.

In a letter faxed to the Greenpeace vessel, the UK Government invoked the 1995 Merchant Shipping Act to ban the MV Greenpeace from all United Kingdom waters in the Irish Sea, St George's Channel, the Bristol Channel, and the English Channel, citing safety concerns.

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.