press releases

Greenpeace today alerted the international community to the departure of two vessels, due to carry nuclear weapons-usable plutonium fuel from Europe to Japan, from the port of Barrow in northern England this afternoon at 3.30pm.

Greenpeace condemned the shipments and called for urgent action by the governments of Britain, France and Japan to end all trafficking in plutonium.

Greenpeace accused British Nuclear Fuels, COGEMA and the Japanese utilities of lying to the public, en route governments and to the media.

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.

Global opposition to shipments of nuclear weapons-usable plutonium fuel from Britain and France to Japan will continue in spite of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. obtaining a wide-ranging court injunction preventing any interference with the transportation of the plutonium, Greenpeace said today.

Greenpeace and other groups in Ireland, Scotland, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, United States, and the Pacific region will take part in an international protest against the plutonium shipments on Monday July 19.

"The Privatisation process should expose all the hidden costs associated with spent nuclear waste fuel reprocessing. Once this happens BNFL will realise that its future lies in waste storage, clean-up and decommissioning," said Greenpeace Nuclear Campaigner, Pete Roche.

"Unless reprocessing is shut down, the only way BNFL could be successfully privatised is by the taxpayer paying for the massive hidden liabilities"

The Greenpeace ship SV Rainbow Warrior arrived today in Cherbourg to protest the imminent shipment of weapons-usable plutonium fuel from France to Japan, the first-ever of its kind. Warning that Japan's drive to amass plutonium threatens regional stability and international nuclear disarmament efforts, the international environmental group labelled the imminent shipment a "recipe for disaster" and called on the French, British and Japanese government to cancel the transport.

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 its flag ship the "RV Rainbow Warrior" to Cherbourg, France, where part of the deadly cargo is to be loaded.

United Nations conservation advisers have declared St Kilda to be at "high risk" from proposed oil development and recommended that the islands be added to the list of World Heritage Sites "in danger". These remote and spectacular islands are Britain's only natural World Heritage Site putting them in the same category as the Great Barrier Reef and the Taj Mahal.

In 30 years the world's coral reefs will be devastated by warming tropical oceans which will 'bleach' them white and eventually kill most of them, unless projected levels of climate change are stopped, according to a new scientific report released internationally today by Greenpeace.