One of two lightly armed UK-flagged commercial nuclear cargo ship, the Pacific Pintail, arrives in the French military port of Cherbourg.
Under the cover of darkness, the Pintail was escorted as far as
the out dock by the Pacific Teal, tracked by the Greenpeace ship
Esperanza. Arriving in the dock at 5:45 AM, to be met by a six
yachts from the Atlantic Nuclear Free Flotilla flying "Stop
Plutonium" banners. An escort of six security inflatableS with
marine commandos, four military boats and two helicopters guarded
the vessel as it entered the French port. The French Gendarmerie
established a closed security zone in the harbour in an attempt to
stop any protest. A Greenpeace press boat with a UK Independent
Television News camera crew was arrested outside the military
exclusion zone, then subsequently released.
After being transported to la Hague, the plutonium will be
transported in the coming 24 hours more than 1,000 kilometres to a
plutonium fuel fabrication facility in Caradache, Provence, in the
South of France. The route has not been announced for the land
transport which is perhaps the most vulnerable stage in terms of
accident or terrorist attack. Areva plan to convert the plutonium
into an experimental fuel known as 'MOX' (mixed plutonium uranium
oxide fuel), after which it transported back to the United States
early in 2005, to then be tested in U.S. reactor over 3 years.
"This shipment of weapons plutonium is a wake-up call to the
world - rather than ship this dangerous material worldwide now is
the time for aggressive steps to halt proliferation of all nuclear
weapons materials. The military nature of the arrival in France
clearly demonstrates that nuclear weapons materials are a threat to
global security and have no place in commerce", said Tom Clements
of Greenpeace International.
The plutonium, sent by the US National Nuclear Security
Administration (NNSA), left the port of Charleston, South Carolina,
on September 20. An international flotilla of French and Irish
protest vessels was awaiting to protest its arrival. Greenpeace is
opposed to the transport due to fact that it is part of a global
program led by France's state-owned nuclear company Areva, and the
governments of the United States and Russia, to commercialise the
large-scale use of weapons-grade plutonium as fuel in nuclear
reactors. Such a program not only increases the vulnerability of
plutonium but also send the wrong nuclear proliferation signal
worldwide, according to Greenpeace.
"Transportation of plutonium is highly vulnerable to accidents
or deliberate attack and must be stopped. After the Atlantic
crossing this transport is about to wind its way through France
threatening everything in its path. The French government is
determined to ignore the security and safety risks posed by
plutonium transports by claiming that its secret. It will be too
late if there is a disaster to inform the people of France - that
is what Greenpeace is determined to do over these coming days,"
said Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace International.
Areva claims that this shipment is part of an effort to reduce
the threat from nuclear proliferation yet continuously produces
more and more plutonium at its la Hague plant where there is
currently 70-80,000 kilograms of plutonium in storage.
If this weapons-grade plutonium fuel experiment succeeds, a
total of 68 tons of weapons-grade plutonium from US and Russian
weapons stockpiles - enough to make more than 15,000 nuclear bombs
- will be exposed to theft, diversion and accidents. In addition,
France and the UK have an estimated 180 tons of 'civil' plutonium
created by the reprocessing of nuclear fuel, which pose a growing
nuclear proliferation threat.
Notes: *For background information see:*http://www.stop-plutonium.orghttp://www.nuclearfreeflotilla.org/flotilla.htm(1) BNFL currently has over 100 tons of plutonium at its Sellafield nuclear complex in the UK. It plans to ship 50 tons to Europe and Japan over the next 10-20 years. Areva, the French state nuclear company that will manufacture the US plutonium into experimental nuclear fuel, has between 70-80 tons of plutonium sitting at la Hague in Normandy, all ofwhich it plans to transport to clients in Europe and Japan within 10-15 years.