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Secret nuclear transport through Sydney streets

December 18, 2006

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Greenpeace activists bear witness to a shipment of high level nuclear
waste being loaded aboard the cargo ship Sea Bird at Sydney's Port
Botany shipping container terminal. The waste was transported by road
under a heavy police guard from the Lucas Heights nuclear facility at
around 2am, Monday 18 December 2006. The shipment was escorted by 12
police water vessels out of Botany, bound for the US.

Greenpeace activists bear witness to the shipment of high level nuclear waste at Sydney's Port Botany shipping container terminal.

Enlarge image

Sydney, Australia — Around midnight last night, a secretive shipment of radioactive nuclear waste moved through Sydney streets. Greenpeace took action, alerting residents to the danger racing through their neighbourhoods.

The controversial spent nuclear fuel transport was escorted by a police convoy from the Lucas Heights nuclear facility to Botany Bay. Greenpeace activists in inflatable boats exposed the transfer of 10 nuclear waste casks (containing 330 spent nuclear fuel rods) to cargo ship, the Seabird, at 2am. The shipment is headed for the US where it will join a 60,000 tonne stockpile of dangerous nuclear waste.

Nuclear transports are a risk to human health and the environment. They are vulnerable to accidents and pose a terrorist threat.

"In an age of terrorism and fears about nuclear proliferation, these nuclear waste shipments are a magnet for terrorist activity. Spent fuel rods can be combined with explosives to make 'dirty' nuclear bombs."
Greenpeace campaigns manager, Stephen Campbell

Last night's secretive shipment highlights serious national security concerns. It casts a dark shadow on the Howard government's push for nuclear power as a solution to climate change.

Nuclear no solution to climate change

Nuclear power is no solution to climate change. The government's own recent report found that if Australia built 25 nuclear reactors by 2050, at enormous cost, it would cut Australia's emissions by only eight to 18 per cent. Compare this to energy efficiency and renewable energy like solar, wind and geothermal, which could cut Australia's emissions 30 per cent by 2020.

The majority of Australians don't want nuclear power or spent nuclear fuel transportations creating dangerous nuclear highways through their streets. The clean solutions to climate change are energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Find out how renewable energy can supply Australia's power needs

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