Protests against previous MOX shipments from Britain to Japan.
Greenpeace will today file papers against the UK Government's
Environment Agency at the High Court in London in an attempt to
prevent a shipment of rejected plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel
from leaving Japan later this week (1).
Lawyers acting for Greenpeace will apply for permission to
'Judicially Review' the Environment Agency for its failure to treat
the faulty MOX as radioactive waste, and follow the required
procedure for nuclear waste imports. They will also apply for an
injunction to stop the faulty MOX leaving Japan.
On July 4th, British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) plans to start its
most controversial nuclear transport in its troubled history when
one of its vessels, the armed nuclear freighter Pacific Pintail,
sails into the port of Takahama, Fukui Prefecture. Together with
its armed escort ship, the Pacific Teal, the two ships are due
travel up to 30,000 kilometers to return the rejected plutonium to
the BNFL site at Sellafield, in the north of England.
This MOX scandal caused a major diplomatic incident between the
Japanese Government and the UK in 1999 when it was revealed that
BNFL had deliberately falsified vital safety data. The Japanese
Government and the owners, Kansai Electric Power, rejected the
plutonium MOX and demanded that it be returned to the UK. The UK
Government agreed and BNFL, a wholly state owned company, paid
UK113 million sterling of British taxpayers money in compensation
to Japan and to cover the cost of the transportation to and from
Japan. BNFL announced to the UK Government last November that it
was now bankrupt.
Despite claims by BNFL that this reprocessing business has
generated enormous income for Britain, they are expected to reveal
in their annual accounts also to be announced July 4th that they
have made further financial losses. BNFL has used the prospect of
large multi-million pound MOX fuel contracts with Japanese clients
to justify to the British Government the opening of the
controversial Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP) and the return MOX
shipment from Japan. Yet, the Japanese program to use plutonium MOX
in its nuclear reactors is in disarray, with no MOX currently
loaded, and future plans strongly opposed by the public and
politicians.
Greenpeace believes that the rejected plutonium MOX transport is
dangerous, unnecessary and unlawful. There has already been
international opposition from several countries concerned about the
vulnerability of the shipment to catastrophic accidents and
terrorist threats.
"In a desperate effort to secure new plutonium business with
Japan, BNFL appears to be ignoring the pleas from en-route
countries who will now be threatened by this nuclear shipment.
There is nothing to justify this transport. At least BNFL have
stopped claiming they are the largest single yen earner for
Britain. This rejected plutonium MOX should never have been shipped
to Japan in the first place, now that it's there, that is where it
should stay. Japanese authorities need to treat it as nuclear waste
because that's exactly what it is," said Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace
International in Tokyo.
The rejected plutonium MOX, a mixture of plutonium and uranium
oxides, contains 255kg of plutonium, enough to make 50 nuclear
weapons. The United States Government has confirmed that it would
be relatively easy to separate out the plutonium in the discarded
fuel to create a nuclear weapon.
"To ship nuclear weapons material on a six to eight week voyage
across the world's oceans was a dangerous idea before September
11th, in today's context it can only be described is insane. The UK
and Japanese Governments need to abandon this transport and its
plans to put at risk tens of countries around the world," said Tom
Clements, Greenpeace International Nuclear Campaigner on board the
Greenpeace protest ship, Arctic Sunrise, in the Sea of Japan.
Greenpeace's security concerns are echoed by military analysts
and Governments. The respected Jane's Foreign Report has described
security on the lightly armed ships as totally inadequate (2).
Already because of security concerns, the thirty-four Governments
of the Organisation of American States have adopted a resolution
calling for a security assessment of nuclear shipments and their
threat to the Caribbean. Opposition due to the risk of accident and
environmental contamination has also led countries in the South
Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean to oppose this and other
nuclear shipments.
Notes: 1. Greenpeace says that the faulty and rejected MOX should be classified as radioactive waste, and should not be imported. No import of nuclear waste can happen without authorisation from the Environment Agency, who must ensure compliance with international law. The Environment Agency (England and Wales) has not authorised the shipment of the material to the UK, in accordance with the Transfrontier Shipment of Radioactive Waste Regulations 1993 (as amended) ("the 1993 Regulations").Prior approval of the United States must be obtained before there can be any transportation uranium and plutonium which originated in the United States. This applies to this radioactive material and so transportation cannot take place without US approval. Greenpeace believes that the US approval was given on false grounds.2. Jane's Foreign Report, May 1999 (quoted in Observer 9 June 2002).