Plutonium ships to set sail from Japan to England

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday June 17, 2002 14:07 by Mc D

While we all look at the World Cup matches on our televisions, two ships, carrying enough useable plutonium to create 50 nuclear bombs, will depart Japanese shores for England in the next few weeks.

Security experts have warned the ships could become floating targets during the 18,000-mile journey from Takahama to Barrow-in-Furness. The port of Takahama is little more than 70 miles from the glittering World Cup venues of Kobe and Osaka, where England faced Nigeria on 12 June and some of the second round and quarter final matches will be taking place.

The ships, the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal, and their cargo of 255 kilograms of weapons-usable plutonium, are due to embark this month on an 18,000-mile journey to England. Investigations reveal mounting concern over the trip being made by the cargo vessels. These have become potent symbols of the deep flaws running through Britain's nuclear policies, particularly the government's determination to press ahead with the high-risk global trade in mixed reprocessed plutonium and uranium oxide, a substance known as MOX fuel.

Security concerns are much greater after 11 September. Many scientists and security experts have warned that the trip is too risky and that security measures are inadequate. They forecast possible scenarios where the vessels are attacked by missile, or are rammed by boats or aircraft.

The fact that the voyage is being made at all is already a cause of deep humiliation for Tony Blair. The MOX fuel in question was originally transported from Britain to Japan three years ago. But upon its arrival in the Far East, staff at Britain's state-owned nuclear power provider, BNFL, admitted to faking the material's safety records. Japanese Minister for Trade and Industry, Takashi Fukaya, described the affair as "deplorable", saying that "confidence in BNFL has been destroyed".

The Japanese authorities have only now succeeded in ordering Britain to take back the contentious cargo.

The British administration cannot refuse to take delivery of the shipment, as such a decision could damage around £4bn of investment between Japan and BNFL, signalling the end of Sellafield and its £472m nuclear reprocessing MOX plant, where the cargo was originally produced.

And BNFL is desperate for business, as its order books for MOX exports remain way below what is required for viability and it needs to keep Japan as its biggest potential customer.

On 31 May, Greenpeace called on the British and Japanese governments to abandon their plans to transport the shipment. "Although the return route this shameful shipment will make back to the UK still remains a secret, the government's concerned can be assured that the world will be watching. The determination of people around the world to show their dissent and stop this dangerous trade in bomb-material is a strong signal to the UK and Japan to abandon their plans immediately," said Simon Boxer of Greenpeace International.

Although the route to be taken by the shipment will not be announced, there are only two possibilities: one through the Pacific and Tasman Sea, across the Pacific Ocean and through the Panama Canal and Caribbean Sea, or across the Pacific Ocean and around Cape Horn. If the Tasman route is chosen it could transit the Pacific and Tasman in early July. If it is the Cape Horn route, it will likely be late July.

Just after the 11 September attacks against the Pentagon in Washington and the World Trade Centre in New York, Tony Blair told the House of Commons that 'terrorists' would use nuclear weapons if they could. He demanded that the trade in the technology of such weapons be 'exposed, disrupted, and stamped out'.

However, it took only three weeks for Blair to give the go-ahead for Sellafield's MOX fuel plant to reopen for reprocessing after five years of inactivity. His decision paved the way for a worldwide trade in plutonium at a time of unprecedented heightened alert.

Greenpeace and dozens of nations along the possible routes have protested the voyage. Early in 2002, en-route governments started to express their opposition to this shipment. On 7 March, the 26-County government announced that it was considering legal action to prevent the shipment. Environment Minister Joe Jacobs stated at the time: "It is unacceptable that any plutonium should pass through the Irish Sea, particularly in the light of terrorist threats after 11 September."

Strong opposition to the shipment was also expressed by the fourteen governments of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) at their summit meeting with the government of Japan on 4/5 March in Antigua. In their joint statement, CARICOM emphasised its "concern that the transportation of such materials could have a devastating impact on the integrity of the fragile ecosystems of the Caribbean Sea in the event of an accident". The nations reiterated their "implacable opposition" to this practice, especially in relation to the new global challenges to peace and security.

On the departure of the ships from Britain in April, the New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark announced the government was against the shipments and would be voicing its concerns. "We always register our opposition but we can't stop the ships transiting through the high seas," she said. During 2001, statements of opposition to nuclear shipments were made by heads of state and foreign ministers at meetings of the Rio Group of Latin American nations.

The 'Nuclear Free Seas' Flotilla movement against plutonium transports was launched last year in the South Pacific, with protests in the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia, as well as in Fiji. This year it has now spread to South America's Cape Horn, and the Irish Sea. It will attempt to track the ships on their secret route.

"The Irish community feels it has suffered because of Sellafield and people here believe that their protests have been ignored by BNFL and by the British government, said Rowan Hand from the Irish Flotilla. "The Flotilla is a means of giving expression to high levels of concern and the interest in the project grows daily. In the weeks leading up to the August Flotilla, we will be garnering the enthusiasm of our sailing friends and I am certain that a large flotilla will depart the historic port of Carlingford to make its protest," he said.

"Quite simply, the Irish Sea is not a dumping ground for the British nuclear industry. The Irish people will not be bullied into accepting this; it is unjust and ultimately offensive," said Ron van der Horst from the Irish flotilla. "People are uniting all over the world to stop these shipments."

For more information check http://www.indymedia.org/ http://www.nuclearfreeflotilla.org/ http://www.theecologist.org/

No use for plutonium (MOX) fuel

There have been four cargoes of plutonium, either in the form of plutonium dioxide or MOX fuel, transported to Japan during the last ten years. In total, the British-flagged transport vessels have travelled a total of over 120,000 kilometres to deliver their cargoes of weapons-usable plutonium to Japan.

Although each of these transports has been justified by Japan as essential for its energy programme, not one gram of the plutonium has been used in a nuclear reactor. Not one kilowatt of electricity has been generated by this plutonium. Instead, the plutonium remains unused and stockpiled in Japan.

At the same time, during the last ten years, the stockpile of plutonium worldwide has grown by 300%, from less than 10 tons to more than 38 tons, most of which remains in Europe. Again, not one gram of this has been used for electricity generation. And to all this it has to be added that increasingly in Japan, the nuclear electrical utilities are signalling that this programme makes no economic sense.

No large contracts yet exist between Japanese utilities and the European MOX producers, BNFL and Cogema.

The severe problems of shipping MOX fuel from Europe, the high price of MOX fuel and strong political and public opposition in Japan to MOX fuel use have all contributed to major delays in the Japanese programme.