| FUKUI,
JAPAN - June 14 - An armed British nuclear transport ship, Pacific Pintail, was
met by protests from local Japanese anti-nuclear activists and Greenpeace as it
arrived today at the nuclear reactor port of Takahama, Fukui Prefecture on the
Sea of Japan coast.
A container to be used to transport the controversial load of rejected nuclear
fuel back to Britian is unloaded from transport ship Pacific Pintail in Takahama
in Fukui prefecture, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of Tokyo Friday, June
14, 2002. The transport ship pulled into the Japanese port earlier in the day
to pick up the plutonium- and uranium-based mixed oxide fuel at the Takahama Nuclear
Power plant and then ferry it back to its maker in Britain. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)
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The ship, under guard from Japanese coastguard vessels entered the port area
at 09:00AM. The vessel is delivering an empty transport container to the reactor
site, where it is due to be loaded within the next few weeks with rejected plutonium
MOX shipped to Japan by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) in 1999. After being loaded
into the container (cask) it is planned to ship it back to the UK along one of
three secret routes. (1)
The Pacific Pintail left the UK on April 26th, together with another armed
nuclear freighter, the Pacific Teal. Both vessels passed through the Caribbean
Sea, Panama Canal and across the Pacific on their voyage to Japan. Governments
in the Caribbean condemned the planned shipment because of the lack of any notification
by the shipping states, Japan and Britain, as well as the threat of terrorist
attack and catastrophic accident. In the last week former security experts, including
a former senior UK Government Minister from the Defense Department, have labeled
the shipment as vulnerable to armed attack.
Last week the 34 Governments of the Organization of American States (OAS) supported
and adopted a resolution that called for an assessment of the security threats
posed by nuclear transports through the Caribbean Sea (2). Chile called in the
British and Japanese ambassadors on Thursday 6th June to convey its concerns about
the shipment.
The Government of Antigua and Barbuda at the OAS meeting made an impassioned
plea in reference to the planned plutonium MOX shipment from Japan to the UK and
called for an end to nuclear shipments, "Our small states are fearful that
a deliberate act of terror aimed at those ships may bring an end to our very existence.
This is not fanciful or farfetched fiction."
On Friday 14 June 2002, the Vice President of the Fiji Senate made a statement
on behalf of the Fiji Government. "The Fiji Government is firmly opposed
to all shipments of MOX fuel through its EEZ and has always made this clear to
the shipping states".
While the Pintail arrived in Takahama, the Teal is expected to head straight
for a Japanese commercial port, probably Kobe. The Pintail is expected to join
it there, where during the next few days or weeks the ships will take on provisions,
as well as anti-terrorist police from the UK. The security police are expected
to arrive from the UK just prior to the ships$B!G(B departure from Japan.
"This plutonium MOX should never have been shipped to Japan in the first
place. Since BNFL lied to their Japanese customers over the quality of this MOX,
countries should be under no illusion now that the bland assurances issued by
BNFL, and the British and Japanese Governments, that this shipment is safe and
secure are anything but irresponsibly complacent and lacking in credibility. In
fact, these shipments present a global threat to the environment through risk
of accident or deliberate attack. The fact that BNFL and the Japanese are trying
to make this transport under the cover of the soccer World Cup only exposes further
their contempt for public safety. This shipment must be abandoned," said
Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace International.
In an attempt to stop the plutonium shipment, Greenpeace is preparing a legal
challenge against the UK Government.
Greenpeace yesterday announced
at a press conference in Takahama that the Arctic Sunrise, one of the Greenpeace
ships, would shortly arrive in Japan to join the protests against this MOX shipment.
Notes to editors:
(1) The eight MOX assemblies containing 255 kilograms of weapons usable plutonium,
as well as uranium, was rejected by Japan after it was admitted by BNFL that they
had deliberately falsified vital quality control data for the fuel. The resultant
scandal in Japan led to the suspension of plans to load commercial MOX for the
first time in Japanese reactors. In 2001, encouraged by the BNFL scandal citizens
in the village of Kashiwazaki-kariwa voted to block loading of a batch of French/Belgian
MOX fuel delivered also in 1999. In total Japan has shipped over 2,300 kilograms
of direct use weapons plutonium from Europe in the last 17 years. Not one gram
has been loaded into a nuclear reactor and remains stockpiled at nuclear facilities
throughout Japan.
(2) The Thirty-four member states of the OAS met at the XXXII General Assembly
in Bridgetown, Barbados June 2nd-4th, 2002. The OAS consists of: Antigua and Barbuda-Argentina-Bahamas-Barbados-Belize-Bolivia-Brazil-Canada-Chile-Colombia-Costa
Rica-Cuba* -Dominica-Dominican Republic-Ecuador-El Salvador-Grenada-Guatemala-Guyana-Haiti-Honduras-Jamaica-Mexico-Nicaragua-Panama-Paraguay-Peru-Saint
Lucia-Saint Vincent and the Grenadines-Suriname-St. Kitts and Nevis-Trinidad and
Tobago-United States of America-Uruguay-Venezuela. By resolution of the Eighth
Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs (1962) the current Government
of Cuba is excluded from participation in the OAS.
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