Posted on 7-7-2002

Nuclear Waste In Pacific Again?
From Greenpeace

Auckland, New Zealand, 5 July 2002: Greenpeace said that the decision by
British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) and Kansai Electric to transport reject
plutonium by sea back to England is incredibly irresponsible. The two armed
UK freighters the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal departed Japan last
night and are en-route to England via the Tasman Sea. “To send highly
radioactive materials on a six-week, 18,000 mile journey on the high seas
was a stupid idea before 11 September. In today's context it can only be
described as insane,” said Bunny McDiarmid, Greenpeace Nuclear Campaigner.

The plutonium MOX was originally shipped to Japan in 1999 but the
producers, government owned British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) were found to have
falsified critical safety data and the Japanese refused to use it. The
reject plutonium includes 255 kgs of weapons-usable plutonium. BNFL has set
aside NZ$ 412m to compensate Japan and to cover the costs of returning the
faulty MOX in the hope that they will secure new contracts with the
Japanese. If this happens we can expect up to 80 more shipments between
Japan and Europe. However, the Japanese plutonium programme is in disarray
with opposition in prefectures where MOX is planned to be used.

The risk of an accident at sea is always there, as seen with the grounding
of an oil tanker off Fiji last week. “The stakes are raised when you send
such a dangerous cargo through some of the roughest seas on board a vessel
carrying 1,100 tonnes of fuel and live ammunition.” In recent days it has
been revealed that the Pacific Pintail and Teal also have a corrosion
problem which BNFL have refused to release details about. The Japanese
nuclear industry which are part owners of the vessels together with the UK
and French Governments only learnt about this problem after news reports.

Greenpeace welcomes the New Zealand Government’s commitment to have Orion’s
observing the movements of the boats so that they do not enter New
Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). A Pacific flotilla of 12 boats is
setting out from NZ, Australia, and Vanuatu this weekend to protest the
passage of the shipment. Seven boats, reminisce of the Moruroa flotilla,
will depart the Viaduct Basin, Auckland on Sunday lunchtime (July 7) and
will meet the five other boats in the middle of the Tasman Sea.

Contact: Bunny McDiarmid 021 838 183 or Brendan Lynch 021 790 817