GREENPEACE BLOCKS PLUTONIUM TRANSPORT ON BOARD ROLL ON -ROLL OFF VESSEL

Amsterdam / Lerwick (Shetland), 22 December 1997

Greenpeace activists and concerned members of the public have been blocking since early morning 59 kilograms of plutonium in the port of Bremerhaven (Germany). The plutonium is planned to be shipped from Germany to the Scottish nuclear plant of Dounreay, where it would be reprocessed.

While talks took place this morning between the harbour authorities, the police and Greenpeace, seven Greenpeace activists are still chained to the stern flap of the ro-ro vessel Arneb and 3 inflatables, positioned between the ship and the pier, are preventing it from docking and loading the plutonium.

The demonstration began Sunday night (21.12), when the truck carrying the nuclear cargo started its journey by road from Hanau to the port of Bremerhaven. In the early hours of this morning, 100 demonstrators assembled on one of the access bridges into the harbour, delaying the truck with banners reading "Stop Plutonium Exports - No Nuclear Transports".

" These transports are the result of desperation within the nuclear industry and a disregard for the public", said Rose Young of Greenpeace International. "Together with their German clients, Dounreay management are conspiring to bring more radioactive contamination to a site that is already one of the world's worst nuclear dump-sites. This plutonium trade must stop".

The 59 kg of plutonium are enough to make 15 nuclear weapons. If only one gram of the plutonium was inhaled by the general population of a large town or city, then as many as 14,000 additional cancer deaths could result.

Greenpeace is adamant that these transports are dangerous, foolhardy and therefore should come to an end.

UPDATE

The action in Germany is ending, police arrived with police boats and started pulling away the activists chained to the vessel and all the others on the ground.

The activists are with the police but they are not expected to be arrested.

The authorities plan to go ahead with the transport ASAP because the weather is expected worsen in that area. They still have to clean and load the plutonium, an will probably leave sometime tonight.

Footage available from: Telenews, t. +49 40 42 91 01 10 - Stills available from: EPA (European Picture Agency), t. +49 69 27160

For further information:

Rose Young, Greenpeace International, Lerwick, Shetlands tel: +44 (0) 1595 809339