T R A N S P O R T Greenpeace legal paper on the transport of nuclear waste |
 Mutsu Ogawara, 18 March 1997 A controversial nuclear waste transport from France arrived in Japan today amidst growing demands for an end to Japan's failing plutonium program. Hundreds of protesters from around Japan held signs saying: "STOP spent nuclear fuel", "We do no want nuclear waste!". Greenpeace protested by approaching the ship using 2 inflatable rafts. A total of 6 protesters on board raised banners emblazoned with "NO Nuclear waste"(in Japanese). Meanwhile on the quay of the port, Greenpeace used a crane to hoist a 5 meter high banner declaring "Stop Nuclear Power". The protesters were faced by hundreds of police who were on land, in boats and in helicopters circling over head. Route Map: World map showing likely and possible sea routes for the radioactive shipment Press Release - 18 March 1997: CONTROVERSIAL NUCLEAR WASTE SHIPMENT ARRIVES IN JAPAN; PROTESTORS CALL FOR AN END TO JAPAN'S PLUTONIUM PROGRAM CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENT REVEALS DEADLY NUCLEAR WASTE WOULD NOT BE SALVAGED February 18th, 1997 Greenpeace today released a confidential document which reveals that British, French and Japanese authorities will not salvage a controversial nuclear waste shipment on its way past Australia should it sink. The document was leaked to Greenpeace as the British- flagged "Pacific Teal" steams towards Australia and the Tasman Sea carrying highly radioactive nuclear waste from France to Japan via South Africa and the Southwest Pacific.
February 13th 1997 The Australian Senate has passed a Greens motion requesting the minister for foreign affairs to make public the route of the Pacific Teal, en-route to Japan with a cargo of highly radioactive nuclear waste. The Senate vote is a rebuke to the nonchalance of Senator Hill who, in answer to a question from Senator Brown on Monday dismissed the concern of other countries saying ' we do not feel, as a nation, threatened by the potential of any accident ' Media release from Senator Brown's office Notice of Motion 442 ( Senator Brown )
JAPANESE NUCLEAR WASTE SHIPMENT ENTERS SOUTH AFRICAN WATERS DESPITE BAN.
PLUTONIUM STATEMENT
January 31st 1997 In the face of the imminent
arrival of a Japanese nuclear waste shipment, the South
African government has issued a statement condemning the
dangerous transport and demanding that it remain outside of
that nation's 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) waters. GREENPEACE PROTEST AT CHERBOURG AS "PACIFIC TEAL" DEPARTS FOR JAPAN
January 13th, 1997 At around 7.00 am today, the controversial high level nuclear waste shipment departed the port of Cherbourg, France, bound for Japan. The nuclear waste shipment prepared at the La Hague plutonium "reprocessing" factory involves two casks holding 40 glass blocks of extremely radioactive nuclear waste containing some 20,500,000 curies of radioactivity. This glassified nuclear waste is so deadly that a person within one metre of a single unshielded glass block would receive a fatal dose of radiation in less than one minute. Greenpeace obtained a confidential document in December, which stated the second controversial plutonium waste shipment from Europe to Japan would leave France for Japan on 16th January 1997, on board the UK registered ship Pacific Teal. The route for the ship is given as South Africa - east of Australia -south Pacific and finally Japan. The document, which authenticity has not been confirmed yet, also states that en-route governments are to be informed on 23rd December of the intended route of the waste. |
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4th Febuary 1997 - 7:30 a.m.: A train with four flasks carrying German spent nuclear fuel
has had an accident about 500 meters from the French-German border on French
territory. Three cars loaded with flasks derailed
completely, without tipping over, during shunting maneuvers in the yard at
Apach.
Photographs © Greenpeace / Becker / Bredel These flasks left the Emsland NPP at Lingen in Lower Saxony on Monday evening and were on their way to Sellafield via Dunkirk (where they were to be loaded onto the European Shearwater). A few hours behind this transport and on the same railway stretch was the transport with spent fuel from Kruemmel NPP which Greenpeace had blocked for a week near Hamburg. This second train was detained in Trier until it was re-routed, also toward Dunkirk and Sellafield.. Press Release - 14th February 1997: GREENPEACE COMMENTS REGARDING POLICE UNION PRESS RELEASE. |
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In February 1995 a cargo of highly radioactive plutonium waste, generated by the La Hague reprocessing plant in France, was shipped on board the British-flagged ship, the Pacific Pintail, to Japan. This first ever shipment of plutonium waste between Europe and Japan contained 28 glassified blocks, some 13,000,000 curies of radioactivity. The waste transported was so deadly that a person within one meter of a single unshielded glass block would receive a fatal dose of radiation in less than one minute. This transport, made in secret by the French, British and Japanese governments, caused global public and politically condemnation. Over 40 governments condemned the shipment and some even banned it from entering their territorial waters. If all the blocks of plutonium waste are transported at the rate of 28 per shipment, over 100 sea shipments will be required by the year 2010. |