Greenpeace Response to News That Georgian Weapons Grade Nuclear

["greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org>]

RESPONSE TO NEWS THAT GEORGIAN WEAPONS GRADE NUCLEAR MATERIAL ON
ROUTE TO SCOTLAND
 
21 April 1998 - News that Tony Blair has approved a plan to
store weapons grade radioactive material from Georgia at the
ill-fated Dounreay nuclear facility in Scotland, has provoked an
angry response from Greenpeace. 

Greenpeace Nuclear Campaigner Pete Roche said "This is an ill
conceived and dangerous plan, its no wonder they're being
secretive about it. Instead of trying to address the problems of
nuclear proliferation sensibly, the UK and US governments are
simply sweeping it under Scotland's carpet."
 
Greenpeace argues that Dounreay is not an appropriate
destination for any nuclear material, describing the facility as
"leaking and decrepit". The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate
recently put a prohibition order on Dounreay to prevent it from
importing any more foreign spent fuel. This is because the
reprocessing plants requires major safety modifications. 
 
The US has been campaigning against Dounreay's attempts to trade
in weapons grade uranium since the late 1980s. It has even gone
to the extent of offering to pay the Belgians not to send
similar material to the facility. The US believes that
Dounreay's trade in weapons grade material represents a
proliferation threat, not least because the facility has so far
refused to end its trade in weapons grade material.
 
This transport from Georgia highlights a serious international
problem. There is a policy vacuum on this issue since there are
no international agreements on how to deal with the trade.
Stocks of weapons grade material needing reprocessing,
processing or storage are immense and the shipment from Georgia
is only a minute fraction of the total. 
 
Greenpeace believes that if Tony Blair wants to make a
contribution to the problem of nuclear proliferation he should
order Dounreay to stop its trade in weapons grade material.
 
Greenpeace is calling for an international agreement to halt the
trade in weapons grade nuclear material. 
 
Ends
 
Greenpeace on the Internet at http://www.greenpeace.org