Plutonium ships run from protest as Flotilla delivers message

21 July, 2002

Tasman Sea, Australia - The Nuclear Free Flotilla successfully delivered its message of protest to the two armed UK nuclear freighters this morning, despite the freighters best efforts to sneak through the flotilla's line in the dead of night.

Two activists from the flotilla were dropped into the water at dawn, after catching up with the two plutonium ships in an inflatable boat. The two swimmers, Ian Cohen, the upper house member of the New South Wales Parliament and Stuart Lennox of Tasmania, held up a banner, which read "Nuclear Free Pacific" as the two ships passed.

"As an elected member of the New South Wales Parliament, representing many Australians who have expressed strong anti-nuclear sentiment, I wanted to make sure that there was no doubt in these shippers minds that they are not welcome in this region," said Ian Cohen.

The flotilla boats also radioed their message of protest to the ships after they picked them up on the radar around midnight and moved to intercept them.

"We may be ten boats but our strength is that we carry the wishes and demands of many thousands of people. It is pretty clear from the plutonium shippers avoidance tactics overnight that they are scared to face public opinion," said Henk Haazen from the Nuclear Free Flotilla. "However they will not be able to avoid the growing public and government pressure building against them from Japan all the way to the Irish Sea, to stop this insane business."

A similar protest was carried out last year when a shipment of plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) went through the Tasman en route from France to Japan. The Nuclear Free Seas Flotilla movement has grown to include a flotilla in the Cape Horn region and one in Ireland that is preparing to protest the arrival of the ships in the Irish Sea.

The Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal are carrying a cargo of faulty MOX, including 255 kgs of weapons-usable plutonium, which left Japan for the UK on Thursday, July 4th. The shipment of faulty MOX is being returned to the UK because its producers, the technically bankrupt government-owned British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), falsified critical safety data on the fuel and the Japanese refused to use it. As a result of the scandal and due to a loss of confidence by the Japanese communities in the MOX industry, none of the MOX that has been shipped to Japan in the last four years has been used.

"The proliferation and environmental risks that this industry takes in producing plutonium are enormous. To then ship it, increases the risks many times, and passes these risks to every coastal nation en route," said Stephen Campbell, Greenpeace Australia Pacific Nuclear Campaigner 'It is clear from the strength of government and public opposition to this current shipment that it is no longer a question of 'if' these shipments are stopped but when."

For more information:

Crew are available for interviews on the following vessels:
Ross Barnett on board SV Moontide - Iridium phone: +8816 315 25591
Henk Haazen on board SV Tiama - Inmarsat phone: +872 762639082

For other details contact:

Pia Mancia, Nuclear Free Pacific Flotilla Coordinator , in Auckland +64 21 799 661
Stephen Campbell, Greenpeace Australia Pacific Nuclear Campaigner, in Sydney +61 419 227 695
Mhairi Dunlop, Greenpeace International Nuclear Press Officer, in Sydney +31 65 350 4731

Photographs available from John Novis, Greenpeace Photo Desk, in Amsterdam +31 65 381 9121
or Olivia Bradley, Greenpeace AV Co-ordinator in Sydney +61 438 422 572 / +61 2 9263 0350

Video available from Lucy Clayton, Greenpeace Video Desk, in Amsterdam +31 65 350 4721
or Olivia Bradley, Greenpeace AV Co-ordinator in Sydney +61 438 422 572 / +61 2 9263 0350

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