Monju reactor.
Around the world
03 July 2002
We have been in Japan for a week now - meeting local people, working with members of the Greenpeace Japan team and making sure the ship is ready to go. But we are only the most visible part of a global effort against this shipment.
In the United Kingdom, the Greenpeace legal team have been working tirelessly on challenges to the transport.
Lawyers acting for Greenpeace will apply for permission to 'judicially review' the Environment Agency for its failure to treat the faulty MOX as radioactive waste, and follow the required procedure for nuclear waste imports1. Greenpeace will also apply for a High Court injunction to stop the faulty MOX shipment leaving Japan this Thursday (4th July). Greenpeace believes that the faulty MOX is waste since no use for it is foreseen. BNFL has told the Environment Agency that it intends to recover the plutonium and uranium within the faulty MOX but the UK already has huge stockpiles of both of these materials. The movement of radioactive waste around the world is regulated by international law and requires the agreement of en-route countries.
In the Pacific, a Greenpeace campaign team has been meeting with representatives of governments and other environmental groups to warn them of the dangers posed by radioactive transports, and the threat they pose to the environment. If it was not for the efforts of Greenpeace to expose the routes taken by these transports, on route countries could have this dangerous MOX transport pass through there waters without any notice or warning.
Greenpeace campaigners have been at work in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil - countries along past shipment routes - and the United Kingdom, where they will have to deal with this material. Material which will be radioactive for thousands of years.
Greenpeace not alone in its opposition to the shipment
A member of the US Congress representing the territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas has been raising the issue of shipment security. The people of his region are close to the likely transport route, so are justifiably concerned about their safety.
The Korean Federation of Environmental Movements (KFEM) has also actively opposed the shipment. "This proposed shipment is potentially only the beginning of a deadly new phase in Japan's plutonium program, and this time the Korean environment is more threatened than ever before," said Hwang Ildo of KFEM in a recent press release. If the shipment takes the most direct route it could come within 50km of the city of Pusan (on the Korean mainland).
A Panamanian group, Civil Society for the Environment have (ISCA) have also made strong statements opposing the transport. In the past, some nuclear material transports have gone through the Panama Canal. Greenpeace activists boarded one transport undetected under the cover of darkness as it approached the canal. When it entered the canal it was flying a Greenpeace banner.
In Fiji, a coalition of 20 religious and environment groups have protested outside the Japanese embassy to have their opposition recognised by the Japanese government.
Rising opposition
Our escort.
Daily we have see the results of this work. The governments of Japan and the United Kingdom prefer that the risks involved remained secret, but thanks to media reports around the world, and our own work, this is not going to happen.
Around the world yachts are being prepared to take part in at sea protests. In ports from Fiji, Vanuatu, Sydney, Auckland and Ireland members of the Nuclear Free Seas coalition will be taking to sea as the transport of faulty MOX fuel nears their waters. If you have a boat in one of those regions find out more about joining a flotilla.
Our role on the Arctic Sunrise is to peacefully bear witness to the departure of this life and environment threatening transport. People around the world who are working on this issue are counting on us our part, and we are determined not to let them down.
1) Greenpeace says that the faulty and rejected MOX should be classified as radioactive waste, and should not be imported. No import of nuclear waste can happen without authorisation from the Environment Agency, who must ensure compliance with international law. The Environment Agency (England and Wales) has not authorised the shipment of the material to the UK, in accordance with the Transfrontier Shipment of Radioactive Waste Regulations 1993 (as amended) ("the 1993 Regulations").
