Takahama.
Protest in Takahama
04 July 2002
- jump to latest update -
0330 General wake up call.
0350 At breakfast word goes around that the UK High Court yesterday set a time of 10.30am UK time today (18:30 hours tonight Japan time) to hear our case.
Hopefully, BNFL will not load the cargo or sail from Takahama before the outcome of the case is known. But we will go ahead with our protest.
0410 Lutz Barbara and Toni are trying to get the kite in the air, but there's not a lot of wind.
0510 The big blue kite is up - with smaller yellow kites on the same line that spell out, "Stop Plutonium".
Kite and the Mermaid.
0625 The authorities have 11 rigid hulled inflatables (like our boats), and 10 bigger steel hulled boats (most of them with mounted guns), as far as we can see. There are likely more vessels waiting outside the bay.
0640 We launch our first inflatable - the Hurricane. Pete (the mate) is driving, Luciana is crew. The authorities come over and have a look. They satisfy themselves that nothing on the boat represents a physical threat to the safety of the transport ship.
0650 Our second boat - the Mermaid - is launched. Paul is driver, Penny is crew. The authorities check them out as well.
Tom, on the bridge of the Sunrise, talks by radio with our team on land. Listen in on the Mermaid's radio as it waits for launching.
BNFL transport ship.
0720 The BNFL ship is in sight. It's named the Pacific Pintail, and is here to pick up a load of defective plutonium MOX fuel for return to the UK.
There are now 34 police, coast guard and navy vessels that we can see from the deck of the Arctic Sunrise - plus a helicopter, of course.
There are also protesters on the breakwater pier. They have two big banners. One reads, "BNFL Never Again", and the other reads the same but in Japanese.
James talks about what he can see from the bow of the Arctic Sunrise.
0735 Two tugs have taken control of the BNFL ship and are slowly towing it towards the dock.
Luciana. The Arctic Sunrise will stay here at anchor. Check back later for more updates. The transport ship has arrived. The next question is if, as we fear, they will go ahead with loading the plutonium MOX.
1040 The first cask has been picked up by the dock crane and is being loaded into the ship. Two casks will be loaded. The real one, and a decoy.
1100 The cask is on board the transport ship.
There is a lot of media on hand, including three TV satallite trucks. They've been here all day, and it looks like they will stay to see this thing out. The local news has run live stories from Takahama, and reported that the transport ship is scheduled to leave at four pm.
Cask loading. 1245 The crane is loading the second cask.
1300 The second cask is on board the ship. (see also cask problems footnote)
1455 Lots of activity by the security forces. The are putting boats in possition.
Note on cask problems: Green Action, a Japanese environmental group, met recently with Kepco - the power company that is returning this defective fuel - with concerns about possible corrosion problems with the casks. Kepco assured them in the meeting that these casks were of a different design than similar casks, which, on thorough inspection, have shown corrosion problems.
Kepco also assured the activists that even though the casks had been used in over a dozen spent fuel shipments, and during that time were exposed to water, they would not face the same corrosion problems as the other casks. Furthermore, the activists were assured, that the casks have been visually inspected for corrosion.
Despite these assurances, some people are still concerned. For one thing, a merely visual inspection has failed to find corrosion problems in other casks. Warning signs were only detected by a more thorough inspection. Also, Kepco failed to answer questions about cask storage, and if it was exposed to the elements when not in use.
