27 September 1999 GREENPEACE VESSEL SURROUNDED BY JAPANESE MARITIME SAFETY COMMANDOS WHILE "BEARING WITNESS" TO DEADLY PLUTONIUM FUEL SHIPMENT
24 September 1999 GREENPEACE
URGES FUKUI PREFECTURE TO REJECT KEPCO ASSURANCES THAT PLUTONIUM-MOX IS
SAFE
22 September 1999 PLUTONIUM
SHIPS STRANDED OFF JAPANESE COAST IN BAD WEATHER; GREENPEACE URGE LAST
CHANCE REJECTION OF PLUTONIUM FUEL USE IN JAPAN
Shipment routes around Japan
Past press releases and photos
Maps
Plutonium mixed oxide nuclear fuel On 19th July and 21st July 1999, two British-flagged nuclear transport freighters left Britain and France respectively, rendezvoused at sea, and, under intense secrecy, headed for Japan. Their cargo: an estimated 446 kilograms of highly radiotoxic, weapons usable plutonium contained in 40 mixed oxide (MOX) nuclear fuel elements.
This controversial transport, planned in secret by industry and government, is the latest chapter in Japan's program to procure tens of tonnes of weapons-usable plutonium.
This transport poses significant risks to the environment and public health, yet the Japanese, French and British governments have refused to conduct an international environmental impact assessment. While dozens of coastal nations will be endangered by the transports, their governments have not been consulted about route, security or emergency planning.
Although the combined cargo contains enough plutonium to construct nearly 100 nuclear bombs (1), the freighters have no armed military escort. The Japanese government, its industrial partners Mitsubishi and Toshiba, and the Japanese electricity utilities TEPCO and KEPCO have chosen to operate in secret rather than apply open and effective security measures which would shock the public with their cost and anti-democratic nature.
Despite the appalling risks, this plutonium fuel transport fuel could be the first of many. Under current plans, some 45 tonnes of Japanese plutonium could be separated in French and British reprocessing plants for transport back to Japan by 2010. Further, Japan is considering signing new reprocessing contracts which would swell its plutonium stockpile by tens of tonnes.
The government and industry claim that such massive quantities of plutonium are needed for Japan's nuclear power program, yet, no electricity is currently produced using this plutonium and the facts reveal that there is neither technical nor economic justification for plutonium use.
Greenpeace believes that not only do such shipments endanger the environment and human health but they will open a new and potentially disastrous chapter in the story of global nuclear proliferation. For any one of these reasons they should be opposed by Governments and citizens alike.