GREENPEACE CONDEMNS UK DECISION TO TAKE BACK FALSIFIED PLUTONIUM FUEL FROM JAPAN
Enroute nations at risk from nuclear transport

11 July 2000

LONDON -- Greenpeace condemned the announcement in Tokyo today that the British Government has agreed to take back plutonium MOX fuel from Japan, saying it was unnecessary and threatened the environment of countries along the transport route.

The MOX fuel, a mixture of uranium and plutonium, produced by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) at the Sellafield nuclear site in the UK, was delivered to Japan last October. Despite repeated denials from BNFL and the owners of the fuel, Kansai Electric Power Company, it was finally admitted in December last year that vital quality control data had been falsified during its production. Kansai Electric, immediately abandoned plans for loading the nuclear fuel in its nuclear power plant, Takahama-4. Early this year, Kansai and the Japanese government demanded that that MOX fuel be returned to the UK.

"The agreement to return the MOX fuel is a desperate attempt to secure vital contracts for the new, but unopened, Sellafield Mox plant, which so far has less than 7% of its order book signed, and no Japanese contracts," said Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Shaun Burnie. "Today's announcement threats the health and environment of the many countries along the MOX transportís global route."

Last year's shipment from the UK, on board the armed transport ship Pacific Pintail, took over two months and 18,000 miles via the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, the Tasman Sea, between Australia and New Zealand and the South Pacific. Over fifty countries opposed the shipment from passing through their seas.

Rather than shipping the MOX fuel, which contains approximately 225kg of plutonium, sufficient for 40 nuclear weapons, Greenpeace advocates that the fuel be treated as nuclear waste in Japan. Immobilization of the plutonium in a vitrification plant at Tokai- mura north of Tokyo would be technically possible, though unpopular with local residents. "A technical solution to this problem exists in Japan, but this is not about solutions - it is about the trade in weapons-usable plutonium," said Burnie.

While the agreement to take back the MOX fuel is an attempt by BNFL to rebuild its relationship with its important Japanese clients, there remain enormous uncertainties over the company's business prospects in Japan. Over the past months it has been revealed that falsification of quality control standards at Sellafield has been underway since the mid-1990's, not just for Japanese clients, but also German and Swiss companies. Greenpeace has charged that the original falsification was driven by fundamental production problems, not the boredom of workers as claimed by BNFL, and that the technology used by BNFL is not able to guarantee high quality nuclear fuel. This applies to both BNFL MOX plants, including the 300 million sterling but unopened Sellafield MOX Plant, SMP.

"What the UK government and BNFL do not understand is that the MOX business makes no economic sense, uranium is far cheaper and less dangerous to use in nuclear reactors than MOX fuel" said Burnie. "This shipment is being made to save an industry that has no future. Rather than generate more international opposition to Britain's plutonium industry and government policy, this plan should be scrapped," said Burnie.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
- Shaun Burnie - Greenpeace International Nuclear Campaign - 00 31 629 001133 (dutch mobile)
- Copy of Greenpeace critique of UK government investigation into MOX falsification available upon request.