GREENPEACE ATTACKS UK/JAPAN PLANS TO SHIP PLUTONIUM FUEL

GREENPEACE ATTACKS UK/JAPAN PLANS TO SHIP PLUTONIUM FUEL
"Any country with a supply of plutonium fuel has a short cut to the bomb", says Greenpeace

19 January 1999

London -- Plans announced by the Energy Secretary, John Battle, to ship weapons usable Mixed Oxide (MOX) nuclear material from Sellafield to Japan, are ill-conceived, environmentally dangerous and will further destabilise relations in East Asia, warned Greenpeace today (1).

Greenpeace believes the proposals that the two Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd ships "would carry armaments for defensive use only, under the control of specially trained officers of the UK Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary" is woefully inadequate and could in no way guarantee the safety of this weapons usable material.

"Clearly the UK, French and Japanese Governments are placing the so-called commercial interest of the international plutonium industry before those of international security and environmental safety," said Mike Townsley of Greenpeace.

Under the terms of the nuclear-cooperation agreement between the US and Japan, a transportation plan for any shipment containing plutonium is subject to U.S. approval, when the fissile material was extracted from nuclear fuel originally supplied by the U.S. for use in Japan's power reactors.

In 1992, the United States required Japan to use a gunboat to escort a shipment of plutonium from France to Japan, in a ship called the Akatsuki-Maru. Japan is pressing the U.S. not to require an armed-escort vessel for this coming shipment by arguing that the same stringent physical protection standards need not apply, because the plutonium has been converted into MOX fuel. But high-ranking US Officials have confirmed that these physical protection requirements apply to both MOX fuel and plutonium and that any "alternative security measures" are unlikely to be acceptable for the entire voyage (2).

Plutonium is a key ingredient of nuclear weapons. There is ample evidence that reactor-grade plutonium can be used to fabricate nuclear weapons. Less than eight kilograms is enough to construct a bomb. The plutonium in fresh MOX fuel can be separated from the uranium by straightforward chemical means.

"This transport undermines international negotiation about to get underway in the United Nations to end the production and use of nuclear materials for nuclear weapons," warned Townsley. "The UK, France, Japan and the US should move immediately to end the proposed trade in plutonium under the guise of MOX, and instead concentrate their efforts on ensuring that the UN talks are a success in the interest of both current and future generations."

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Mike Townsley +44 1835 840 234 or mob. +44 411 607 597

- Two Greenpeace International campaigners are currently en-route to Japan to begin a series of high level discussion's with Japanese Government Departments and public interest groups and can be contacted from January 20th at +81 3 53 51 54 00 (Greenpeace Japan)

Visit Greenpeace International's Nuclear Transport campaign website: http://www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/transport.html

(1) The transport ships are also expected to collect Mox fuel from the French reprocessing plant at La Hague. The MOX fuel in this particular shipment will be produced at Sellafield in the small Demonstration Mox Plant. The larger Sellafield Mox Plant is still awaiting Government approval before it can start operation. It is thought that this larger plant has yet to secure any contracts for MOX fuel fabrication from Japanese utilities, although, of course this kind of information is commercially confidential.

(2) US State Department officials - Under-secretary of State John Whitehead in 1988 and then Acting Secretary of State Strobe Talbott in 1996 - have confirmed that the physical protection requirements apply to both MOX fuel and plutonium.