PLUTONIUM SHIPMENT POSES SECURITY THREAT TO WORLD CUP, GREENPEACE WARNS FIFA AND JAWOC

17 April 2002

Tokyo, Japan - Greenpeace has alerted the international football authorities (FIFA) and the Japanese committee organising the World Cup (JAWOC) to a major security threat during the matches in Japan in June (1).

Enough plutonium to build 50 nuclear weapons will be loaded onto a British Nuclear Fuels ship at the Takahama nuclear power plant during June while the World Cup matches are in full swing (2). The 255 kilograms of plutonium, in the form of mixed oxide plutonium fuel, are being returned to the UK after British Nuclear Fuels Ltd admitted it had falsified safety data during its production.

In an open letter to the football authorities, Greenpeace warns that the nuclear industry’s plans to load the ship in June will divert significant security resources from the World Cup, because the shipments are themselves potential terrorist targets. The clash with the World Cup is a particular concern because security around the games has become a top priority for the Japanese authorities since the devastating terrorist attacks on September 11th.

“Those responsible for this nuclear shipment must be aware that the Japanese authorities have prioritized security for the World Cup, yet they are willing to play Russian roulette with the lives of millions of innocent people for the sake of a transport and industry that has no justification. This is completely irresponsible; all plans for this shipment must be scrapped immediately,” said Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace International.

The plutonium shipment departure from Takahama could see the ship sailing directly off the coast of Niigata, where matches involving the teams of Ireland, Sweden, Mexico, Croatia and Cameroon will be played between June 1-15th.

In the letter, Greenpeace also details the threat posed by other plutonium stored in Japan. The security of Japan’s stockpiles, located at four sites around the country, is lower than that of equivalent nuclear sites in Europe and the United States. These sites are also in regions that are either hosting national soccer teams and/or actual matches during the 2002 FIFA World Cup(3).

Plutonium is an extremely hazardous radioactive material; in the event of an accident or terrorist attack very large amounts of nuclear material would be dispersed into the environment and the consequences for the public in the vicinity would be catastrophic.

Even with a diversion of security forces from the World Cup, the security arrangements for the plutonium ships Pacific Teal and Pacific Pintail during their global transit from Japan to Britain have been described as "totally inadequate" by the prestigious Jane's Foreign Report(4). A U.S. Government study produced by Sandia National Laboratories concluded that armed terrorists could access a nuclear cargo on a ship, and use explosive charges to access the plutonium inside the transport casks (5). Dr Frank Barnaby, a former scientist with the UK Atomic Weapons Establishment, and a specialist on nuclear terrorism, believes that Japan’s plutonium stocks and the MOX shipment pose attractive and highly vulnerable targets for international terrorist groups.

"Apart from stealing the material, another more likely scenario would be for terrorists to create a radiological weapon or ‘dirty bomb’ either by firing a missile into the MOX shipment or setting off an explosive charge around the cask. The explosion and resultant fire would lead to the dispersal of a significant fraction of the plutonium and uranium oxides over a wide area. In any of these circumstances the consequences would be severe. There are major questions over the security arrangements for this shipment as well as at Japanese sites holding stocks of plutonium,” said Dr Barnaby.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Shaun Burnie – Greenpeace International +81 90 2253 7306 (mobile in
Japan), or Shaun.Burnie@ams.greenpeace.org
Dr Frank Barnaby – Oxford Research Group +44 1264 860 423
Kazue Suzuki – Greenpeace Japan +81 35 338 9800
Mhairi Dunlop – Greenpeace International Nuclear Press Co-ordinator,
Amsterdam +31 20 523 6608

2 - Plutonium MOX fuel is weapons-usable. For terrorists to convert plutonium oxide into a nuclear weapon would require approximately 35 kilograms of plutonium; if the oxide were to converted into a metal, then only 7kg would be required to fashion a bomb. However, an advanced industrialized nation, such as Japan could make one sophisticated nuclear weapon with 5kg or less. Senior Japanese politician Ichiro Ozawa stated April 6th that Japan could use its plutonium stocks to make thousands of nuclear weapons. Greenpeace estimates the number at around 7,000 bombs.

3 - More than 5000 kilograms of plutonium and MOX fuel are stored at nuclear sites in Ibaraki, Fukushima, Niigata and Fukui Prefectures. The shipment, depending upon the route chosen, could sail just dozens of miles from the training grounds of the following teams: Ireland (Shimane Prefecture), Equador (Tottori), Mexico (Fukui), and Italy (Sendai). In addition to those training grounds and soccer stadiums most vulnerable to immediate impact of an attack on either plutonium and MOX stores or the MOX shipment, other venues remain within the range where significant nuclear fallout could occur from an explosion and or fire. The Saitama Stadium, Shizuoka Stadium, the International Stadium Yokohama, as well as Osaka’s Nagai Stadium, and Kobe Wing Stadium are all well within range of significant fallout from a plutonium accident or act of sabotage.

4 - see Jane’s Foreign Report May 13th 1999.

5 – The United States Sandia national Laboratories, in conjunction with Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore, completed a report (“Proliferation Vulnerability Red Team Report”, October 1996), which included a theft scenario in which terrorists intercept a military cargo of radioactive waste in transit and quickly gain access to a shipping cask of canisters containing glass logs and embedded plutonium.