MOX Ships have departed _THIS_ morning

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday April 26, 2002 13:32 by Barry O'Donovan - Gluaiseacht fgod at email dot com 087-2320437

Update and Greenpeace press release

MOX ships have departed from Barrow on a journey to secure the future of the sellafield MOX plant.

In an ill-timed move which smacks of BNFLs astounding arrogance and indeed removal from reality, this morning, the 16th anniversary of the worst recorded civilian nuclear disaster two ships depearted from Barrow-in-Furness in West Cumbria near Sellafield.
These ships are begining what may prove to be the most controversial nuclear shipment to date. They travel to Japan to collect and return to Sellafield 225 kg of plutonium contained in 8 MOX fuel assemblies which were rejected for reactor use because critcal safety checks and data had been falsified.
This fuel will then be transported through international waters (on an unspecified and potentially uncertain route) and through the Irish sea to sellafield, at which point BNFL prevarication and mis-information cause the issue to become confused.
BNFL have publicly stated that the fuel will be put into storage and its eventual disposition is undecided, whilst the British Government in their submission to the ITLOS last November stated that no shipments related to Sellafield MOX plant would take place until Oct. 2002 at the earliest. Alternately, in submission to the US congress to get approval for the shipment BNFL stated that the plutonium was to be extracted and remanufctured into new fuel assemblies for shipment to Japan, whilst the Japanese government has said that this shipment is essential to any orders being placed with the Sellafield plant.
One wonders wheter it is the public or private BNFL which gives such solemn assurances that the shipment will be safe. Such shipments have gone 'missing' before!

For background information see :
http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=2501
http://intellit.muskingum.edu/intellsite/israel_folder/israelplumbatop.html

See also Greenpeace press release on this:
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/contentlookup.cfm?CFID=35505&CFTOKEN=85265595&ucidparam=20020426120745