SUVA — Greenpeace welcomes the announcement that an international Nuclear Free Seas Flotilla has formed to protest the shipping of deadly plutonium material across the world’s oceans, a media release said.
The skippers of dozens of vessels from Australia, New Zealand, South America and Ireland are congratulated for taking action to alert governments to this threat to our marine environments and coastal communities, Greenpeace said.
“These brave skippers are doing what our governments need to do—take action to protect us and our oceans from the risk of a dangerous and unnecessary plutonium shipment through our region,” said Greenpeace Pacific nuclear campaigner Angenette Heffernan.
The most likely route is through the Pacific and Tasman Seas, with a strong possibility that the ships will cross into the exclusive economic zones of several Pacific island nations.
The shipment was rejected by Japan in 1999 because it was discovered that British Nuclear Fuels falsified safety data, making it dangerous to use as fuel for nuclear power plants. The ships carry enough plutonium to make 50 bombs, and pose a huge security risk.
“This is clearly dangerous experimental material that has already passed through this region once on its way to Japan. It is unacceptable that it can just cruise through the Pacific without even consulting en route countries, or an environmental impact assessment,” said Heffernan.
The Carribean Council for Foreign and Community Relations is also deeply concerned by “the most controversial nuclear shipment in history.” In a statement issued on May 6 the Council stressed that “the threat of a nuclear accident or nuclear terrorism is very real,” and that it was “inconceivable that these dangerous shipments should be allowed to continue on a routine basis, without regard to the obvious and escalating risks to which they expose all societies in their transit path.”
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clarke has already expressed strong opposition to the shipment to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
