SYDNEY — On Wednesday, three flotillas from the Pacific, Cape Horn and the Irish Sea announced their intention to protest against the shipment of rejected plutonium mixed oxide waste due to leave Japan for the United Kingdom in early July, a media release from Pacific Flotilla said.
The rejected plutonium MOX shipment, containing 255 kgs. of weapons-usable plutonium is being returned to the U.K. after British Nuclear Fuels admitted to falsifying critical safety data after the fuel had arrived in Japan in 1999.
The route the return shipment will take from Japan back to the U.K. is still unknown, but whichever route it takes a protest flotilla will be there to meet it, Pacific Flotilla said.
If it is the Pacific and Tasman Sea route, the shipment is expected to pass through the protest zone in mid July. At least eight boats are preparing in Australia and New Zealand to form a symbolic chain across international waters to protest the shipment through the Pacific and Tasman Sea.
If the Cape Horn route is chosen, the five boats that currently make up the Cape Horn flotilla will be braving the winter weather off the Horn to send their message of protest. Whichever route the shipment takes to the U.K. the boat will have to go through the Irish Sea to reach its destination and there it will meet the Irish flotilla.
Seven boats formed the Tasman Sea flotilla last year when a second shipment of plutonium MOX, this time from France to Japan passed through. The Pacific Pintail carrying the plutonium MOX fuel changed course to avoid the flotilla.
“The flotilla movement has grown in just a year,” says Bernard Kuczera of the Pacific Flotilla. “Sailors all around the world are joining the coastal states that are already protesting these totally unnecessary and dangerous shipments.”
The quality of the plutonium MOX that was delivered to Japan last year has also been called into question. Public referenda and concerns over the use of MOX in Japanese reactors have meant no MOX fuel that has been delivered to Japan has been used.
“As part of the flotilla I have the opportunity to act in a positive way against the nuclear industry. I am completely against the plutonium shipment transiting through these wild southern seas, which I know really well and where serious problems may occur. One is never 100 percent sure of the sea…this is true at Cape Horn or on any other route,” says Olivier Pauffin from the Cape Horn flotilla.
“We feel so strongly about this shipment that despite it being winter, we will join together with the other flotillas around the world to demand that our seas and our oceans are nuclear free,” said Pascal Grinberg, also of the Cape Horn flotilla.
“Quite simply the Irish Sea is not a dumping ground for the U.K. nuclear industry. The Irish people will not be bullied into accepting this—it is unjust and ultimately offensive,” said Rowan Crossey from the Irish flotilla. “People are uniting all over the world to stop these shipments.”
