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| Greenpeace protesters in London block a ship due to carry nuclear fuel to Japan | |
July 19, 1999
Web posted at: 4:51 a.m. EDT (0851 GMT)
LONDON (Reuters) -- Britain abandoned plans to ship nuclear fuel to Japan on Monday after a standoff with floating environmental activists and a giant white elephant.
British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) said the captain of the Pacific Teal returned to berth at Barrow in northwest England because of safety concerns sparked by the overnight protest.
The ship had been due to sail to Cherbourg in France on the first leg of a voyage to Japan, where the plutonium fuel was to be loaded into nuclear power reactors.
A second ship remains in Barrow docks, and the Greenpeace environmental group said their combined cargo could be converted into 60 nuclear bombs -- more than India's entire nuclear weapons program.
Alastair Thomas, BNFL's head of transport, said in a statement, "As a company, BNFL has no problem with a peaceful and lawful protest. However we would not want to see the safety of the ships' crew, the escort team or the public at large put in danger by some irresponsible media stunt."
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| The Pacific Teal | |
BNFL said it was considering legal moves against Greenpeace and would not announce a new sailing time.
Had it sailed, the Pacific Teal would have marked the first transfer of direct use nuclear weapons material since 1992, with at least 80 plutonium shipments planned over the next decade. But Greenpeace notched up a first victory in its long-running fight to stop the shipments.
Under cover of dark, activists towed a blow-up effigy of a white elephant, excreting nuclear bombs, in front of Barrow port and set sail in two inflatables, wielding banners of protest. They were joined by South Korean environmentalists, who fear the ships will pass through the Straits of Korea en route to Japan.
Police had no immediate comment. But Greenpeace said there were some 50 police in full riot gear on site and that a British navy frigate shadowed their campaign vessel, MV Greenpeace.
"The departure of these ships for Japan leaves the government's much-vaunted 'ethical foreign policy' in tatters," said Mike Townsley, an activist on board the MV Greenpeace.
"When the industry should be concentrating on making this deadly legacy safe for future generations, it is embarking on a new and dangerous expansion with these shipments."
Opponents of the shipments fear environmental fallout, nuclear proliferation and possible hijacking on the high seas.
The Oxford Research Group, a think tank, said the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal were inadequately armed against possible terrorists or agents of a rogue state, with each vessel carrying just three cannons and a high-speed armed boat.
BNFL denied the plutonium was ever at risk and said the security arrangements fully satisfied a U.S.-Japan nuclear pact, under which Tokyo needs U.S. consent to ship plutonium.
The company said the protesters might have broken an injunction it won last week aimed at preventing Greenpeace interfering with the shipments and that further legal moves might follow. Greenpeace denied any such breach.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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