14th November 2005 updated February 2006

Deadly radioactive fuel will be shipped next year through South West waters on a 19 year old merchant vessel, the Atlantic Osprey that was never designed for the job. Greens claim that it is far too dangerous and a possible target for terrorists. It is planned to send Switzerland a consignment of mixed oxide fuel (MOX), recycled nuclear fuel made from a cocktail of uranium and plutonium, the raw material of nuclear bombs.

Philip Booth, a Gloucestershire Green party spokesperson said: "MOX contains plutonium and is considered so dangerous that when it travelled from Britain to Japan and back, armed convoys were used on purpose-built ships with double hulls, twin engines, twin propulsion systems and twin radar - and was protected by naval guns. Yet the Atlantic Osprey has just a single hull, is thought to have a single engine and is not expected to have an armed escort. If there was an accident or terrorists were able to cause an explosion the consequences would be terrible with many thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people contaminated."

Dr David Santillo, an Exeter University-based senior scientist with Greenpeace Research Laboratories, commenting in the Western Daily press said: "This is completely irresponsible. It seems completely bizarre that BNFL would consider it less hazardous to do a shorter journey to mainland Europe than to Japan. The English Channel is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. There is just as much chance of a collision there as in a longer journey over open sea. This smacks of a lowrent operation (i)."

Philip Booth added: "The risks of an accident are too great. We agree with the Irish government that the Sellafield MOX Plant should be shut down and these transports stopped."

UPDATE 1st February 2006: Maritime union Numast is warning of 'alarming signs' of a decline in safety standards around the UK coast. And fears have been raised about the nuclear shipments that also use the shipping lanes en route to France: "This is the second collision inside a month, but it's more frightening when you think these are the same waters which the Pacific Pintail and her sister ship, which carry nuclear waste, use."
See Guernsey Press and Star 1st February 2006
http://www.thisisguernsey.com/code/shownewsarticle.pl?ArticleID=000162

Notes:

(i) See Western Daily news item

(ii) The nuclear authorities have already confirmed that there had been a fire in the engine room of the Atlantic Osprey in 2002 while it was undergoing sea trials. In the previous shipments Japan rejected the cargo after discovering that data about the fuel's quality had been falsified and it had to be returned.