Warships should protect nuclear cargo, protesters warn

Ireland should deploy warships into its waters in response to a nuclear cargo passing through the Irish Sea to Sellafield, environment group Greenpeace said today.

The campaign group, which has set up its headquarters aboard its boat the Rainbow Warrior in the docks at Dublin, said the Irish Navy should monitor the shipment as it reaches the Cumbrian installation from Japan.

The five tonne cargo of plutonium and uranium mixed oxide fuel has been sent back from Japan after the revelation in 1999 that safety records had been falsified at Sellafield.

Two armed ships, the Pacific Pintail and the Pacific Teal, are due to reach the Irish Sea in about two weeks carrying what some claim is enough radioactive material to create 50 nuclear bombs.

A flotilla of 10 boats, led by the Rainbow Warrior, will be launched in protest when they arrive, but Greenpeace activists insist they will not attempt to board either ship.

“Greenpeace will not interfere with the safe navigation of the ships,” said campaigner Shaun Burnie.

But he called on the Government to put London and British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, which operates Sellafield, under further pressure by deploying warships to “protect” Irish waters.

“The physical presence of the navy on the Irish Sea would send a very strong message. It is a symbolic message, a very strong message that we would encourage them to do,” he said.

Greenpeace claimed that the number of nuclear shipments between Sellafield and Japan is set to snowball in the coming years if the Cumbrian plant wins a contract to supply more plutonium to the country.

And the group called on Irish politicians to network with other governments at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg to express their opposition to this shipment and others in the future.

Mr Burnie said: “The transport of this plutonium really should be the last one. It makes no sense from an environmental perspective or from a security perspective.

“For the sake of a few millions the world is being put under threat by BNFL.

“In terms of threat, a worst case scenario for these shipments is that they are involved in a collision or there is a fire or explosion on the ship.

“At this point you are guaranteed the release of millions, potentially billions, of particles of plutonium oxide.

“If that was close to mainland you would be looking at contamination of land, leading to mass evacuation, potentially mass panic, and eventually decontamination. Although it is unclear whether any Government could decontaminate.

“So there would be economic losses in the billions and potential health consequences of cancer effects over decades. The estimate is that there would be 11,000 to 16,000 cancers,” he added.

Already 80 governments around the world have opposed the shipment. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, in particular, has told his British counterpart Tony Blair that he would like to see Sellafield closed down.

BNFL said the ships are under armed guard and the plutonium stored securely in giant flasks.

But Greenpeace claimed that the flasks were not robust enough to stand up to the average fire at sea.

“Eighty governments around the world do not believe BNFL, Greenpeace does not believe BNFL and I do not think you should,” Mr Burnie said.