French nuclear group Areva early yesterday started loading a major shipment of recycled fuel onto a ship that was to head for Japan, despite fears it could be hijacked and used in bombs.
Environmental group Greenpeace said it was “the biggest cargo of fissile material ever transported.”
The loading of the specially adapted Pacific Heron began in the northwestern port of Cherbourg in the early hours of yesterday, shortly after the ship’s arrival.
PHOTO: AFP
The convoy of recycled nuclear fuel had moved under police escort on Wednesday to Cherbourg to be shipped halfway round the world to Japan. A second convoy arrived early yesterday.
The mixed oxide (MOX) is a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium that Japan, which has virtually no natural energy resources of its own, wants to start using as nuclear fuel.
Areva insists the production of MOX is safe and that it helps reduce nuclear waste. Industry players say the risk of the civilian-grade plutonium contained in MOX being extracted to make atomic weapons is negligible.
But Greenpeace has asked the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to stop the shipment of “an extremely dangerous and proliferating substance,” saying it is “unsafe and unnecessary.”
It says the recycled fuel to be sent to Japan contains 1.8 tonnes of plutonium, theoretically enough to make 225 nuclear bombs, making it the biggest plutonium transportation in history.
Greenpeace had unsuccessfully tried to block the last French MOX convoy to Japan in 2001.
Areva has confirmed the shipment is being prepared, but not its exact size, nor when it would leave for Japan.
MOX has been used as fuel in several countries across the world for more than three decades.
The nuclear fuel reprocessed by Areva came from three regional Japanese power companies and is intended for use at light-water reactors in southern and central Japan.
Japan, which relies on nuclear power plants for nearly a third of its power demands, has also built its own reprocessing plant, which is expected to begin operating soon.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS