Anti-Nuke Flotilla Meets in Hollyhead

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday September 13, 2002 15:38 by Graham Caswell - IMC Ireland caswell at indigo dot ie 087-3037467 (texts only)

Protestors Plan strategy and wait for Plutonium Shipment

At least 15 boats from Ireland and Wales joined the Greenpeace flagship vessel Rainbow Warrior in Hollyhead today to prepare to intercept the plutonium Mox shipment expected to enter the Irish sea shortly.

Boats from Wexford, Arklow, Dublin, Dundalk and Wales congregated in Hollyhead yesterday and today to join the Rainbow Warrior in delivering a clear message to British Nuclear Fuels that shipments of radioactive Mox plutonioum through the Irish sea are not acceptable.

Boats crossed the Irish sea yesterday and last night in moderate but choppy conditions. The crossing took about 10 hours. The boats are identified by flotilla flags and banners with 'Irish Sea Nuclear Free' and such like.

Greenpeace has a spotter plane tracking the Mox shipment and yesterday's position put it 900 miles south of us - 2 or 3 days away. However the ships will likely play tricks to avoid publicity. They may try to pass at night, or even go up the West coast of Ireland and come down to Sellafield past Scotland. They could try to pass tomorrow, or wait until the middle of next week - we don't know.

The ships are carrying a cargo of plutonium Mox - one of the most toxic substances known. Mox is a fuel for nuclear plants made from reprocessing nuclear waste. British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. is trying to build a business selling this stuff and had sold a batch to Japan two years ago. However BNFL were discovered to have falsified crucial safety data. Since the Japanese can't trust the stuff so they are returning it (however it now transpires that the Japanese nuclear authorities were also falsifying safety data).

The purpose of the protest is to make it very clear that BNFL will not get away with transporting this toxic material around the world.

Protestors met today onboard the Rainbow Warrior to plan strategy and get acquainted. With the rainbow warrior as a base, we now wait for the shipment to arrive in the Irish sea. Everything that we do will be safe and legal. However the transportation of such highly toxic materials will not pass unnoticed.

Gluaiseacht have organised a land-side action in Barrow, near where the boats will land. If you want to go over to Barrow ring Dom or Barry on 00447714200895

The goal of the exercise is to raise public awareness. however, while awareness is high in Ireland here in Hollyhead almost nobody is even aware of the existance of the flotilla and only one local newspaper has covered the story.

I'm posting this from the public library in Hollyhead and will post further updates when possible.

(Factoid: The half-life of plutonium (i.e. the time it takes to lose half of its radioactivity) is %) is 50 TIMES longer than the entire recorded history of human civilisation.)