Success of Flotilla Protests signals a new era in anti-Sellafield Activism

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday September 17, 2002 16:20 by Graham Caswell - IMC Ireland caswell at indigo dot ie

Sellafield CAN be Closed

The dramatic success of the Nuclear-Free Seas Flotilla offers hope of a new era of anti-Sellafield activism as intensive corporate media coverage penetrated even the British corporate press. Backed up by Greenpeace's skilled abilities in using corporate media, the drama of small boats searching the Irish sea to tell BNFL's ships to fuck off was irresistible even to the BBC (who's reporters expressed anger at the restrictions imposed on their reporting by headquarters).

The flotilla consisted of 20 boats included small sailing boats, luxury yachts, a rusty old trawler hired by the Pembroke Anti-nuclear Alliance and Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior - backed up by half a dozen 'Ribs' (small and dramatic 'rigid inflatable boats'). The boats assembled in Holyhead last Friday and, after a spectacular 'sail-by' display for the corporate media, set out at 4am on Sunday morning.

A Greenpeace spotter plane flying out of Cork airport has got a positive identification on the ships off Portugal on Thursday, but could not find them on Friday, or Saturday. Because of the uncertainty of the nuke ships location it was decided (through a democratic decision of the skippers of the boats involved) to split the flotilla into two with half going north to Barrow (where the nuke ships were heading) and half going south into the Irish Sea.

While the northern group headed straight for Barrow to wait for the inevitable arrival the southern group of 9 boats plus the Rainbow Warrior went hunting. They met in the middle of the Irish Sea on Sunday and then moved south in a line about 20 miles at a time. The line spaced the boats about 4-6 miles apart - just within sight of each other while the rainbow warrior, which has a powerful radar system on board, went ahead to try and spot the plutonium ships. The flotilla was buzzed at low altitude by RAF Nimrod surveillance aircraft each day at sea and was constantly aware of the monitoring of radio traffic. To confuse the British authorities a phantom boat was invented (the 'Tiama') and co-ordinates for meeting points were passed from boat to boat rather than read over the radio.

The main point of the whole exercise was to provide dramatic fodder for the corporate media cameras and thus get their attention focused on the dangers of continuously producing large quantities a unimaginably toxic radioactive substance with a half-life of 250,000 years (that's 50 times the length of recorded human civilisation). Unfortunately plutonium isn't very photogenic, unlike dramatic activism on the high seas.

In any event it was vital to meet the ships in daylight for the cameras. Since the ships need a high tide to enter the port at Barrow the flotilla knew that if the ships were planning to arrive at a certain time they would be entering the Irish sea 18 hours beforehand. After the spotter plane saw the ships off Brest in France we knew they would be entering the southern part of the Irish sea sometime yesterday afternoon. The flotilla then positioned itself across the Irish sea from Rosslare to Pembroke and waited.

While we were waiting dolphins came and played around the boats, but about 3 pm the Rainbow Warrior's radar showed two large ships approaching to the West, very close to Irish territorial waters. The entire flotilla line moved west to block them and at least three yachts managed an intercept to get the valuable photos and footage that was the point of the whole exercise. After days of tension the relief and excitement of finding the toxic ships and giving them our message was exhilarating. Even though the flotilla had been at sea for days and people were running on only a few hours sleep the radio cackled with congratulatory traffic. before heading home to Arklow we drew alongside the Rainbow Warrior to refuel for the last time and were passed champagne by the captain along with the cans of diesel.

Meanwhile, brave protestors at Barrow had been chaining themselves to the roof of the visitor's centre and, on arriving home this morning the news was full of the other half of the flotilla meeting the ships at Barrow. All around a job well done by everybody involved.

Despite the success of the flotilla action Greenpeace's main researcher of the nuclear industry is not optimistic about closing or even stopping the nuclear industry. In his view, a powerful 'high priesthood' ideologically devoted to nuclear technology is acting from irrational and highly dangerous motives. For these people, to give up on nuclear energy is to give up on 'progress' and the perfectibility of mankind through technology. To them, nuclear technology is a powerful symbol of man's power over nature and they will go to great lengths to defend it (even falsifying safety data!).

But, nevertheless, the idea of 10 little boats tracking down and standing up to two massive BNFL ships is a powerful one. BNFL is in financial difficulties. British Energy - Britain's main operator of nuclear plants, is dependant on taxpayer subsidies to avoid bankruptcy. Tokyo Electric - BNFL's main MOX customer, has been found to have been forging safety data (sound familiar?) and has suspended its MOX programme 'indefinitely'. 72% of British people believe that government subsidies should be going towards wind energy instead of nuclear.

And now, after the flotilla, more people are more aware and more empowered. We CAN close Sellafield.