Fridays Sellafield protest with photos

national | miscellaneous | news report

Monday April 29, 2002 11:06

by Andrew - The Struggle Site

Report and pictures of the embassy demonstration on Friday in Dublin

Sellafield protest

A small protest took place in Dublin on Friday afternoon to mark the departure of two ships from Barrow-in-Furness to Japan. Greenpeace describing the shipment said it "may prove to be the most controversial nuclear shipment to date. They travel to Japan to collect and return to Sellafield 225 kg of plutonium contained in 8 MOX fuel assemblies which were rejected for reactor use because critical safety checks and data had been falsified."

The ships started out on the 16th Anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. At the British embassy a hand appeared through a slit in the bunker style gatehouse to accept the protest letter. At the Japanese embassy two of the staff actually came out and formally accepted the letter, perhaps they were pleased that they could now hold their heads up at inter-embassy parties when the subject of protests came up?

There were three banners on the demonstration including one in Japanese. Tim Hourigan who had prepared it translated the slogans as reading
"The nuclear industry is evil"
"Dangerous" "Dirty" "Insane" and "We hate it"

For a discussion on the tactics that are needed to shut Sellafield see
http://struggle.ws/a_news/an27sellafield.html

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Comments (4 of 4)

Class banners!!

by Eoin Dubsky

Mon Apr 29, 2002 13:18

Well done to everyone who made it, and especially to the people who made those banners. I love the "Manga not Mox" one! :-) haah haah haah

nice one

by ciara

Mon Apr 29, 2002 13:19

well done, keep it up

Brief translations.

by Tim Hourigan - Gluaiseacht, L4C, Green Party

Mon Apr 29, 2002 23:44

As well as the Japanese banner that was shown above, I also managed to write a letter in Japanese (despite the bumpy ride on the bus from Limerick).

I handed the letter to an embassy official who seemed rather pleasantly surprised to get a formal complaint handwritten in his own language.

I didn't get time to make a copy,but I remember the bones of it. (fairly basic as my Japanese is rusty)

Basically the letter outlined our opposition to Sellafield, BNFL and MOX.
It stated that BNFL hopes to send a lot of MOX to Japan in the future.
- that BNFL had a bad safety record,
- had many accidents,
- had a poor reputation, and of course had falsified safety data on MOX shipments.
It stated that MOX is a repugnant, repulsive poison with many problems.
That the Irish sea is now a very radioactive sea.
It also stated that recently there was a fire on one of the PNTL ships that is used by BNFL to transport the nuclear garbage around the world.
As these ships must pass close to our homes, their is great opposition to them here.
1,200,000 Irish people sent "Shut Sellafield" postcards last week.

Basically it urged Japan not to use MOX as it is dangerous and dirty. It urged Japan to remember the fatal accident at Tokaimura nuclear plant and asked if this is how Japan wishes the world to remember it.

The letter was very politely accepted by an embassy official who promised to forward it to the ambassador.

I'll let you know if I get a reply.

representing the rest of us.

by roisin - Clare enviro.alliance

Wed May 01, 2002 12:08

roisinnig at yahoo dot com

c/o byrts, attycristora, lahinch, clare

08603732929

fair play lads ye're great. Though not physically there with ye in spirit. Tim your talents are endless. Japanese and all! Good photos of planes aswell!

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Fridays Sellafield protest with photos

Comments (4 of 4)