PostedSeptember 2, 2022, 9:00 PM
FranceTransport of nuclear fuel imminent
A shipment containing a highly radioactive substance will leave Wednesday for Japan via the port of Cherbourg, according to Greenpeace.
A photo taken on June 5, 2018 shows the logo of the French multinational group specializing in nuclear energy and renewable energies, Orano, at the entrance to the Orano nuclear waste reprocessing plant in Beaumont-Hague, in the northwest of France.
AFP
MOX, a nuclear fuel composed in particular of plutonium, a very radioactive substance, will leave “Wednesday” from the port of Cherbourg, in the north of France, for Japan, said Friday Greenpeace. The Orano group only confirmed that MOX would leave Cherbourg “soon”. “The specialized vessels Pacific Egret and Pacific Heron of the British shipping company PNTL” (Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited) will participate, the company said. Orano had already confirmed in August that it was preparing to transport MOX to Japan, but without specifying where it would leave or on board which ship.
Prohibition to approach
According to Greenpeace, the fuel will leave the Orano factory in La Hague, 20 km from Cherbourg, overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, to reach the port. An order from the president of the Cherbourg court prohibits “anyone” from “disrupting” the transport of this MOX from the plant to the port. It is forbidden to approach within 250 meters of the road convoy. Concerning the vessels providing the transport, it is forbidden to approach them within 300 meters in the port of Cherbourg, and within 500 meters at sea within the limits of French territorial waters. These prohibitions are accompanied by a penalty payment of 75,000 euros per person and per violation found.
High-risk transport according to Greenpeace
For Greenpeace, “in a world today extremely destabilized, in crisis both with Russia and today with China and Taiwan, transporting such dangerous materials from the point of view of nuclear proliferation is completely irresponsible” . “Orano and its industrial partners have a long experience of this type of transport between Europe and Japan”, underlines for its part the French group. “The plutonium contained in the MOX is not the same as that used by the military”, according to the company. For Greenpeace, “we can perfectly” make a bomb with this plutonium. “The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency, editor’s note) said so,” says the NGO.
Eighth delivery
This is the 8th shipment of MOX from France to Japan. The last departure of MOX from Cherbourg for Japan dates from September 8, 2021. The MOX which will leave for Japan was made from spent fuel in Japanese nuclear power plants. According to Orano, MOX is a nuclear fuel that allows the recycling of spent fuel. It is in fact made from materials derived from fuels irradiated in power stations to produce electricity. It represents only 10% of the fuel used in French power plants, according to Orano.
(AFP)
