Recycled Nuclear Fuel Destined for Japan Arrives at French Port Stirring Concerns. AFP, March 4, 2009. "A convoy of recycled nuclear fuel moved under police escort Wednesday to a French port to be shipped half way round the world to Japan, despite fears it could be hijacked and used in bombs. Five trucks bearing the symbol for radioactive material and protected by dozens of police vehicles arrived in Cherbourg in the early hours from a nearby nuclear reprocessing plant. The mixed oxide, or MOX, is a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium that Japan... wants to start using as nuclear fuel for the first time. French nuclear group Areva, which reprocessed the Japanese fuel in La Hague, 20 kilometres (15 miles) from Cherbourg, insists the production of MOX is safe and that it helps reduce nuclear waste. Nuclear industry players say the risk of the civilian-grade plutonium contained in MOX being extracted to make nuclear weapons is negligible. But Greenpeace has asked the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, 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 tons of plutonium, theoretically enough to make 225 nuclear bombs, making it the biggest plutonium transportation in history."
2009-03-06
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