The call comes following the announcement that three flotillas of small yachts across the globe intend to oppose the upcoming shipment of unsafe plutonium from Japan to Europe.

“Although the return route this shameful shipment will make back to the UK still remains a secret, the Governments concerned can be assured that the world will be watching. The determination of people around the world to show their dissent and stop this dangerous trade in bomb-material is a strong signal to the UK and Japan to abandon their plans immediately,” said Simon Boxer of Greenpeace International.

The ‘Nuclear Free Seas’ flotilla movement against plutonium transports was launched last year in the South Pacific with protests in the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia, as well as in Fiji. This year it has now spread to South America’s Cape Horn, and the Irish Sea.

The nuclear shipment is a rejected plutonium Mixed Oxide (MOX) shipment, containing 255 kilograms of weapons-usable plutonium produced by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). After admitting to falsifying critical safety data after the fuel had arrived in Japan in 1999, the UK Government agreed to ship it back thousands of miles to the UK. The two armed nuclear freighters, Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal are currently bound for Japan and are expected to arrive as early as June 8th. One ship is then expected to pick up its cargo faulty plutonium MOX from the Takahama nuclear reactor, then both ships will depart for the UK.

For further information:
- Simon Boxer, Greenpeace International Nuclear Campaigner in Sydney +31 629 001132
- Mhairi Dunlop, Greenpeace International Nuclear Press Co-ordinator in Amsterdam +31 65 350 4731

Visit www.nuclearfreeflotilla.org