The British Government's decision today to allow BNFL to open the Sellafield Nuclear Fuel Fabrication Plant (Sellafield's Mox Plant) is a dangerous and coslty failure of imagination" said London's Green MEP, Jean Lambert.
On Tuesday Blair was telling his Party Conference that climate change could be defeated and "with imagination, we could use or find technologies that create energy without destroying our planet". On Wednesday, we get MOX - a dirty and dangerous fuel made from highly toxic mixed uranium and plutonium. It needs armed guards to transport it to customers by sea, where it's a sitting target for terrorists. Aircraft won't carry it and our Government shouldn't touch it. It is not a clean, green fuel but a toxic timebomb. What was Blair imagining if this is his answer?
ENDS
Steve Rackett, 020 7407 6280 / 0776 997 0691
Note: Spencer Abraham, the US energy secretary told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference, held in Vienna last month, that "terrorists will attack any target, so no one will be immune. and clearly terrorists will use any method.... we expect the members of this body to prohibit nuclear exports in cases where there is a significant risk of diversion.", and Dr Frank Barnaby, a nuclear physicist working for the Oxford Research Group told the conference "It's crazy to give permission to open a Mox plant under these circumstances." An IAEE spokeswoman acknowledged that was practically impossible to protect nuclear plants from an attacks similar to those in New York and Washington. (Source - the Guardian, 18th Sept 2001)