British nuclear power company faces storm over ship

11.44am

Britain's state-owned nuclear power company BNFL faced international criticism today for sailing rejected nuclear fuel back from Japan, but insisted the shipment was safe from terrorists or environmental catastrophe.

The embattled industry also faced embarrassment over a government report that the cost to taxpayers of cleaning up waste and mothballing old plants would be billions of pounds more than previously estimated.

Two lightly armed BNFL ships set sail from Japan on Thursday, bearing fuel the company had shipped to Japan three years ago but agreed to take back in a scandal after it emerged that BNFL had falsified some documentation.

The shipment of potentially weapons-useable material has provoked a storm of outrage from environmental groups, and from countries that fear the shipping route -- undisclosed for security reasons -- might pass nearby.

Its journey is being monitored by a New Zealand air force plane as Defence Minister Mark Burton said the Government had been advised the two vessels would travel through international waters between New Zealand and Australia.

"We have now honoured the commitment we gave to our Japanese customers to return the fuel," BNFL head Norman Askew said in a statement promising to seek new sales to Japan, where the flap over the bogus documentation had caused widespread public anger.

It was the first transport of its kind since the September 11 attacks on the United States, and environmental groups and third party governments say the nuclear material could be a tempting target for militants on the high seas.

The company said armed guards on board, and safety measures to prevent a leak of radioactive material, had satisfied British, Japanese and US regulators that the shipment of so-called MOX mixed uranium and plutonium oxide fuel was safe.

"We're confident, as are the governments of the UK, Japan and the US ... that the plans are sufficient to meet the credible risks," said BNFL spokesman Paul Vallance.

"These are frankly the right people, rather than people with an axe to grind, to lay down the standards which we meet. These shipments are safe and secure. There's no question about that."

He said security measures were covered by international agreements, and had been reviewed since September 11.

Irish Environment Minister Martin Cullen said the shipment posed an "unacceptable risk to the environment of Ireland and the health and economic wellbeing of its population".

Its destination, the British reprocessing plant at Sellafield, is only 180km across the Irish Sea from Ireland, on England's northwest coast.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said the air force had been called in to ensure the shipment did not enter New Zealand waters.

"While acknowledging the safeguards which have been put in place, these do not eliminate risks posed by accident or by terrorist attacks," he said.

New Zealand had informed both Britain and Japan of its opposition to such shipments in the Pacific Ocean and wanted "the transport states to accept full responsibility and liability for any accident that might occur", he said.

Yesterday two Greenpeace protesters scaled the roof of the Japanese embassy in Canberra, Australia and unfurled a banner criticising the shipment.

A fleet of yachts is also due to leave New Zealand tomorrow to join a flotilla in the Tasman Sea to protest against the shipment.

The launch of the shipment came as Britain's Energy Minister Brian Wilson published a policy paper outlining plans to reform the creaking nuclear power industry.

A new state agency would be responsible for paying to clean up existing waste sites and mothball old plants, taking on huge liabilities from BNFL in what industry experts see as a move toward privatising the remaining profitable bits of the company.

Wilson estimated the total liabilities to be assumed by the new agency at nearly £48 billion ($152.81 billion) -- between £8 billion and £13 billion more than previous estimates.

The BNFL's Vallance said it was in the public interest to sweep liabilities for mothballing decades-old plants off the state-owned operating company's books, allowing it to attract investment for newer, cleaner nuclear power projects.

But Greenpeace wrote: "The creation of a new authority to bail out the nuclear industry from the £48 billion bill for cleaning up waste and decommissioning old power stations will free ... (BNFL) to expand its nuclear business and create more deadly radioactive waste."

- REUTERS