CORE (Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment) has roundly condemned the decision by Ministers to allow production of nuclear weapons useable plutonium fuel at BNFL’s £250M loss-making Sellafield MOX Plant as being dangerous and disgraceful.
Following recent US events and subsequent world warnings about nuclear weapons use by terrorists, the decision by British Ministers to allow operation of SMP contradicts the Prime Minister’s own call for the trade in nuclear technology and capability to be stamped out (i) The decision, which openly encourages plutonium proliferation and poses an unwarranted and direct threat to the safety of the global community will be condemned internationally.
“ By giving the go ahead to plutonium peddling BNFL, the British Government has dramatically increased the prospect of the terrorist nuclear action that it has said must be stamped out “ said CORE today. “The damning and detailed economic evidence against SMP’s economic viability has also been ignored by these Ministers, with almost 90% of SMP’s order book shunned by a world that increasingly distances itself from separated plutonium and the reprocessing operation which recovers it. No contract for MOX fuel has been secured from Japan – the one country on which BNFL has always rested its overstated case for the plant “ (ii, iii and iv).
BNFL applied to Copeland Borough Council for permission to build the £470M plant in 1992. Since then, prospects for MOX fuel have diminished as utilities have turned away from reprocessing on cost and safety grounds. No UK power station plans to use MOX. BNFL’s claim of a ‘Net Positive Value’ for SMP of £306M has been reduced by successive Government-appointed consultants to £230M in 1998 and further to £199M in 2001. The correct application of the £470M construction costs makes SMP a loss-maker and a plant that has failed the European legal requirement that its benefits outweigh its costs.
No orders have been secured from Japan since quality assurance data for MOX fuel produced in BNFL’s test facility was falsified by Sellafield workers in 1999. Japanese utilities continue to state that they have no plans yet to enter any MOX negotiations with BNFL whom they, and the public in Japan, consider to be unreliable and untrustworthy MOX suppliers
Notes:
i. “ .. we know also that there are groups or people, occasionally states, who trade the technology and capability for such (chemical, biological, nuclear) weapons. It is time this trade was opposed, disrupted and stamped out.” [Prime Minister to the House, 14.9.01]
ii. “ Without Japanese orders we cannot justify opening the MOX plant …. we have until next January or February (2001) to convince the Japanese, otherwise we shall have to abandon the project (SMP) “. [BNFL Chief Executive Norman Askew, Guardian Newspaper 15.9.00,]
iii. “ We repeat there are absolutely no discussions with BNFL concerning contracts. There are absolutely no documents that state that we will promise to have fuel manufactured by BNFL at SMP “ [Teruo Komatsu, Eneergy Public Relations Manager, Kansai Electric Power Company – a member of Japan’s Oversees Reprocessing Committee, 25.4.01]
iv. “ It is noteworthy that BNFL’s reports consistently distort the accurate meaning of policy statements of JAEC’s long-term programmes .. to persuade the UK government that SMP will bring forth economic benefit for BNFL and the UK. [ Prof Yoshioka, member Japan Atomic Energy Committee which advises Japanese Government, September 2001]