BNFL’s Japanese MOX fuel customer Kansai Electric has confirmed that it has washed its hands of the 8 MOX fuel assemblies fabricated at Sellafield’s MOX Demonstration Facility (MDF) and controversially shipped to Japan last summer. Kansai Electric has announced its plans to return the plutonium fuel, subject of quality assurance data falsification by MDF workers, to Sellafield because BNFL had violated procedures used to make the fuel. The internationally condemned plutonium shipment, destined for Kansai’s Takahama reactor No 4, left BNFL’s marine terminal at Barrow Docks on 19th July 1999 on the specially armed PNTL ship Pacific Pintail accompanied by the similarly armed Pacific Teal as escort. Forced to sail the ‘long way round’ to Japan by world-wide opposition, the voyage took 75 days – almost twice as long as the standard trip by PNTL ships to Japan. A CORE spokesperson said today: “ We are totally opposed to the return of this rejected plutonium fuel on grounds of accident and terrorist action during its re-shipment. BNFL’s MOX incompetence is subjecting en-route nations for a second time to the risks of these dangerous plutonium transports. What was billed by BNFL last year as the first of many showpiece plutonium shipments to Japan has turned into a catalogue of shame and embarrassment for the company who now face the ultimate international humiliation of having to take back the fiddled fuel and all the problems associated with its return. “ The date for the return of the plutonium fuel remains uncertain until Kansai Electric receive the necessary transport approval from the United States, France and other signatories. The fate of the fuel is also unknown once it returns to Sellafield, though it is understood that Kansai Electric now consider it to be no more than a waste product. The falsification scandal has already significantly delayed BNFL’s future MOX business with Japan and may well lead to an outright rejection of BNFL as a trustworthy fuel fabricator – with serious consequences for any remaining hope of operating the new Sellafield MOX plant. CORE added “ Yesterday’s confirmation by BNFL that some MDF managers also now face diciplinary action is a clear signal that the falsification ethic in MDF goes much further than originally admitted, and that the 3 workers already scapegoated were dismissed as a way of covering up much wider spread incompetence. “ For further information contact CORE on 01229 833851, 01229 716523 (home) or 0789 999 1146 (mobile)