Nuclear waste ship sails for Australia despite safety fears
A ship carrying nuclear waste to Australia has left a French port despite warnings from environmentalists concerned about “deficiencies” in the vessel.
The BBC Shanghai cargo ship, carrying 25 tons of reprocessed nuclear waste, left the northern French port of Cherbourg on Thursday and is due to reach Port Kembla, south of Sydney, on November 27.
The 14-year-old ship left the port after approval from local French authorities, who conducted an inspection on Wednesday.
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO) said in a statement on Friday that a full inspection of the ship had revealed no problems that could prevent it from sailing.
However, several environmental campaigners have expressed concern about the safety standards and deficiencies in the vessel.
‘Dustbin ship’
Denis Baupin, a senior lawmaker with the French Green Party, had earlier called for the shipment, sent by France-based company Areva, to be halted.
“Areva, almost bankrupt, are using a dustbin ship to carry waste, without any serious inspection!” Baupin tweeted shortly before the ship left the French port.
Yannick Rousselet, of Greenpeace France, has also said the BBC Shanghai “should not be used” to transport the nuclear waste.
Nathalie Geismar, from the French environmental campaign group Robin des Bois (Robin Hood), said other ports had found a “staggering number of flaws” in the ship.
This is while Bernard Monnot, Areva’s external relations director, said some small flaws identified during the inspection had been fixed.
The ship is carrying radioactive waste from spent nuclear fuel sent from Australia to France for reprocessing in the 1990s and early 2000s.
ANSTO has said the material would be kept at the Lucas Heights facility in southern Sydney until a nuclear waste dump site is found and constructed.
Controversies surrounding the transportation of radioactive wastes have sparked protests by environmental activists across the Western countries in recent years.
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