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2:02pm (UK)
Pop Star Joins Chorus of Anti-Sellafield Protest
By Mark Sage, PA News
Pop star Jim Corr today became the latest of a string of celebrities and politicians to voice opposition to a nuclear shipment which is due to arrive in Sellafield within weeks. The songwriter and guitarist with pop group the Corrs said he was outraged at the cargo, which is being shipped to the Cumbrian installation from Japan. Corr was one of dozens of protesters who set sail from Dublin today in a protest flotilla led by the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior. Before setting sail, the musician, who lives in County Louth, almost directly across the Irish Sea from Sellafield, said: ?It is an outrage, it is an absolute outrage.
?People are very, very concerned. There has been a very high rate of leukaemia, particularly around Dundalk and Carlingford in Ireland.
?If nuclear energy were a safe energy source, I would not be against it.
?But the problem is that it is not a safe energy source, it has been proved time and time again, by Three Mile Island, by Chernobyl and so on.
?These ships are not capable of withstanding a terrorist attack and they are not capable of withstanding a fire.?
He added: ?I think we should be looking at more alternative energy sources like wind power, wave power and solar power.?
The five-tonne shipment of plutonium and uranium mixed oxide fuel was sent back to Sellafield from Takahama, Japan, after it emerged in 1999 that incorrect safety records had been produced at the Cumbrian plant.
A long line of celebrities including Bob Geldof and Ali Hewson, wife of U2 frontman Bono, have already campaigned against Sellafield and the nuclear shipment.
The Irish Government has also expressed anger and is engaged in an on-going campaign, including legal action, to close down the nuclear plant.
British Nuclear Fuels, (BNFL), which operate Sellafield, insists that the nuclear shipment is safe from an accident or terrorist attack.
The two ships, the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal, are protected by armed guards and are equipped with 30mm cannon.
But Greenpeace campaigner John Bowler said: ?Sellafield to me is the worst, dirtiest, most arrogant of all the nuclear facilities worldwide.?
He expected more boats to join today?s 20-strong flotilla by the time the cargo shipments arrived in the Irish Sea.
He added: ?We are not going to stop this particular shipment and at this stage we would not want to turn it around and send it half way around the world again.
?This shipment will come through. We have not tried to stop it coming through, but let it be the last one.?
The environmental campaign group claim that as many as 16,000 cancers could be caused if an accident allowed the radioactive material to escape from the cargo ships.
Activists will be among the flotilla as it attempts to find the two cargo ships when they arrive in the Irish Sea within the next two weeks, but Greenpeace has pledged that none of its members would attempt to board the vessels or hinder their journey.
Meanwhile, Dublin Lord Mayor Dermot Lacey promised to seek answers from the Irish Government as to why the Royal Navy frigate HMS Northumberland was allowed to dock in Dublin within view of the flotilla launch.
Amid the on-going row with the British Government over Sellafield, Mr Lacey said: ?At a minimum I think it is unfortunate that it is here. I will be raising questions.?
2:02pm (UK)
Pop Star Joins Chorus of Anti-Sellafield Protest
By Mark Sage, PA News
Pop star Jim Corr today became the latest of a string of celebrities and politicians to voice opposition to a nuclear shipment which is due to arrive in Sellafield within weeks. The songwriter and guitarist with pop group the Corrs said he was outraged at the cargo, which is being shipped to the Cumbrian installation from Japan. Corr was one of dozens of protesters who set sail from Dublin today in a protest flotilla led by the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior. Before setting sail, the musician, who lives in County Louth, almost directly across the Irish Sea from Sellafield, said: ?It is an outrage, it is an absolute outrage.
?People are very, very concerned. There has been a very high rate of leukaemia, particularly around Dundalk and Carlingford in Ireland.
?If nuclear energy were a safe energy source, I would not be against it.
?But the problem is that it is not a safe energy source, it has been proved time and time again, by Three Mile Island, by Chernobyl and so on.
?These ships are not capable of withstanding a terrorist attack and they are not capable of withstanding a fire.?
He added: ?I think we should be looking at more alternative energy sources like wind power, wave power and solar power.?
The five-tonne shipment of plutonium and uranium mixed oxide fuel was sent back to Sellafield from Takahama, Japan, after it emerged in 1999 that incorrect safety records had been produced at the Cumbrian plant.
A long line of celebrities including Bob Geldof and Ali Hewson, wife of U2 frontman Bono, have already campaigned against Sellafield and the nuclear shipment.
The Irish Government has also expressed anger and is engaged in an on-going campaign, including legal action, to close down the nuclear plant.
British Nuclear Fuels, (BNFL), which operate Sellafield, insists that the nuclear shipment is safe from an accident or terrorist attack.
The two ships, the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal, are protected by armed guards and are equipped with 30mm cannon.
But Greenpeace campaigner John Bowler said: ?Sellafield to me is the worst, dirtiest, most arrogant of all the nuclear facilities worldwide.?
He expected more boats to join today?s 20-strong flotilla by the time the cargo shipments arrived in the Irish Sea.
He added: ?We are not going to stop this particular shipment and at this stage we would not want to turn it around and send it half way around the world again.
?This shipment will come through. We have not tried to stop it coming through, but let it be the last one.?
The environmental campaign group claim that as many as 16,000 cancers could be caused if an accident allowed the radioactive material to escape from the cargo ships.
Activists will be among the flotilla as it attempts to find the two cargo ships when they arrive in the Irish Sea within the next two weeks, but Greenpeace has pledged that none of its members would attempt to board the vessels or hinder their journey.
Meanwhile, Dublin Lord Mayor Dermot Lacey promised to seek answers from the Irish Government as to why the Royal Navy frigate HMS Northumberland was allowed to dock in Dublin within view of the flotilla launch.
Amid the on-going row with the British Government over Sellafield, Mr Lacey said: ?At a minimum I think it is unfortunate that it is here. I will be raising questions.?
