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Thursday
Jul062017

Floating nuclear plants and plutonium on the high seas 

As if the idea of a floating nuclear power plant wasn't insanity enough -- read this week's news of a possible fire on board a Russian one under construction -- there is also a plutonium cargo under sail. Two heavily armed British gunships departed the UK last Sunday for France where they picked up 16 mixed oxide fuel assemblies (a mixed uranium-plutonium reactor fuel) that are now en route to delivery in Japan. Over the years, these high security-risk, floating nuclear bombs have been vigorously opposed by UK watchdog group, Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment and others. As Martin Forwood of CORE stated: "the need for this level of armed security brings home the reality of the very real and significant dangers of transporting plutonium -- in this case enough for around one hundred nuclear weapons  --  and demolishes the industry's complacent and short-sighted claim that such shipments pose no risks." More