Balisage

Subject: Radioactive waste – Cherbourg => Australia. 25,000 km to Port Kembla, near Sydney.

Panorama of the performances of BBC Shanghai, German shipowner, German classification society (Germanischer Lloyd).

« The company and the ship meet all current national and international regulations concerning nuclear safety » according to AREVA.

The BBC Shanghai is hunt down throughout the world. Cherbourg let her go with a shipment of nuclear waste.

A post-Fukushima realtime test is underway at the Areva reprocessing plant in La Hague, near Cherbourg. Safety is the priority, according to the director of the La Hague nuclear site.

In the same time, the BBC Shanghai is docked at Areva’s terminal in the Cherbourg harbor. She is preparing to be loaded with radioactive waste resulting from reprocessing of Australian spent fuel. This isn’t simulation, but the truth, a sad truth that is a significant safety risk. The most recent bad news to add to the BBC Shanghai’s heavy « criminal record » are 4 deficiencies on August 6, 2015 at Busan, South Korea and 6 deficiencies in Russia on August 11. The Tokyo Memorandum of Understanding, an Asia-Pacific regional agreement on maritime security, classifies the BBC Shanghai as a high-risk ship. Australia, the BBC Shanghai’s country of destination, is a signatory of the Tokyo Memorandum.

Robin des Bois confirms the information from Greenpeace about the condition of the ship BBC Shanghai. Areva made a very bad choice in selecting her to ship back the Australian nuclear waste. These waste were produced at the La Hague plant near Cherbourg through the reprocessing of spent fuel from the Australian atomic research reactor HIFAR (High Flux Australian Reactor). The first shipment to France dates back to January 2000. At the time, COGEMA, Compagnie Générale des Matières nucléaires, which became Areva in 2006, put forward the French flag of the chartered ship, the Bouguenais, as well as the French nationality of 5 crewmembers and the presence of an officer in charge of the radioprotection on board. In spite of these positive elements, the choice of the Bouguenais was nevertheless already questionable (1).

Only in French.

Only in French.

CMA CGM Christophe Colomb was at Tianjin from August 12 to August 17. The French container ship is expected at Southampton and Dunkirk on  September 20 and 22. She has been exposed for a long time to the air pollution that followed the explosions and fires occuring from August 12 on at the logistic areas of the Chinese port.

CMA CGM Christophe Colomb was at Tianjin from August 12 to August 17. The French container ship is expected at Southampton and Dunkirk on September 20 and 22. She has been exposed for a long time to the air pollution that followed the explosions and fires occuring from August 12 on at the logistic areas of the Chinese port.

Not far away from the Corse, on a deserted wharf, another ship is waiting for demolition. Methania was said to be already living in borrowed times in 2007, was struck by a lightning in Zeebrugge in 2008, on technical stops or in lay-up at Brest in 2013 and in 2014, and has been berthed at Marseille since mid-December 2014. Works to be carried out at Marseille repair yard were postponed. They were supposed to last for 2 months. Methania’s obsolete equipment, the availability of larger and more fuel-efficient units manned by less crews deprive her of long term or short term chartering.

The Corse, French flag, IMO n° 8003620, is for sale. Delivered in 1983 by Dubigeon Normandie shipyards at Prairie-au Duc (France), the ferry was operated by SNCM (Société Nationale Corse Méditerranée); she has mainly served the Nice-Corsica route in season and the Marseille-Maghreb route out of season.

In December 2014, after a period of shuttle service between Toulon and Corsica, she was decommissioned : the SNCM, partially privatized in 2006 and today going into receivership, did not plan to operate any further its services to Corsica from Toulon and Nice.

Only in French.