Posts Tagged "Areva"

October 2015. The BBC Shanghai, owned by Germany-based Briese Schiffahrts GmbH & Co KG, is making the headlines of the world’s maritime shipping news. She has been selected by the French nuclear operator AREVA to ship to Australia radioactive waste reprocessed in Normandy at the La Hague plant. However, the ship had a bad record regarding technical deficiencies as attested by the maritime authorities of all continents; she had been detained three times in Bilbao (Spain), Gladstone (Australia) and in March 2015 in Honolulu (Hawaii, United States). The international mobilization to demand the chartering of a safe ship will do nothing about it, the BBC Shanghai loads 25 tons of radioactive waste and leaves Cherbourg (France) on October 15 for Port Kembla near Sydney. Indonesia has denied her access to its waters. She arrived at Port Kembla on December 5 after a 25,000 km trip.

October 2015. The BBC Shanghai, owned by Germany-based Briese Schiffahrts GmbH & Co KG, is making the headlines of the world’s maritime shipping news. She has been selected by the French nuclear operator AREVA to ship to Australia radioactive waste reprocessed in Normandy at the La Hague plant. However, the ship had a bad record regarding technical deficiencies as attested by the maritime authorities of all continents; she had been detained three times in Bilbao (Spain), Gladstone (Australia) and in March 2015 in Honolulu (Hawaii, United States). The international mobilization to demand the chartering of a safe ship will do nothing about it, the BBC Shanghai loads 25 tons of radioactive waste and leaves Cherbourg (France) on October 15 for Port Kembla near Sydney. Indonesia has denied her access to its waters. She arrived at Port Kembla on December 5 after a 25,000 km trip.

Areva, a modern day pirate, keeps up maritime expeditions carrying nuclear fuels and fissile materials. The Pacific Egret is a military ship painted in blue. She disconnected her AIS on the 13th of June, 2017. An AIS (Automatic Identification System) allows one to know the position and route of a ship and is essential for maritime safety. There are no surface ships of the French Navy that currently transport cargo and a weapon as formidable as that of The Pacific Egret. Several options are possible for the seagoing voyage from Cherbourg to Japan. Once used in the bygone days of Noriega for sensitive nuclear material, the Panama Canal is no more a viable option for political reasons. Crossing the South Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and South Pacific is now the most classic way to go. With the agreement of Vladimir Putin, the Arctic North-East passage off Siberia cannot be completely excluded as an option either.

Next week, MOX fuel will be loaded in Cherbourg onto the Pacific Egret or onto the Pacific Heron with the destination of the Takahama nuclear plant in Japan. MOX contains 10% plutonium and 90% uranium.

This voyage of dangerous fissile materials across the worldwide oceans causes tension and poses risks all along the track. The point of the refuge port in case of damage or fire has yet to be solved. The ability of the modest ships from Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd to resist cyclones, tsunamis, and North Korean missiles has not been demonstrated either.

The vessel confines nuclear fire. Flamanville’s EPR* vessel in the Manche department in Western France would be subject during its 60 years life time planned by EDF and AREVA to considerable thermal, hydraulic, mechanic, and neutronic stresses. The vessel does not have to be strong; it has to be indestructible.

“The nuclear safety demonstration excludes the breakage of the vessel because no reasonable provision to restrict consequences for the reactor management, for personnel, the population and environment can be defined ” (source: report from Monitoring Group “EPR Vessel” of HCTISN, Haut Comité pour la Transparence et l’Information sur la Sécurité Nucléaire, High Committee for Transparency and Information on Nuclear Safety).