Posts Tagged "BBC Shanghai"

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.

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).