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1,800 kg load of deadly plutonium rounding Cape Town

Adriana Stuijt Vote it up!

Pacific Heron Nuclear Transport Cherbourgh Japan March 2009 March 7 2009 - A South African political leader urgently called on African Union president Muammar Gadaffi to deny access to all African territorial waters of two heavily-armed British/Japanese nuclear transport ships, the Pacific Pintail and the Pacific Heron.

The two nuclear-materials transport freighters this month are carrying the largest-ever single load of plutonium in world history between Cherbourg in France , down the west coast of Africa to Japan.

Their lethal radioactive plutonium load of 1,800 kg is enough to produce 225 nuclear bombs.
Dr CornĂ© Mulder, the Western Cape’s provincial leader of the Freedom Front Plus party, warned from Cape Town that the two nuclear transports -- the Pacific Pintail and the Pacific Heron -- left Barrow-in-Furness in the Northwest of England at 12:30 on Friday 27 February 2009. They then loaded the plutonium in Cherbourg, France.

The transports were denied access to the Suez canal by the Egyptian government - the trip also was considered too risky around the horn of Africa, hounded by Somalian pirates.

Pacific Pintail

Two nuclear-materials transport ships, the Pacific Pintal and the Pacific Heron, are heading down the west coast of Africa from France to Japan with 1,800 kg of plutonium on board. They left Cherbourg in France in the first week of March.

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Instead the two freighters are now heading down the West Coast of Africa and plan to round Cape Town enroute to Japan soon, Mulder said. He does not want the freighters to enter South African territorial waters, he told Gadaffi.

Mulder also copied his call to Gadaffi to his own government --pointing out the extreme dangers which these two plutonium shipments pose to African coastal waters and their populations.

The Pacific Heron and the Pacific Pintail were built specifically for transporting nuclear shipments - see - and are owned by the UK government's Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited (PNTL) company. and a comglomerate of Japanese companies. They were built in 2007 and 2008.

UN-classified nuclear material
PNTL, a subsidiary of British Nuclear Group Sellafield Ltd , PNTL and a number of Japanese companies, have a fleet of ships specifically designed for only one purpose: to transport nuclear material classified by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) of the United Nations at its highest level of INF 3 class. The INF Code regulates shipments by sea of packaged irradiated nuclear fuel, plutonium and high level radioactive wastes.

They are fitted with fixed naval guns and other physical protection systems. Over the past 30 years, the company said, it has completed over 170 shipments successfully by sea. The nuclear material is shipped in specially designed packages known as casks or flasks. "The ships have safely covered more than 5 million miles and there has never been a single incident resulting in the release of radioactivity. Over 2,000 casks of nuclear material have been safely transported by PNTL." see

Refused permission through Suez canal
The two nuclear-transport ships have already been refused permission to travel through the Suez canal -- which would also have put them in danger of being attacked by Somalian pirates along the eastern coastline of Africa.

The two nuclear-transport freighters now are scheduled for travelling down the west coast of Africa and thus also will have to round the Cape of Good Hope enroute to Japan, Mulder pointed out.

African territorial waters must be protected
"It is requested that Colonel Gadaffi sees to it as head of the African Union that no African state’s territorial waters are made available to these two ships. Africa has to protect its territorial integrity at all costs."

Polonium 210 deadly poisonous
Mulder said this is the first load of MOX (mixed dioxide, a mixture of plutonium and recycled uranium) in eight years which will be shipped to Japan."This load of MOX nuclear fuel contains 1,800 kg plutonium which is sufficient to produce 225 nuclear weapons.

"We are here dealing with a material that remains radioactive for more than 2,000 years and holds a very big threat for human beings. Polonium-210 is approximately 250,000 times more poisonous than hydrogen cyanide.

1 microgram of Polonium kills an adult
"The effectively deadly dosage for Polonium is approximately 1 microgram for a person weighing 80kg.

  • "The biggest danger of Polonium is however its radioactivity," Mulder warned.
    Dr Corné Mulder tel South Africa 27 83 626 1497 see and see