Media Release
For release Monday, January 17, 2000
 
 

Ottawa - Environmentalists today condemned the federal governmentís unprecedented decision to transport weapons plutonium fuel by air. The weapons plutonium fuel, part of AECLís MOX ìtest burnî plan, crossed the U.S.- Canada border Friday by land transport and was flown by helicopter from Sault St. Marie to Chalk River, Ontario.

Kristen Ostling of the Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout stated, ìIt is outrageous that the Chrétien government has allowed plutonium to be flown over communities who have expressed their opposition to the plan. The decision flies in the face of the democratic process and the right of Canadians to have input into major policy directions. The MOX scheme is about propping up Canadaís dying nuclear industry. Both the test and full-scale project should be cancelled.î

The possibility of transporting MOX plutonium by aircraft was never discussed in any of the AECL plans submitted to Transport Canada and made public this fall (Section 7 of the AECL Canadian Transportation Plan for the PARALLEX Project - Los Alamos to Chalk River Shipment, dated August 1999, states that, ìhighway transport was the only mode considered in the current Canadian evaluation.î) The decision to move from land transport to air was likely made to avoid blockades and protests expected in many communities along the land transport route from Sault Ste. Marie to Chalk River.

U.S. law prohibits MOX plutonium flights over its territory in connection with the Parallex project, because of the risks associated with an air crash. The option of flying MOX plutonium to Canada was explicitly rejected in project documentation prepared by the U.S. Department of Energy.

ìThe plutonium fuel overflight was a completely unnecessary risk,î Elizabeth May of the Sierra Club of Canada stated. ìThe decision to undertake plutonium transport by air, is yet another example of how Jean Chrétien has furthered the interests of the Canadian nuclear industry at the expense of the public interest. We have already seen this happen in connection with the sale of CANDU reactors to China, were seeing it happen again here. The Prime Minister has shown his utter contempt for First Nations and other communities along the route in opting for an overflight with zero consultation.î

Irene Kock of the Nuclear Awareness Project noted that AECL and the federal government are proceeding with the test even though the United States plans to use its MOX in its own reactors and Ontario Power Generation has indicated that it will not use MOX fuel. ìThe only logical explanation is that AECL wants to be able to tell prospective CANDU reactor owners that they can use plutonium fuel too. The use of plutonium fuel will increase the risk of diversion of nuclear fuel to weapons.î

Kock added, ìCanada must work for a global ban on plutonium production. Instead the Chrétien government is fostering a plutonium economy.î
 
 

For further information please contact:

Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout, 613-789-3634
Sierra Club of Canada, 613-241-4611
Nuclear Awareness Project, 905-852-0571

CNP Backgrounder on the plutonium fuel (MOX) plan

Excerpts from AECL and U.S. DoE documents on MOX and air transport

Map of Transport Routes

Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout
cnp@web.net