Protests as Australia ships nuclear waste to France
Amid protests and under cover of darkness, Australia dispatched a load of used nuclear fuel to France in the first overseas shipment of Australian radioactive waste in two years.
A convoy of five trucks carrying 344 spent nuclear fuel rods crossed suburban Sydney under heavy police guard before dawn and loaded the waste aboard the French ship Fret Moselle, which quickly departed, officials said.
The convoy was protected by police and emergency vehicles, motorcycles and helicopters in a major security operation "probably bigger than anything Sydney's ever seen," Greenpeace spokesman Danny Kennedy said.
French firm Cogema's contract is to extract and retain enriched uranium and send intermediate-level radioactive waste back to Australia for long-term storage at a site yet to be determined -- likely to be Aboriginal homelands in South Australia.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment