http://www.greenpeace.or.jp/press/releases_en/pr20090518_ce_html"We call on the Japanese government and electric utilities to terminate this and future MOX fuel shipments and cease from placing en route countries at risk. We call on countries potentially on the route of future MOX fuel shipments to join us in demanding the termination of these dangerous shipments" stated BAN Hideyuki, secretary-general of Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (CNIC), Aileen Mioko SMITH, executive director of Green Action, and HOSHIKAWA Jun, executive director of Greenpeace Japan. Regional organizations which have protested past Japanese nuclear shipments include CARICOM (Caribbean Community), ACP(African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, SIDS (Small Island Developing States), and PIF (Pacific Islands Forum).
May 18, Tokyo, Japan -- Two British-flagged vessels, the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Heron arrived in Japan from France carrying 1.7 metric tons of weapons-usable plutonium contained in 69 assemblies of MOX (mixed plutonium and uranium oxide) fuel. This is the world's largest shipment of plutonium ever undertaken. MORE AT LINK
also:
Citizen Action in Japan Prevented Larger Plutonium Disaster at Fukushima http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/latest-national/23123-citizen-action-in-japan-prevented-larger-plutonium-disaster-at-fukushima-reactor-3.htmlWASHINGTON--(ENEWSPF)--March 31 - A concerted Japanese citizen action that delayed the loading of mixed plutonium-uranium fuel – known as MOX – into the core of the Unit 3 reactor at Fukushima and prevented the use of MOX at several other reactors, likely prevented a far worse outcome than is currently occurring at the troubled reactor today.
Japanese citizen groups successfully resisted the use of MOX fuel at Fukushima-Daiichi for a decade. MOX fuel was not loaded into the reactor until August 21, 2010 and the reactor began operation on September 18, 2010. Consequently, all the MOX fuel remains in the core and none of it had yet been transferred to the unprotected fuel pool.
Last August, Beyond Nuclear’s radioactive waste watchdog, Kevin Kamps, was invited by Green Action Japan and their local Fukushima anti-nuclear environmental allies to travel to Fukushima specifically to speak about the risks of storing MOX high-level radioactive waste in storage pools.
“If the citizen groups had not been successful, there would have been a 33% load of MOX at Fukushima Daiichi 3 instead of the current 5% and there would have been MOX in the spent fuel pool,” said Kamps. “The activists have saved countless lives by preventing what might have been a worse disaster than is already taking place.” MORE AT LINK