French nuclear group Areva early on Thursday started loading a major shipment of recycled fuel onto a ship that was then to head for Japan, despite fears it could be hijacked and used in bombs. Environmental group Greenpeace said it was "the biggest cargo of fissile material ever transported.
The loading of the specially adapted Pacific Heron began in the north-western port of Cherbourg in the early hours of Thursday, shortly after the ships arrival. The convoy of recycled nuclear fuel had moved under police escort Wednesday to Cherbourg to be shipped half way round the world to Japan. A second convoy arrived early Thursday.
The mixed oxide, or MOX, is a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium that Japan, which has virtually no natural energy resources of its own, wants to start using as nuclear fuel for the first time. Areva insists the production of MOX is safe and that it helps reduce nuclear waste, and industry players say the risk of the civilian-grade plutonium contained in MOX being extracted to make atomic weapons is negligible. MOX has been used as fuel in several countries across the world for more than three decades.
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