Nuclear Free Seas Flotilla
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The Atlantic flotilla is made up from concerned citizens and sailors in the USA and in France (Click here to go to French Website) who want to put a stop to the transport of nuclear materials and nuclear proliferation

Their aims are:

1. To foster and encourage environmental awareness about the dangers of the transport of nuclear materials, and in particular, the threat to the Atlantic coasts of France and the USA and public health of people in these regions.
2. To foster and encourage legitimate, peaceful protest activities to bear witness to and publicise any form of nuclear proliferation likely to pollute or damage the health of humans or the environment

In Charleston S.C, the main support for the flotilla is formed by a strong group called Citizens against plutonium (CAP). They are the movers and shakers in getting the US side of the flotilla on the water. Their website: www.noplutonium.org

In France the Atlantic flotilla is made up from a group of people/sailors concerned whit the safety aspects of this transport, and the direction that the nuclear industry is heading in their country.

In the 1995 flotilla to Moruroa - the French nuclear test site in the Pacific- 14 of the boats came from New Zealand. It is these same people who are redoubling their efforts to alert people and politicians around the world to the dangers of shipping Plutonium/MOX fuel and nuclear waste across the high seas. In 2001 seven boats from Australia and NZ formed the Nuclear Free Tasman Sea flotilla to protest the shipment of plutonium/MOX fuel from France to Japan. In 2002 the flotilla is organising once again to protest a return shipment of reject plutonium MOX from the 1999 shipment.

A second flotilla has formed in South America and so far is five boats strong. The Cape Horn route has also been used in the past. If the Cape Horn route is chosen for the return shipment of reject plutonium MOX in 2002 it will mean that the flotilla will be braving the southern ocean off Cape Horn for their protest.

The Irish have long opposed the reprocessing at the Sellafield facility on the Cumbrian coast, which pumps millions of liters of radioactive discharge into the Irish Sea every year. The recent licensing by the UK of the new Sellafield MOX plant has resulted in a legal challenge by the Irish and the return shipment of plutonium MOX to the UK will be met by a third flotilla of boats from Ireland.

Protests at sea continue to be a significant part of the Pacific's effort to become truly Nuclear Free. During the French nuclear testing programme at Moruroa (1960 - 1995) sailors from all nations in tiny boats risked their lives, year after year, sometimes alone, sometimes in small flotillas sailing into the bomb test zones to alert the world to the danger. It wasn't until 1995 when the world watched as 32 small sail boats from nations around the world ringed Moruroa, that the nuclear bomb testing finally stopped for good and France signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

In Europe during the 1980s sailors and seafarers together with Greenpeace took to the sea to protest the dumping of nuclear waste at sea. These efforts along with pressure at the international level resulted in a permanent international ban on the dumping of nuclear waste at sea in the 1990s.

In 2001 the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal departed France for Japan with a cargo of Plutonium/MOX. Part of their journey was through the Tasman Sea which separates Australia and New Zealand. To avoid the controversy that their presence creates they stayed outside the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of these countries. To avoid entering Australia's EEZ they passed through international waters only 80 miles wide, between Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island.

It was in this stretch of water that the Tasman Sea flotilla formed a symbolic chain to protest the passage of these ships through the Tasman. The flotilla did not obstruct the ships but sent a strong message to Japan, the UK and France that people want our seas and oceans to be nuclear free.

In April 2002, the Pacific Teal and Pacific Pintail departed the UK for Japan. This time the two armed UK freighters will pick up a cargo of rejected plutonium MOX and plan to return it to the UK. The ships plan to pick up the material, in Japan in June, and return it to the UK by August. The material is being returned solely because after being shipped as fuel to Japan in 1999 it was revealed that the manufacturer, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL), had falsified critical quality control data during its production.

As of May 2002 no announcement of the route the return shipment will take has been made. No emergency plans have been shared with coastal states and no environmental impact assessment has been undertaken. If the Pacific and the Tasman Sea is the route the ships are expected to pass through mid-late July. If the route is around Cape Horn the ships are expected to pass end July/early August.