AFP, Sydney :
A ship carrying 25 tonnes of radioactive waste arrived back in Australia on Saturday, met by activists who warned against the vast nation becoming a nuclear dumping ground.
About a dozen Greenpeace protesters, some carrying signs such as “Don’t waste Australia”, stood near the entrance to Port Kembla south of Sydney as the BBC Shanghai arrived.
Environmentalists have raised concerns about the safety of the ship, which left the northern French port of Cherbourg in October, with one French lawmaker describing it was a “dustbin ship”.
“This is not the kind of ship you would want to see transporting nuclear waste,” Greenpeace campaigner Emma Gibson, who was on board a boat following the BBC Shanghai on Saturday, told AFP. Australia sent spent nuclear fuel to France for reprocessing in the 1990s and early 2000s over four shipments, and it has now been returned for long-term storage.
A ship carrying 25 tonnes of radioactive waste arrived back in Australia on Saturday, met by activists who warned against the vast nation becoming a nuclear dumping ground.
About a dozen Greenpeace protesters, some carrying signs such as “Don’t waste Australia”, stood near the entrance to Port Kembla south of Sydney as the BBC Shanghai arrived.
Environmentalists have raised concerns about the safety of the ship, which left the northern French port of Cherbourg in October, with one French lawmaker describing it was a “dustbin ship”.
“This is not the kind of ship you would want to see transporting nuclear waste,” Greenpeace campaigner Emma Gibson, who was on board a boat following the BBC Shanghai on Saturday, told AFP. Australia sent spent nuclear fuel to France for reprocessing in the 1990s and early 2000s over four shipments, and it has now been returned for long-term storage.
