STOP PLUTONIUM - Greenpeace


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STOP PLUTONIUM

TRANSPORTATION

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Containers, trucks, itineraries and schedules

The plutonium oxide powder (PuO2) is packaged in 2 to 3 kilo stainless steel boxes. Four or five of these boxes are then placed in a yellow FS47-type container with a metal hood. Eight or ten of these containers are then placed into classic white ISO 20'' type containers.

Steel boxes containing 2 to 3 kg of PuO2	FS47 container containing 4 to 5 steel boxes
Assembly of FS47 containers	ISO 20'' containing an assembly of FS47 containers
Plutonium transportation truck carrying an ISO 20'' container

Each ISO container, transported two to three times weekly to Marcoule, Cadarache or Dessel, carries 150 kilograms of plutonium : enough to make 15 to 20 nuclear bombs.

It is very easy to identify these trucks :

- All the trucks are Mercedes. With the exception of one Actros-type truck, they are all old generation vehicles.

- The cab is always white, sometimes decorated with red or green lines.

- They are all registered in the Manche (50) or Paris (75) departments - see below.

- They are all equipped with "bumpers" (protection bar at the front of the cab).

- When they are loaded, an orange rectangle is displayed at the front and back of the trucks.

- They are marked with a simple "radioactive" logo.

- The trailer is always grey, and the container white.

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Old generation truck

Actros-type truck

List of trucks / number plates :

Cabs
66 MGX 75	3635 VZ 50	385 MTA 75
370 MTA 75	111 HNL 75	472 HTB 75
3641 VZ 50	26 MTL 75	73 MGX 75
	6163 VX 50 *

* = Actros cab

Trailers
70 MGX 75	26 HEL 75	469 HTB 75
3638 VZ 50	357 MTA 75	6171 VX 50
	78 MGX 75

The principles underlying plutonium transportation in France are secrecy and schedule and route modifications for each vehicle excursion. Therein lies the main reason plutonium shipments cannot use the railway. As the safety authority has pointed out correctly, the railway is a "rail" that precludes all escape. does the motorway provide any more leeway ? Are we not there again held between two safety rails ?

In its beginnings, these types of shipment were broken down into small quantities, and were therefore easy to dissimulate in classic small and "unmarked" cars. But things have changed. Today, industrial logic rules, and the quantities transported require an important number of vehicle rotations and installations ready for shipment and reception.

Hence, every week, the "Cogema Logistics" trucks, based next to the Armanville railway terminus at Valognes (50), each transport 150 kilograms of plutonium to installations in the South of France. The itinerary is always the same - see map (french)- and the schedules programmed like clockwork - see schedules (PDF- french).

How can it be so easy to identify these trucks? What would happen if a less pacifist organisation than Greenpeace was to take control of one of these vehicles ?

The only feasible solution in the face of the risks associated with these shipments is their immediate and definite cessation.

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La campagne Nucléaire de Greenpeace