US anti-nuclear campaigners flew to Britain on Wednesday to publicise
their
legal fight against plans by British Nuclear Fuels, the UK atomic power
group, to build a $1.2bn nuclear waste incinerator near Yellowstone
National Park.
Members of Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free have filed two law suits against
the US Department of Energy to try to stop the plant, including a $1bn
class action led by Gerry Spence, the high profile attorney who has acted
for Imelda Marcos and OJ Simpson.
The move will add to pressure on the government to drop plans to sell 49
per cent of BNFL to the private sector. It comes as BNFL faces further
questions from PreussenElektra, the north German electricity company, over
the falsification of quality documents for fuel supplied to the Unterweser
atomic power plant in Lower Saxony.
The US campaign group is backed by wealthy contributors including James
Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, and Harrison Ford, the Hollywood
actor. It will deliver 350 letters of complaint against the incinerator to
John Taylor, BNFL's chief executive, on Friday.
BNFL's activities in the US are key to the government's plans to partially
privatise BNFL by the end of this Parliament.
Approval for the plans will only be given if BNFL meets safety, commercial
and environmental targets, one of which is to increase profits in the US
by
15 per cent. BNFL officials said the waste incinerator would account for
up
to 20 per cent of BNFL's US order book, which stands at between $6bn and
$9bn.
On Wednesday night, PreussenElektra was under political pressure to close
its Unterweser plant following revelations on Tuesday that fuel with
falsified documentation had been loaded into its reactor for three years.
JÄrgen Trittin, the Green party environment minister, urged the company to
shut-down the plant voluntary to allow the exchange of four fuel rods
filled with mixed oxide (Mox) fuel from BNFL's Sellafield plant.
German officials from the Lower Saxony and federal governments were
checking the legal basis to shut down the plant if PreussenElektra failed
to act voluntarily.
PreussenElektra has warned BNFL it is reconsidering its co-operation with
the UK reprocessing group.
The British government has also faced calls to improve the management and
safety of the Sellafield plant from the Nordic Council of Ministers, Japan
and Ireland.
The council, which represents Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland and
Sweden,
on Tuesday demanded urgent talks with British ministers on the future of
Sellafield, BNFL's Cumbrian plant.
Iceland is expected to raise the matter with Robin Cook, Britain's foreign
secretary, at a meeting scheduled to take place in London on Friday.
Helen Liddell, energy secretary, has admitted the partial privatisation
plans will now be delayed, although a timetable has never been published
by
the government.
A Department of Trade and Industry official said: "BNFL needs the
confidence of its customers to sell its products in the market place and
if
it hasn't got that the Public Private Partnership will not go ahead."
