LONDON, Feb 20, 2000 - Greenpeace today called on Britain's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate to release all information and data relating to the falsification of safety data of nuclear fuel by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) which was sent to Germany.

Greenpeace understand that 4 assemblies of plutonium uranium oxide (MOX) fuel are loaded in the Unterweser reactor, in northern Germany (the only German plant using BNFL plutonium fuel). The fuel was shipped on the roll-on-roll off cargo vessel, Arneb in October 1996. It is estimated to contain around 100-120kg of plutonium, plus approximately 2 tons of uranium.

The disclosure that BNFL nuclear fuel safety scandal extends to Germany follows recent British government answers to parliamentary questions that revealed that nuclear fuel with falsified safety data had also been sent to Switzerland in 1997 where it was loaded into the Beznau nuclear reactor. In separate incident another batch of BNFL MOX ruptured in the same reactor in 1997. The operator removed the fuel after detecting abnormal levels of radiation.

The confirmation of the falsification of MOX fuel sent to Germany was contained in a reference in the UK government's report on MOX falsification released Friday, that MOX fuel produced in 1996 contained falsified quality control data(1). BNFL only produced MOX fuel for Germany in 1996. However the report failed to provide details of MOX fuel provided to Switzerland and Germany, instead it concentrated on fuel manufactured for Japanese client, Kansai Electric.

All three client countries of BNFL's MOX Demonstration Facility - Japan, Germany and Switzerland - have received plutonium fuel that is not safe to use due to vital quality control checks having been missed. Kansai Electric has abandoned plans to use the 8 fuel assemblies now in Japan, and is demanding their return to Britain.

"This is further damning evidence against BNFL's plutonium business, as well as the UK and German authorities", said Simon Boxer of Greenpeace International. "For almost four months BNFL denied that that plutonium fuel shipped to Japan had been falsified, the UK regulators have so far failed to provide any details on either Swiss or German falsification. The German authorities have apparently made insufficient checks, telling Greenpeace only last week that everything was normal," said Boxer.

"All of the relevant quality control data for MOX produced for Germany, and Switzerland, must be publicly released so that it can be independently scrutinized," said Boxer. "The nuclear industry and the regulators cannot be trusted to do a thorough job."

Greenpeace contacted the German authorities last week in Lower Saxony which oversee the Unterweser reactor. They stated that they had been informed by the reactor's operator, electrical utility PreussenElektra, about the data falsification problem last autumn. The Lower Saxony authorities stated to Greenpeace that they had looked at the fuel data and found no anomalies.

Before closing its own MOX fuel production plants, Germany produced MOX fuel at the small Hanau plant which was closed in 1995 after a series of accidents. A new 1.1 billion German marks MOX plant at the same site never became operational due to environmental opposition.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT SIMON BOXER ON ++ 31- 6-212 96918, PETE ROCHE 0171 865 8229, (mobile) 44-780 1212965 Notes: 1 - The NII report in Para 15 states - "In late 1995 the plant produced fuel to a different design which was manufactured throughout 1996 for a German utility."

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