source: www.3news.co.nz
Thu, 24 Jun 2010 - By Patrick Gower
Ships carrying nuclear material have long been the targets of protest and now the secret is out that ships carrying uranium are coming in and out of New Zealand.
Greenpeace will not rule out taking its anti-nuclear battle to the seas again.
“We'll take it up against the government, but in terms of any action, we don't usually give people a heads-up on that beforehand," says Bunny McDiarmid from Greenpeace.
Finding a vessel to take action against will be no problem, with shipments of the uranium ballooning from one a year in the past to one a week this year.
“I think one shipment is too many,” says Ms McDiarmid.
The shipments also came through New Zealand ports under Labour even though their former leader David Lange made uranium a dirty word.
So we asked Labour leader Phil Goff what would Mr Lange think of this?
“I don't think David Lange would have had a concern about that. He was not against other countries using nuclear energy as a form of electricity generation,” says Mr Goff.
But Mr Lange would never have known, the shipments were kept quiet even from the government and gave Prime Minister John Key a shock.
“Well when I first became Prime Minister, I was surprised to hear they were taking place. I didn't think that was going to be the case,” says Mr Key.
Opponents are most concerned about the uranium being used in weaponry. Key has the answer to that - trust the Australians.
“It can’t be used for ulterior motives, because the Australians under their law don't allow it,” says Mr Key.
So uranium is still a dirty word to some but you can sense a more relaxed political attitude in the air.
It's okay to transport the raw material, but the finished product must stay banned.
