Explosives were sent to France. See article below:
U.S. Nuclear Material Unloaded in France
AP/The Spokesman Review | 10-07-2004 | Frederic Veille
Posted on 10/07/2004 11:13:52 AM PDT by lilylangtree
CHERBOURG, France--Working under tight security from helicopters and police, port crews unloaded U.S. military plutonium from a British ship on Wednesday after its arrival in northwest France, nuclear industry officials said.
The nuclear material was unloaded from the Pacific Pintail while another ship in the convoy, the Pacific Teal, remained at bay following its role as escort vessel and decoy. The two heavily armed vessels left from Charleston, S.C., on Sept 20.
"The plutonium is going to now be unloaded with the greatest precaution," said Henri Jacques Neau, a spokesman for Cogema, the French company responsible for treating the plutonium, moments before the unloading. It was to be taken to a processing plant in the La Hague by way of a secret itinerary, he said.
A small flotilla of boats from environmental group Greenpeace mounted a peaceful protest against the arrival of the shipment in the Normandy port of Cherbourg at about 7:20 a.m. local time.
"This shipment of weapons plutonium is a wake-up call to the world," said Tom Clements of Greenpeace International. "Rather than ship this dangerous material worldwide now is the time for aggressive steps to halt proliferation of all nuclear weapons materials."
Greenpeace led a string of protests against the shipment of military-grade plutonium taken from U.S. nuclear warheads.
Cogema initially said 308 pounds of plutonium was being shipped, but U.S. officials later said the figure was 275 pounds.
The highly radioactive substance has been brought to France for conversion into a commercial fuel called MOX at the Cadarache factory in southeast France.
On Tuesday, a dozen people holding a "Stop Plutonium" banner chained themselves to a truck and blocked a regional highway leading to the Cogema company plant, where the plutonium is to be treated.
France's state-of-the-art nuclear technology is being used to help fulfill the terms of a September 2000 U.S.-Russia disarmament accord in which both countries promised to destroy 34 tons of military plutonium.
so they were protesting the destruction of potential nuclear weapons? hmmmm