From Chaos to Calm In One Injunction

Given the public nature of their operations, transporters of nuclear cargos have many responsibilities to discharge, not least the safety and security measures required to protect the conveyance and its cargo. However these measures extend beyond the shipment itself, to the need to ensure the safety and security of any nuclear protestors. Transporters must recognise that individuals and organisations have a right to peaceful protest, and where those protests potentially impact directly on transport operations; transporters have a duty of care to ensure that protests are conducted safely and without risk of injury to those taking part.Transporters such as INS often have little or no warning of when a protest is going to be staged and so are unable to take planned action to limit the risks taken by protestors as such action would lead to publicity around shipment dates - international best practice as identified in INFCIRC 225 rev 5 is to keep shipment dates confidential. Consequently INS has been forced to apply for emergency injunctions through the courts to prevent protestors from coming into contact with its ship and risking injury.This paper considers how transporters can take actions to protect protestors without endangering the transport operations or the cargo. Several protests that have taken place over recent years in respect of INS shipments will be used as case studies to identify some of the extreme risks that protestors are prepared to take to the detriment of their own safety, the steps which can be taken to secure injunctions and the main issues involved.