MEDIA RELEASE from Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (PCRC)
29 July 1999
PLUTONIUM SHIPMENT ON THE WAY TO SOUTH PACIFIC
Two ships carrying MOX fuel (mixed plutonium and uranium oxide) will
travel through the South Pacific in late August and September on their
way to Japan. The Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal will pass through the
Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, and then through the
Exclusive Economic Zones of island nations.
The Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (PCRC) in Suva, Fiji believes
Pacific governments must work together to halt the shipment of
radioactive materials through our seas. Any accident threatens the
marine resources of our Exclusive Economic Zones. Japan, France and
Britain are refusing to discuss compensation if there is an accident,
and have failed to conduct detailed environmental assessments of the
hazards of shipping plutonium through our region.
Mrs. Losena Salabula of PCRC says: "We believe that South Pacific
governments should work together to end all nuclear shipments through
our region. Currently, these shipments of plutonium are not banned by
the Rarotonga Treaty for a South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone, or the 1995
Waigani Convention on hazardous wastes."
"We call on member governments of the South Pacific Forum to convene a
review conference of the Rarotonga Treaty, to strengthen its provisions
against nuclear shipments and nuclear waste dumping on land. We also
believe that parties to the Waigani Convention should strengthened its
provisions, to place pressure on Japan, Britain and France to halt these
shipments."
The Rarotonga Treaty allows for the establishment of a Consultative
Committee (Article 10 and Annex 3) for the purpose of "consultation and
co-operation on any matter arising in relation to this Treaty or for
reviewing its operation". This Consultative Committee is obliged to
convene "at the request of any Party". It would be possible for any
Pacific island government to ask for the Committee to be convened.
Action could be taken at this year's South Pacific Forum in Palau.
The Waigani Convention (the Convention to Ban the Importation into Forum
Island Countries of Hazardous and Radioactive Wastes, and to control the
Transboundary movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes within the
South Pacific Region) must also be strengthened to stop transboundary
shipments of plutonium.
Mrs. Salabula added: "This September, the United Nations will be holding
a special session on Small Island Developing States. Japan, Britain and
France will be shipping plutonium through our waters at the same time.
This shows their contempt for the clear wish of Pacific island people -
we want to be nuclear-free."
ACTION ALERT - August 1999
Here they come again!
PLUTONIUM SHIPMENT ON THE WAY
Two ships carrying MOX fuel (mixed plutonium and uranium oxide) will
soon travel through the South Pacific. The Pacific Pintail and Pacific
Teal carry enough plutonium to make up to 50 nuclear weapons.
The ships left Europe for Japan in mid-July. In late August and
September, they will pass through the Tasman Sea between Australia and
New Zealand, and then through the Exclusive Economic Zones of Pacific
island nations on their way to Japan.
Background to nuclear waste shipments
The nuclear age in the Pacific is not over. In spite of the end of
nuclear testing, the region is still threatened by plans to dump nuclear
wastes on South Pacific islands. The waters of the Pacific have also
become the route for the transshipment of plutonium and high-level
radioactive wastes to Japan.
Japan has a large nuclear power industry, and it arranges for its
nuclear wastes to be reprocessed at plants at La Hague in France, and at
Sellafield in the United Kingdom (Reprocessing involves chemically
separating uranium and plutonium from used nuclear fuel, in order to
reuse the plutonium).
Shipping radioactive wastes back and forth across the oceans allows
Japan's nuclear industry to avoid responsibility for the build-up of
nuclear pollution in Japan. Many Japanese citizens are opposed to
Japan's plutonium economy. There are also many safety problems with
Japan's reprocessing industry, such as the December 1995 fire and
accident at the Monju reprocessing plant, or the March 1997 fire and
explosion at Tokaimura reactor. The Japanese reactor due to use this
current shipment of MOX fuel was manually shut down on 5 July this year,
after a leak of coolant.
The reprocessing companies - COGEMA in France and British Nuclear Fuels
Ltd. (BNFL) in Britain - are government owned and controlled, while ten
Japanese energy corporations make up the Overseas Reprocessing Committee
(ORC). These three companies own the British-based shipping firm,
Pacific Nuclear Transport LTD (PNTL), to carry the wastes to Japan by
sea. Japanese corporations Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Tokyo Electric Power
Company (TEPCO) and Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) hope to bring
tons of weapons-usable plutonium from Europe to Japan by the year 2010.
In 1992, the United States government required Japan to send an armed
warship to escort the plutonium ship Akatsuki Maru. This ship passed
between Australia and New Zealand, and then through the Exclusive
Economic Zones of Pacific island nations, including the Solomon Islands,
New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and the Federated States of Micronesia. But
today, the nuclear industry is trying to cut costs. The two
British-flagged ships are only armed with three 30mm guns and staffed
with UK Atomic Energy Authority officers. Such efforts are a publicity
stunt, and would not deter a real terrorist attack.
Because of strong protests from countries in the Caribbean and Latin
America, past shipments have avoided the quickest route through the
Panama Canal. Previous shipments of high-level radioactive wastes (in
1995, 1997 and 1998) have travelled through Pacific waters. There are
plans for up to thirty shipments in the next fifteen years, increasing
the risk of accident - unless we say NO!
Hazards of nuclear shipments
The nuclear industry is lobbying hard to say there are no hazards from
these shipments. Nuclear corporations have hired public relations
companies like Burson Marstelle to soften public opinion. Delegations
from COGEMA and BNFL have toured the South Pacific, and company
officials have lobbied at South Pacific Forum meetings.
But independent studies have raised concern over the security of the
casks carrying the high-level wastes, in the case of severe accident,
fire or sinking. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
recommends nuclear waste casks should withstand a fire of 800 degrees es
from. The ocean unites us all, as peoples of the Pacific. Our ancestors
cared for these life forms, respected them and were their guardians.
They are our guardians still."
(Statement from the Third NGO Parallel Forum, Rarotonga, Cook Islands).
Please act now, to protest this shipment of plutonium through the
Pacific!
For further information, contact:
Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (PCRC)
Private Mail Bag, Suva
FIJI
Telephone: (679) 304649
Facsimile: (679) 304755
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Green Action Japan
Suite 103, 22-75 Tanaka Sekiden-cho,
Sakyo-ku Kyoto 606-8203
JAPAN
Telephone: 81 (75) 7017223
Facsimile: 81 (75) 7021952
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (PCRC) is the Secretariat of the
Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) movement, with over 100
members around the Pacific region.
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