PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS JOIN TOGETHER AT TAIWAN MISSION TO PROTEST TAIWAN'S PLAN TO DUMP NUCLEAR WASTE IN KOREA

WASHINGTON February 14th, 1997

Greenpeace, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) and the Multinationals Resource Center (MRC) today joined together to protest a plan by Taipower, Taiwan's electric company to dump nuclear waste in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). In calling for an end to nuclear waste trade, the three Washington-based organizations joined with vocal opposition by environmental groups in Taiwan and South Korea.

In a demonstration with Taiwanese and Koreans, the three organizations gathered with signs, banners and mock nuclear waste barrels in front of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative's Office (TECRO) in Washington to appeal to Taiwan to immediately halt the deal. If Taipower proceeds with its plan, 60,000 barrels nuclear waste could be shipped to an abandoned coal mine in North Korea in as early as two weeks. Up to 200,000 barrels in total could be shipped and dumped on North Korea.

"It is the height of irresponsibility by Taiwan to dump nuclear waste on North Korea," said Tom Clements of the Greenpeace nuclear campaign. "Taiwan must halt its exploitation of the economic and food crisis in North Korea and cancel plans to dump nuclear waste in that country."

Taipower, which operates six reactors of US design (GE and Westinghouse), is confronted with the problem faced by the nuclear industry worldwide - what to do with a growing mountain of nuclear waste. In Taiwan, spent nuclear fuel removed from the reactors is stored in crowded pools at the reactor sites and the remaining waste, improperly dubbed "low-level" has been dumped on Lan Yu (Orchid) Island, a small island 40 miles off the southwest coast occupied by the Yami, an indigenous Pacific people. The Yami have valiantly struggled to halt the dumping of nuclear waste by Taiwan.

"Low-level" nuclear waste contains a host of deadly and long-lived radioactive isotopes, yet is often casually dumped by many countries. Taipower has refused to conduct an environmental study about the plan and has chosen the coal mine in North Korea simply out of expediency.

The plan by Taiwan is simply the tip of the nuclear waste problem in Asia, according to Greenpeace. South Korean plans to dump nuclear waste on an island off the northwest coast was defeated last year after vigorous protest by environmentalists as well as North Korea. Japan continues to ship its spent nuclear fuel to plutonium reprocessing plants in Britain and France, where weapon-usable plutonium is removed and large amounts of nuclear waste are discharged into the atmosphere and sea. Japan is currently involved in a shipment of high-level glassified nuclear waste, currently headed toward Australia and New Zealand after rounding the Cape of Good Hope last week. Citizens and governments of nations along the shipment route have protested Japan's current waste shipment, expected to arrive next week in the Tasman Sea.

As the US supplies Taipower with uranium under the US-Republic of China (Taiwan) nuclear cooperation agreement, the role of the US in the nuclear power industry of Taiwan is substantial. The US has so far not stated a position on the shipment but has expressed concern about its impact on the nuclear deal brokered with North Korea. With the involvement of Greenpeace, NIRS and the MRC, and growing ties with environmental groups in Korea and Taiwan, the pressure from the US to stop the plan will grow.

For more information contact:

Tom Clements - Greenpeace International Nuclear Campaign +1 202-319-2506;

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