Plut Ship to Avoid Caribbean & Panama Canal

[The.Greenbase@gb.greenpeace.org]

>> PLUTONIUM WASTE SHIPPERS BOW TO POLITICAL PRESSURE,


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                    GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE
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>> PLUTONIUM WASTE SHIPPERS BOW TO POLITICAL PRESSURE,
  AVOID CARIBBEAN SEA AND PANAMA CANAL, GREENPEACE REVEALS    
 
PANAMA CITY, March 6, 1995 (GP) After 12 days of tracking a
shipment of highly radioactive plutonium waste in the Atlantic
Ocean, Greenpeace today announced that the shipment will avoid a
confrontational transit through the Caribbean Sea and Panama
Canal on its dangerous journey from France to Japan.
  
Responding to widespread public and government protest in the
Caribbean against the shipment, the Pacific Pintail bypassed the
Panama Canal route and is reported Greenpeace's Bas Bruyne, on
board the Solo, to be between the African and South American
continents, 600 miles northeast of the Brazilian city Natal, and
1,000 miles southwest of Freetown in Sierra Leone, West Africa. 
Last week, Greenpeace revealed that the ship had, in fact,
originally filed the necessary papers to transit the canal.  
The Pintail is travelling due south at 13.5 knots.  It is unknown
if the shipment, which left Cherbourg, France on February 23,
will travel via South America (Cape Horn) or South Africa (Cape
of Good Hope).
 
"The united voice of the Caribbean has proved victorious in
stopping more powerful governments from transporting plutonium
garbage through their region," said Greenpeace's Tom Clements at
a news conference on board the Rainbow Warrior near the Panama
Canal.  "This must be the first step in the creation of a zone
free of plutonium and nuclear waste shipments through the
Caribbean, as called for by the 13-country Caribbean Community
(CARICOM)." 
 
Greenpeace is also urging Panama not to allow spent nuclear fuel,
plutonium, and plutonium waste through the Panama Canal, which
fully reverts to Panama in the year 2000.   
 
Countries along the South American and South African routes have
issued protest over the ship's passage near their shores to
governments of Japan, France and Britain. Greenpeace has called
for nations along both potential routes to oppose the shipment to
protect themselves from the risk on the transit of the Pacific
Pintail's deadly cargo.
 
"Countries along the South American and South African routes must
now protest loudly against the passage of not only this deadly
cargo but any future nuclear shipments as well," said Bas Bruyne
from the Greenpeace ship Solo.  
 
Japan, France and Britain have remained secretive about the
shipment, refusing to not only reveal the route but to answer
basic questions about safety and liability. The vitrified
by-product of the plutonium reprocessing industry is so deadly
that a person standing next to the unshielded material would
receive a lethal radiation dose in less than a minute.
 
This shipment is the first of 50 or more shipments from France
and Britain to Japan.  Japanese spent nuclear fuel is secretly
shipped from Japan to Europe, where weapons-useable plutonium is
removed and stockpiled.  
 
Greenpeace is encouraging countries around the world to call for
a halt to the plutonium industry at the United Nation's April
review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in New York. 
 
"The NPT must be strengthened to stop the plutonium industry--a
dirty business which threatens the global environment and
international security," said Clements.  
 
Greenpeace's ship MV Solo will continue tracking the Pacific
Pintail to alert en route countries to its transit. The Rainbow
Warrior, which has been in Panama for two weeks awaiting the
arrival of the plutonium waste ship, will depart Tuesday for New
Zealand.
                               -end-
Contact: 
Tom Clements, Greenpeace, in Panama: ++507-64-3333, room 606;
Damon Moglen, Greenpeace, Paris: ++33-1-4770-4689;
Blair Palese, Greenpeace Communications: ++44-171-833-0600;  Bas
Bruyne, Greenpeace, on board the Solo: ++871-130-1166 
(place as for an international call, cost is approx. $10/minute);
Tim Andrews, Greenpeace USA: ++1-202-319-2494.
 
FOR DAILY INFORMATION AND MAPS OF THE PACIFIC PINTAIL'S ROUTE,
PLEASE ACCESS GREENPEACE'S WORLD WIDE WEB HOMEPAGE ON: 
HTTP://WWW. GREENPEACE.ORG/