Public Interest Groups Join Together at Taiwan Mission to Protes

["Greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org>]

PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS JOIN TOGETHER AT TAIWAN MISSION TO
PROTEST TAIWAN'S PLAN TO DUMP NUCLEAR WASTE IN KOREA
 
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (GP) -- 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,        202-319-2506; or Deborah
Rephan, Greenpeace News Desk, 202-319-2492.