Leaked Document Reveals Deadly N-Waste Wouldn't be Salvaged

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

LEAKED DOCUMENT REVEALS DEADLY NUCLEAR WASTE WOULD NOT BE
SALVAGED  
Sydney, February 18, 1997: Greenpeace today released a leaked
document which reveals that British, French and Japanese
authorities will not salvage a controversial nuclear waste
shipment on its way past Australia should it sink. The document
was leaked to Greenpeace as the British- flagged "Pacific Teal"
steams towards Australia and the Tasman Sea carrying highly
radioactive nuclear waste from France to Japan via South Africa
and the Southwest Pacific.
 
The Pacific Teal is transporting 40 blocks of glassified
"plutonium waste" containing some 20,500,000 curies of
radioactivity.  The waste is a by-product of the separation of
weapons-useable
plutonium from Japanese irradiated nuclear reactor fuel
processed at the French La Hague reprocessing plant. The
material is so deadly that a person within one metre of a single
unshielded waste block would receive a fatal dose of radiation
in less than 60 seconds.
 
"This is a shocking revelation," said Damon Moglen of Greenpeace
International.  "This certainly helps to explain why British,
French and Japanese officials sought to keep secret the details
of these transports."
 
The leaked document contains minutes from a closed meeting at
the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) headquarters in
Vienna in November of 1996.  The minutes record the discussions
of a working group on maritime transport of nuclear materials
which was part of a larger meeting of the "Advisory Group
Meeting on Modal Issues in the Safe Transport of Radioactive
Material".  The meeting had been convened to discuss new
transport regulations which the international nuclear promotion
agency has adopted.  
 
The minutes state that given technical, political, and economic
considerations, the "...sea recovery of lower radioactive
material packages or of packages of any sort at greater depths
[than 200 metres], was not justified...."  
 
Representatives of the nuclear industry and promotional agencies
apparently assured each other that "in general, most situations
would lead to negligible harm to the environment and minimal
exposure to man if the packages were not recovered following the
accident."  Nonetheless they note that the loss of packages
containing highly toxic radioactive materials on the
"continental shelf" could result in "...some large exposures." 
 
The paper makes a mockery of the assurances British, French and
Japanese officials have given to enroute nations about the
secretive transports of nuclear waste and weapons-useable
plutonium.  Dozens of enroute states have condemned the ultra
hazardous shipments and demanded that the ships remain outside
of their 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) waters. 
Caribbean and Latin American nations have issued regional
declarations opposing the shipments and demanding they not enter
their combined waters.  
While neighbouring nations have condemned and banned the Pacific
Teal nuclear waste shipment, the Australian government has not
voiced concern.  The Australian Senate passed a motion on
February 13 calling on the government to provide information
about the shipment but the government has not yet adequately
responded.  
The Pacific Teal leaves a wave of controversy in its wake. After
the ship left France on January 13, the Portuguese government
sent a warship to make sure the ship did not enter its 200 mile
EEZ waters.
 
South African officials similarly insisted that the ship remain
outside its EEZ and received official assurances that this would
be the case. Instead the government found that the ship came
within 90 miles of its coast and steamed within South Africa's
EEZ for two days.  South Africa's Environmental Minister
responded that French, British and Japanese officials had
"broken" undertakings made to his government and that this would
"inform South Africa's future response to the shipment of
radioactive waste."
 
"Last November the Australian government was rightly concerned
about the risk that a plutonium powered satellite might crash on
Australia," said Richard Mills of Greenpeace Australia.  "The
Pacific Teal's cargo is more than one million times more
radioactive than that satellite, so where is our Government
now."  
Greenpeace has warned that dozens of nuclear waste shipments and
weapons-useable plutonium shipments are planned by Britain and
France to Japan during the next decade.  The environmental
organisation is warning that France alone has secret plans to
make two more nuclear shipments, involving one hundred blocks of
nuclear waste, in the next twelve months.
 
"The nuclear industry is using the route around the Cape of Good
Hope and through the Tasman Sea because they hoped they could
avoid public and political opposition," said Moglen.  "Britain,
France and Japan are desperately searching for the route of
least
resistance.  If Australia remains silent in the face of these
deadly transports, they may well guarantee that the waters
around Australia will be a highway for dozens of nuclear waste
and plutonium shipments in the months and years to come."
---end--
 
Video and photographs available 
For more information contact Damon Moglen on 04112 14066 or
Susan Cavanagh 04111 795 29 and O2 211 4066