Controversial Nuclear Waste Shipment Arrives in Japan

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

CONTROVERSIAL NUCLEAR WASTE SHIPMENT ARRIVES IN JAPAN;
PROTESTORS CALL FOR AN END TO JAPAN'S PLUTONIUM PROGRAM

Mutsu Ogawara, Japan, March 18, A controversial nuclear
waste transport from France arrived in Japan today amidst
growing demands for an end to Japan's failing plutonium program. 
 Greenpeace has called the shipment symbolic of Japan's
faltering  plutonium industry and has appealed to the Hashimoto
government  to terminate the program.
 
"This shipment has caused controversy around the planet and has 
become a symbol for the environmental, public health and
proliferation  risks of Japan's plutonium program," said Hideaki
Takemura,  nuclear campaigner of Greenpeace Japan.
 
The British-flagged nuclear freighter "Pacific Teal" arrived in
the  Northern Japanese port of Mutsu Ogawara today at 8:30am.  
 Hundreds of protesters from around Japan held signs saying: 
"STOP spent nuclear fuel", "We do no want nuclear waste!".  
Greenpeace protested by approaching the ship using 2 inflatable
rafts.  A total of 6 protesters on board raised banners
emblazoned with  "NO Nuclear waste"(in Japanese). Meanwhile on
the quay of the port,  Greenpeace used a crane to hoist a 5
meter high banner declaring  "Stop Nuclear Power". The
protesters were faced by hundreds of police  who were on land,
in boats and in helicopters circling over head.  

Regional concern against the Rokkasho nuclear waste repository 
have been fuelled by worries that the waste repository will 
become a final and not temporary dump and the earth-quake 
prone area is inappropriate for a nuclear waste store let 
alone the plutonium reprocessing plant which is under
construction.   
The Teal is transporting 40 blocks, or some twenty tonnes, of 
highly radioactive glassified "plutonium waste".  The waste is
a by  product of the separation of weapons useable plutonium
from  Japanese irradiated nuclear reactor fuel which was
exported to  France's La Hague reprocessing plant. The waste is
so deadly that a  person within one meter of an unshielded block
would receive a fatal  dose of radiation in less than one
minute.
 
The Teal shipment is only the second of its kind--the first
shipment,  containing 28 glass blocks of waste was conducted in
1995 on a route  around South America.  It is believed that
France and Japan have  secret plans to make two more waste
shipments in the next twelve  months.  In all, some 3,000 glass
blocks of waste will be shipped to  Japan from the reprocessing
plants operated by COGEMA (France)  and British Nuclear Fuels
(UK) during the next decade.
 
Japan's plutonium program has experienced a series of serious 
setbacks.  In December of 1995, soon after the reactor's
commissioning,  the Monju breeder reactor experienced a massive
sodium leak.   While industry officials sought to cover-up the
severity of the accident,  the government was forced to close
the reactor and it may never be  reopened.  The reactor had been
held up as justification for Japan's  massive program to
separate and stockpile weapons-usable plutonium.  While
controlling a stockpile of some 16,000 kgs, Japan currently
produces  no energy from its plutonium.
 
More recently, on March 11, a fire and related explosion at the
Tokai reprocessing plant contaminated 35 workers and released
radioactivity  to the environment.  Once again nuclear officials
were slow to provide  details and seemed far from scrupulous in
revealing the full nature and  effects of the accident. 
Subsequently, Prime Minister Hashimoto criticized  nuclear
officials stating: "It seems that PNC did not learn any lessons
from  the Monju accident."

The "Pacific Teal" leaves a wave of controversy in its wake. The
ship  steamed from France to Japan via South Africa and the
Southwest Pacific.   Dozens of countries protested the secret
transport and many demanded that  the ship remain outside of
their 200 mile exclusive economic zone waters.  Significant
protest was also brought to bear against the Japanese plutonium 
shipment of 1992 and its one other "plutonium waste" shipment in
1995.   Information that France and Japan has secret plans to
make two more  nuclear waste shipments within the next twelve
months has further mobilized international opposition to Japan's
plutonium program.  
"Japan's plutonium program is in a shambles--it lurches from
disaster  to disaster.  It is clear that Japan has no further
civil justification for  its massive plutonium program and it
must be stopped," said  Damon Moglen of Greenpeace
International.
 
Photos available: Reuters Tokyo or
Greenpeace International: John Novis ++ 31 20 524 9580

For more information:
ROKKASHO(Temporary office until today):
Noriko Oyama, press officer, Greenpeace Japan ++ 81 175 77 3079 
                                     Mobile ++ 030 470 7884
Hideaki Takemura, nuclear campaigner: Mobile ++ 030 238 5840
TOKYO: Greenpeace Japan             ++ 81 3 5351 5400
AMSTERDAM: Greenpeace International
Damon Moglen, Plutonium Campaigner          ++ 31 20 523 6257  
                                   Mobile ++ 31 653 23 8475
Luisa Colasimone, Press Officer             ++ 31 20 524 9546



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