Nuclear Waste Shipment Leaves France Amidst Caribbean Opposition

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

HIGH LEVEL WASTE SHIPMENT DEPARTS FRANCE AMIDST CARIBBEAN
OPPOSITION

Paris / Amsterdam, 21st January 1998 -- The Pacific Swan
carrying high level reprocessed waste departed from the French
port of Cherbourg at approximately 03h15hrs CET this morning,
heading to Japan. It is expected that Cogema, the reprocessing
company, will announce on Thursday the route to be taken.
Greenpeace believes that the ship will travel via the Caribbean
Sea and the Panama Canal. 

Faced with the imminent threat of this shipment, Prime Ministers
representing countries within the Organization of Eastern
Caribbean States have issued a strong statement condemning the
shipment, and have appealed to the international community to
intervene (1).

"Cogema and their Japanese clients have once again demonstrated
their disregard for the environment and the views of nations
along the transport route", said Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace. "In
the six weeks this shipment will take to reach Japan, Cogema
will produce a further 1,600kg of plutonium at its reprocessing
plants, together with vast quantities of radioactive waste. The
plutonium problem is getting worse, and the environment will be
the victim", Burnie added.

It is anticipated that the Pacific Swan will pass through
Portugal's 200 mile Economic Exclusion Zone early Friday morning
(23rd January). The shipment is expected to enter the Caribbean
Sea towards the end of January. The most recent statement of
opposition was issued on 16 January  by Prime Ministers from
Caribbean island nations, including St. Lucia, Antigua and
Barbuda, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. 

They stated that the shipment "seriously endangers the lives of
the people of the region and also fish, other forms of wildlife
and the environment and has the potential to fatally affect the
social and economic development of the region".

The high level waste in the shipment belongs to the Japanese
electrical utilities Tokyo Electric, Chubu Electric, Kansai
Electric and Kyushu Electric. Greenpeace has learnt that during
1998 the first three of these utilities will acquire a total of
1,305kg of plutonium from reprocessing of waste at la Hague.
This is sufficient for over 200 nuclear weapons. 

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Greenpeace on the Internet at http://www.greenpeace.org

See Greenpeace International Web site at :
http://www.greenpeace.org/cnuk.htmo

(1) Copies of the statements of opposition are available on
request