N-Waste Shipment Enters Panama Canal Flying GP Banner

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

NUCLEAR WASTE SHIPMENT ENTERS PANAMA CANAL 
FLYING GREENPEACE BANNER - STOP PLUTONIUM !

Panama, 6 February 1998 --- The British-flagged nuclear freighter
Pacific Swan entered the first lock of the Panama Canal in the early
hours of Friday morning, with three Greenpeace activists from
Switzerland, Belgium and Chile attached to the mast of the ship. A
Greenpeace banner reading "STOP PLUTONIUM" was flying from the mast.
After entering the first lock, Gatun, the Greenpeace activists and the
banner were removed by security forces.

The Greenpeace activists are not trying to stop the ship with its
radioactive cargo, impede its progress, or cause it any damage or
cause any public harm.  Rather, they are there to protest the shipment
of some of the most dangerous waste ever produced, and the threat it
poses to the people and the environment of Panama and Central America.

The Pacific Swan is expected to take 8-10 hours to travel through the
Panama Canal. After the Gatun lock, the ship will enter Gatun Lake, to
be followed by two further locks before entering the Pacific Ocean on
its way to Japan.

"The disregard being shown by the plutonium industry for the
environment has been exposed by this shipment. With around 30 million
curies of radioactivity on board, the ship is about to enter the Gatun
Lake which provides drinking water for over 1 million people in Panama
City. Nuclear waste and drinking water should not mix - the plutonium
industry must be stopped," said Tom Clements of Greenpeace.


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