NUCLEAR WASTE SHIPMENT ENTERS CARIBBEAN DESPITE INTENSE REGIONAL OPPOSITION
Greenpeace Condemns Secrecy and Disregard for the Sovereignty of Caribbean Nations

3 February 1998

Washington, DC.

Under cover of darkness, the British-flagged nuclear freighter "Pacific Swan" entered the Caribbean Sea last night through the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The ship passed through waters off the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico despite official protests.

Countries and environmental groups throughout the Caribbean have protested the current shipment and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, and Latin American and Central American Parliaments have issued statements of opposition.

The Japan-bound freighter with its cargo of highly radioactive nuclear waste will now remain in the Caribbean Sea for more than three days before its scheduled transit of the Panama Canal on February 6. Greenpeace has condemned British, French and Japanese officials for seeking to keep the nuclear waste shipment a secret and disregarding the sovereign rights of the Caribbean and Latin American nations which have protested against the nuclear waste and plutonium shipments.

"If the public has nothing to fear from this shipment, why are Japan, France and Britain keeping the transport such a big secret?" said Damon Moglen of Greenpeace. "This secrecy and the lack of emergency planning is only in the interest of the plutonium industry."

The "Pacific Swan" is carrying 60 canisters of highly radioactive nuclear waste. The waste is from the French "reprocessing" -- separation of weapon-usable plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel -- of waste from Japanese power reactors. The "Pacific Swan" shipment is the largest waste shipment of its kind and is part of a program to ship some 3,000 canisters of nuclear waste from France and Britain to Japan. In addition to the nuclear waste shipments, France and Britain have clandestine plans to ship tens of tons of weapons-usable plutonium to Japan in the next decade.

Dozens of nations around the planet have condemned the nuclear waste and plutonium shipments. Despite requests from the nations put at risk, French, British and Japanese officials have been unwilling to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment of the waste shipments. Greenpeace has also called on the U.S. government, which operates the Panama Canal, to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, before allowing the ship to transit the region.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
in Panama: Tom Clements, Greenpeace International, mobile +507 614 61 56

in the USA: Damon Moglen, Greenpeace International,202-319-2513

in the USA: Deborah Rephan, Greenpeace Press Office, 202-319-2492