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

6 February 1998

Panama

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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