JAPANESE NUCLEAR WASTE SHIPMENT SAILS INTO PACIFIC, LEAVING CONTROVERSY IN CARIBBEAN AND LATIN AMERICA

7 February 1998

Panama -- The British-flagged nuclear waste shipment, which has caused controversy throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, has transited the Panama Canal today and now heads across the Pacific despite stormy weather. The "Pacific Swan" and its cargo of highly radioactive nuclear waste were met with Panamanian protesters and Greenpeace activists, while the ship moved through the Panama Canal on its way to Japan.

The "Pacific Swan" transports 60 canisters of highly radioactive nuclear waste packed inside three transport casks. The cargo contains a staggering 30,000,000 curies of radioactivity--the waste is so deadly that a person within one meter of a single unshielded glass block would receive a fatal dose of radiation in less than one minute. The nuclear waste contains approximately the same amount of the dangerous isotope cesium which was released during the Chernobyl disaster.

The "Pacific Swan" shipment is the largest of its kind and is part of a program to ship some 3,000 canisters of nuclear waste from Britain and France to Japan. In addition to waste shipments, France and Britain have clandestine plans to ship tens of tons of weapon-usable plutonium to Japan in the next decade.

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

While the actual route of the "Pacific Swan" remains a secret kept by Japanese, French and British officials, the transport will be met with intensive protest. While only two other waste shipments of this kind have been made, the first in 1995 via Cape Horn, and the second in 1997 via the Cape of Good Hope/Tasman Sea/South Pacific, both occasioned significant protest from Pacific nations.

Already US Representatives from Hawaii, American Samoa and Guam have written to President Clinton asking that he intervene against the transport and New Zealand Foreign Minister Don McKinnon has restated opposition to such transports entering the waters of New Zealand.

"France, Britain and Japan are turning a deaf ear to the rightful protests of people and politicians throughout the Caribbean, Latin America and the Pacific," said Damon Moglen of Greenpeace. "It is outrageous that there are no environmental assessments, serious emergency response plans or adequate liability arrangements for such dangerous shipments."

Three Greenpeace activists boarded the Pacific Swan early this morning as it approached the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal. The activists hung a banner reading "Stop Plutonium" on an onboard crane. The activists were removed and detained by Panamanian authorities. Subsequently, some 100 Panamanian protesters met the ship at the Pedro Miguel locks as the ship started the final leg of its passage through the Canal into the Pacific.

Although the course of the Swan is being kept secret, it is believed that the ship may travel near Hawaii, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and Guam, before arriving at the Japanese port of Mutsu Ogawara. The ship could be off Hawaii in some 2 to 3 weeks, and is due to arrive in Japan by early March.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
- Damon Moglen, in Washington +1 202 319 25 13 or +1 202 462 08 32
-Tom Clements, in Panama, mobile +507 614 61 56
- Luisa Colasimone, in Amsterdam, mobile +31 6 53 66 29 70
- Footage of the Greenpeace activists on board the Pacific Swan available from Reuters, WTN, APTV
- Stills available from Reuters, AP, ANP