TROUBLES OF NUCLEAR WASTE SHIPMENT UNDERSCORE NEED TO HALT REPROCESSING, NUCLEAR SHIPMENTS
BRITISH NUCLEAR FUELS NOT REVEALING VOLUME OF WASTE FOR RETURN TO JAPAN

13 March 1998

Tokyo, The troubles which have faced the nuclear waste ship Pacific Swan in Japan clearly point out the need to halt both reprocessing and nuclear waste shipments, according to the international environmental organization Greenpeace.

"The dilemma arising over the arrival of the Pacific Swan represents the growing international concern with Japan's program to ship nuclear waste and reprocess spent nuclear fuel," said Tom Clements of Greenpeace International in Washington. "Just as Aomori Prefecture should not become a nuclear waste dump, France and Britain should also not have to face the environmental risks of Japan's deadly nuclear waste and weapon-usable plutonium."

Japan believes that only the high-level waste is slated to be returned but it now appears that due to failure of the Nirex nuclear waste facility in the United Kingdom that all intermediate-level waste (ILW) will also have to be returned to Japan. According to UK Government policy, ILW from foreign reprocessing must be returned to the country of origin, yet British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) has been quiet about this policy. As the UK currently cannot "substitute" a smaller volume of HLW for a larger volume equal in radioactivity of ILW, the ILW must also be returned. The volume of ILW created during reprocessing is many times larger than the volume of HLW.

Greenpeace calculates that return of the ILW will result in a massive increase of shipments to Japan and believes that Governor Kimura and other officials should be asking hard questions of JNFL and the federal government about the fate of this material. Greenpeace Japan has written to the governor to inform him of the "hidden" waste which BNFL does not want to talk about. Additionally, new reprocessing contracts, now being urged by BNFL and COGEMA, would also result in dozens more waste shipments, creating a recipe for even greater environmental problems in Rokkasho

The British-flagged Pacific Swan, with 30 tons of high-level nuclear waste from France, today docked in the port of Mutsu-Ogasawara in northern Japan's Aomori Prefecture, 325 miles north east of Tokyo. The unloading was delayed after Aomori governor Morio Kimura refused to grant permission because the national government's long-term storage places for the nuclear waste were unclear.

On the Swan's passage through the Panama Canal on February 6, three Greenpeace activists boarded the vessel and hung a banner which said STOP PLUTONIUM. Boarding of the unguarded vessel revealed a weakness in the ship's security and Greenpeace believes that no security risk assessment has been prepared for this shipment. A planned shipment of plutonium fuel (mixed oxide or MOX) must, under US regulations, have an armed escort vessel and will not be allowed to transit the Panama Canal due to the security threat it presents. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), MOX contains material suitable for "direct use" in nuclear weapons

Realizing the danger they present, dozens of countries around the world have protested against this very shipment and the two earlier shipments of high-level waste. This year, the strongest statements against the transport have come from governments along the shipping routes: The Bahamas, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, the US Virgin Islands, the Latin American Parliament and the Central American Parliament.

In spite of these protests, British Nuclear Fuels, COGEMA and Japan Nuclear Fuels have pushed ahead with the reprocessing and waste shipment program and have adamantly refused to prepare a comprehensive environmental impact statement.

During reprocessing, weapon-usable plutonium is separated and the volume of nuclear waste is increased more than 50 times. A huge volume of high-level, intermediate-level and low-level nuclear waste of Japanese origin now sits in France and Britain and it is unsure what will happen with this material.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Tom Clements, Greenpeace International, Washington, 1-202-319- 2506
tom.clements@wdc.greenpeace.org