GREENPEACE CONDEMNS FRANCE, UK AND JAPAN FOR IGNORING SAFETY OF ENROUTE COUNTRIES AS LARGEST NUCLEAR WASTE SHIPMENT STARTS FROM UK

15 December 2000

London - Greenpeace today condemned Britain, and France for endangering enroute nations as the first stage of the largest nuclear waste shipment to date began today with the departure of the UK-flagged freighter "Pacific Swan" from the English port of Barrow-in-Furness.

Under a veil of secrecy, the transport vessel, "Pacific Swan", owned by Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited (PNTL), left the Irish Sea port of Barrow-in-Furness today at 12:30 PM local time (British Nuclear Fuels Ltd is a shareholder in PNTL). The empty freighter is now bound for the French port of Cherbourg where it is due to load 192 blocks of glassified highly radioactive nuclear waste on December 20.

The waste is a by-product of plutonium separation from Japanese irradiated nuclear fuel at the French state-controlled COGEMA La Hague nuclear reprocessing plant. This "plutonium waste" is among the most radioactive material ever produced-the glass blocks are so radioactive that a person standing within one meter of an unshielded block would receive a lethal dose of radiation in less than one minute. If released into the environment, the waste would be a deadly environmental pollutant for hundreds of thousands of years. It is estimated that the cargo of nuclear waste, contained in eight transport casks, will contain a staggering 96,000,000 curies of radioactivity.

"The release of even a small fraction of this cargo could lead to an environmental and public health catastrophe," said Damon Moglen of Greenpeace International. "Despite these terrible risks, Japanese, French and British officials are making this unnecessary shipment without the knowledge and agreement of the dozens of endangered enroute nations."

The transporters are keeping route for this shipment a tightly held secret. In the past, five other shipments of this type of nuclear waste have been made from France to Japan via three different routes: via South American and Cape Horn; via South Africa, the Tasman Sea and the South Pacific; and via the Caribbean Sea and Panama Canal. While the last three shipments have been made via the Caribbean Sea and Panama Canal, intense public and political opposition throughout the region is making the shipments more and more difficult.

Greenpeace has repeatedly called on the Japanese government to stop its controversial program to procure a massive stockpile of weapons-usable plutonium. The program, which currently generates no electricity, can not be justified on economic, energy-production, safety, security or nuclear non- proliferation bases.

Greenpeace is warning that it expects French authorities to move the massive quantity of nuclear waste this weekend from the la Hague site along public roadways and railway to the port of Cherbourg. The "Pacific Swan" is then due to arrive in Cherbourg and load its cargo on December 20.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Damon Moglen +1-202-319-2409