GREENPEACE VESSELS SAILS TODAY TO PROTEST NUCLEAR TRANSPORT

10 January 2001

Ushuaia - A Greenpeace chartered vessel will leave Ushuaia this afternoon to try to follow the Pacific Swan along its route via Cape Horn and demand its deadly transport is banned from Argentine Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The Pacific Swan, which is carrying 192 blocks of high level nuclear waste, the equivalent of a floating Chernobyl, will pass Cape Horn in the next few days.

The nuclear shipment was sighted by the Argentine Navy yesterday "in the proximity of the EEZ limit, at the level of the city of Rawson", according to an official release by the Navy.

"We believe this clearly shows the operators intend to sail between the Malvinas/Falkland Islands and the Argentine coastline", said Juan Carlos Villalonga, nuclear campaigner of Greenpeace Argentina. "The Government must react urgently to demand this transit does not violate Argentina's EEZ".

"The current position of the Pacific Swan so near the national coast should be unacceptable to the Argentine Government", added Villalonga. "Greenpeace is sending a vessel today to ask the Pacific Swan to leave Argentine waters immediately."

The route followed by the Pacific Swan is kept a secret by the operators, both from the public and from the governments of the en-route countries - Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile.

The Greenpeace-chartered vessel will leave from Ushuaia port later today, with crew members from Argentina, Chile and Brazil. The vessel is a 32 metre, Chilean-flagged tug-boat, built in 1999. The environmental group will attempt to track the passage of the Pacific Swan via Cape Horn and demand that it stays clear of Argentine and Chilean waters.

This is the second time that the Cape Horn route has been chosen for this kind of transport. In 1995, the Greenpeace vessel "Solo" tracked the Pacific Pintail, a sister ship of the Pacific Swan, and alerted the governments and citizens in the region. The Pacific Pintail also failed to respect the demands of the governments concerned and entered both Argentine and Chilean EEZs. At one point the Pintail was only 50 miles off the "Estados Islands" and only 18 miles from the Horns Islands. It was forced out of Chile's EEZ by Navy gunboats and headed south to continue its route to Japan outside the 200 miles limit.

"Keeping these kind of transports secret shows a total lack of respect for all the coastal countries who expressed their opposition to the use of this route", said Villalonga. "The nuclear industry claims their secrecy is for security reasons, but it only increases the risks represented by these transports, it makes monitoring impossible and shows that the nuclear industry has no interest in any nation's right to know the risk they may be exposed to."

In addition to this high level waste shipment currently off the coast of Argentina, Greenpeace revealed on Tuesday that secret preparations for a plutonium fuel shipment have been finalised in France and Britain. This shipment is due to depart, with its cargo of nuclear weapons-usable material, as early as the middle of next week.

Greenpeace is warning that with the establishment of the Cape Horn route for the Pacific Swan high level waste shipment, the plutonium fuel shipment on board the sister ships Pacific Teal and Pacific Pintail could also be in South American waters within two or three weeks.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Juan Carlos Villalonga, Greenpeace Argentina, mobile +54 11 51 094 166
- Martin Prieto, Greenpeace Argentina, mobile +54 11 44 280 597
- Luisa Colasimone, Press Office, +54 11 41 444 835

Interviews available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian, German. Footage and stills available - please contact +54 15 44 280 597 or +54 15 51 094 104.


Visit www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/transport/mox00/ for more information.