TAIWAN POWER COMPANY MISREPRESENTS RADIOACTIVITY OF NUCLEAR WASTE TO BE SENT TO NORTH KOREA

Hong Kong 15 May 1997

Greenpeace today announced the discovery of major misrepresentations in the classification of radioactive waste to be exported by Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) to North Korea. Greenpeace spokesperson Ho Wai Chi said the discovery raises serious concerns for the safe transport and storage of the waste.

"The waste is significantly more radioactive than Taipower claims," said Ho. "Taipower has misled the people of Taiwan, the international community and the governments of neighbouring countries about the dangers associated with shipping and disposing of their radioactive waste in North Korea."

Taipower, Taiwan's government-run power utility, signed a contract in January to ship up to 200,000 barrels of low level waste for final storage in North Korea. The shipments are expected to begin in a few months (1).

The Greenpeace team was accompanied by Mr. John Large of Large & Associates, a British nuclear engineering firm retained by Greenpeace to do an independent evaluation of Taiwan's nuclear waste sector. The group conducted a 10-day study of the nuclear waste sector, and inspected waste facilities at the Kuo Sheng nuclear power plant and on Lanyu Island.

They discovered that the so-called low level radioactive waste, which Taipower plans to export to North Korea, contains ion exchange resins and filter masses, some of the most dangerous wastes produced by nuclear reactors (2).

"The waste that Taipower chooses to call low level, and claims will not demand special handling, is actually a soup of highly radioactive poisons that requires complex technology, highly trained personnel, and a fully developed infrastructure in order to fulfil the most rudimentary safety requirements," said Mr. Large. "It is difficult to believe Taipower assurances that North Korea can deal with this waste safely, when they don't even tell the truth to their own people about what the waste contains."

Greenpeace also discovered unsafe conditions at Taiwan's Lanyu Island radioactive waste storage site. Radiation levels recorded on the perimeter of a storage trench indicate that radioactive materials may be leaking from storage drums. In addition, there appeared to be a lack of adequate facilities for treatment of contaminated water, a serious shortcoming in a climate of typhoons and torrential rains.

This compares with a new waste storage facility, built at the Kuo Sheng plant after lengthy protests from local residents which contains a number of basic safety features, and replaces an older Lanyu-type facility which officials say was unsatisfactory.

"It took Kuo Sheng residents 10 years to force Taipower to build a storage facility that conforms to even basic safety requirements" said Ho. "The people of Lanyu, despite years of protest, are still living atop a leaking dump. And if the barrels are moved to North Korea, what voice will those residents have to protect their families from danger?"

"By exporting their waste, Taipower is creating the potential for serious environmental consequences for North Korea," Ho added. "Taipower must deal with their own waste, including removing it from Lanyu Island, and they must immediately cancel this dangerous and irresponsible agreement with North Korea."

NOTES TO EDITORS

(1) Strong local opposition by the indigenous Yami people to the dumping of nuclear waste in shallow trenches on Lanyu Island, 65 kilometres off Taiwan's south-east coast, and by five candidate communities for a new waste disposal facility on Taiwan, forced Taipower to search abroad, where they failed in attempts to fi lise plans to dump the waste in the Marshall Islands and Russia. North Korea, stricken with economic problems, signed the contract in January 1997. They could receive up to USD 230,000,000 for the waste, which will be stored in an abandoned coal mine 90 kilometres north of Seoul. If the shipments proceed, they set a dangerous precedent: it will be the first time, anywhere, that radioactive waste is exported for final storage. back to text

(2) Ion exchange resins are used to strip liquid streams in the reactor primary circuit and irradiated (spent) storage fuel ponds. The resin beads or pellets concentrate a wide range of (radio)activated and fission products. In terms of (radio)activity and persistence (half-life) ion exchange resins are very active (20.1012 Bq/m3 to 200.1012 Bq/m3) and very long-lived (tens of thousands of years). The current Taiwan nuclear programme will generate approximately 100-120 m3/year raw ion exchange waste or about 200-290 m3 packaged per year. Taipower has consistently stated that the material to be shipped is "low level" waste and will not pose a significant environmental risk. For example, in a letter to Greenpeace on March 7 they wrote "...because the radioactivity of the LLW is very low which does not require a sophisticated technology for disposal it is hard to believe that DPRK has no ability to properly dispose of the LLW." In fact Taipower's claim that the waste drums destined for export contain mostly gloves and contaminated clothing cannot be true: according to Taipower officials all such material is incinerated on site. back to text (3) Although no international agreement at present bans waste exports, the scheme is clearly in violation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) principle that radioactive waste must be cared for in the country of origin unless safety of treatment is enhanced by export. The IAEA General Conference Resolution of 20-September-1996, Measures to Strengthen International Co-operation in Nuclear, Radiation, and Waste Safety states: "...radioactive waste should, as far as compatible with the safe management of such material, be disposed of in the State in which it was generated, whilst recognising that, in certain circumstances, safe management of radioactive waste might be fostered through voluntary agreements among Member States to use facilities in one of them for the benefit of the other States..." The principle is repeated in Point IX of the Preamble to the Draft Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management. The Convention will be opened up for signature in September or October 1997. Al countries will be able to become parties to the Convention, not only IAEA member states.

For further information please contact:

CLEMENT LAM, HO WAI CHI, ANNE DINGWALL - GREENPEACE CHINA
tel: +852 2854 8300, or +852 9027 2081 fax: +852 2745 2426