Chile alarmed by ship carrying nuclear waste

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Chile alarmed by ship carrying nuclear waste
  
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - The Chilean government and 
environmentalists Thursday objected to the scheduled passage of a 
ship carrying French-processed nuclear waste to Japan via Cape 
Horn because of potential environmental hazards. 

Japanese industry officials said earlier this month that the vessel 
"Pacific Swan," owned by a unit of British Nuclear Fuels, is loaded 
with 76.8 tons of vitrified spent fuel -- a highly radioactive product 
made of waste material from Japanese nuclear reactors mixed with 
glass. The ship is expected to arrive in Chilean territory in the 
middle of January. 

"We have made it known that we are upset about this and we will 
do everything possible to avoid this kind of transport off our 
coastline," said Luis Winter, director of foreign policy in Chile's 
Foreign Ministry. 

But Winter admitted there was little the government could do since 
this type of cargo is permitted under international law. The Cape 
Horn route was last used to ship nuclear waste in 1995. At that 
time, the Chilean navy blocked the vessel from entering the 
country's 200-mile maritime limit, government officials said. 

Greenpeace, the international environmental activist group, is 
scheduled to hold a demonstration Friday in Santiago, Chile's 
capital, to urge the government to take strong stance and block 
passage of the "Pacific Swan" off the coast. 

The vessel left the French port of Cherbourg on Dec. 19 and is 
scheduled to dock in Aomori in northern Japan in February. 

It is due to sail past the Atlantic coastlines of Brazil, Uruguay and 
Argentina before swinging around the icy tip of South America, an 
area renowned for its fierce gales and strong currents that make 
navigation difficult. 

Greenpeace officials said they fear the Cape Horn route will 
become the preferred route for shipping nuclear material between 
Europe and Japan, replacing the shorter and, until now, preferred 
Panama Canal route. 

Greenpeace said cargo ships now prefer the longer -- and colder -- 
southern journey through subarctic waters because of difficulty 
getting permits from Panama since the United States returned the 
canal to Panamanian control on Dec. 31, 1999. 

"Because the protests of the government of Panama and the 
Caribbean countries were on the rise, the shipping company 
decided to use the Cape Horn route," Greenpeace Chile said in a 
statement. 

Greenpeace activists say the amount of radioactivity that would be 
released into the environment if the "Pacific Swan" were to have an 
accident would be comparable to that of the 1986 Chernobyl 
nuclear power plant accident in Ukraine. 

The Chilean government said it is working within the U.N. 
International Atomic Energy Agency to create laws outlining 
responsibilities for environmental damage caused by accidents 
involving radioactive material. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
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Personal Website: http://sandyfl.nukeworker.net
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