Activists Await Nuclear Waste Ship

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

The saga continues ...

Tuesday July 21 2:16 PM EDT 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Anti-nuclear activists including a ``peace 
navy'' flotilla stood guard today at the foot of the Golden
Gate Bridge, waiting for a ship expected to arrive from South Korea 
with a load of spent nuclear reactor fuel. 

The activists gathered Monday, saying the shipment was a 
``mobile Chernobyl.'' 

The exact date of the shipment was secret. 

The Coast Guard-escorted ship is to travel 25 miles into San 
Francisco Bay to the Concord Naval Weapons station, where
the radioactive fuel will be transferred to trains bound for a storage 
site at the National Engineering and Environmental
Laboratory in Idaho. 

It is the first of five shipments scheduled to pass through California 
by 2009. 

In the 1950s, the ``Atoms for Peace'' program provided U.S. allies 
with highly enriched uranium for research. The U.S.
government has in recent years moved to get the fuel back to 
prevent it from falling into the hands of terrorists. The shipment
coming here is from South Korea. 

Only peaceful protests were planned for the shipment, said Ann 
Beier of the Western Communities Against Nuclear
Transportation. 

One group, Tri-Valley Cares, planned to have a plane fly along the 
route to Idaho, towing a banner reading ``Danger - Nuclear
Train Coming.'' 

Critics of the shipment have argued that one of the most dangerous 
points along the projected railroad route is the narrow
canyon of the Feather River, which they say is prone to mud slides 
and rock slides. 

A judge ruled in March that the government had adequately 
considered the risks. 

Last year another federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by the state of 
South Carolina that had challenged plans to ship 19 tons of
spent reactor fuel from 41 nations to the Savannah River Site 
nuclear weapons complex in that state. 

------------------
Sandy Perle
Technical Director
ICN Dosimetry Division
ICN Plaza
3300 Hyland Avenue
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Office: (800) 548-5100 x2306 
Fax:    (714) 668-3149
  
sandyfl@earthlink.net
sperle@icnpharm.com

ICN Dosimetry Website:
http://www.dosimetry.com

Personal Website:
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