France, Canada, landing in Anchorage, Alaska for refueling, Anchorage to
Russian Air Shipment Route (~ 10000 km):
from France or Britain, across northern Europe, Siberia to Japan
(not yet used).
French Territorial Air Shipment Route (~ 26000 km):
France, French Guyana (for possible refueling), French Polynesia, Japan
(not yet used).
British Territorial Air Shipment Route (~ 18100 km):
Britain, Bermuda or British Virgin Islands (for possible refueling),
British South Pacific Islands, Japan (not yet used).
FROM THE : Nuclear Control Institute http://www.nci.org/nci/index.htm
To quote or reprint material from this Web site is granted in advance
so long as you make proper acknowledgment to the Nuclear Control Institute
and you notify us as to the form and use made of the material.
Maps by The Nuclear Control Institute
Located at: http://www.nci.org/nci/nci-abo.htm
PANAMA CITY, Panama, February 6, 1998 (ENS) - Three Greenpeace activists are being detained by authorities in Panama City tonight after their arrest this afternoon on board the British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. nuclear waste transport ship Pacific Swan.
The ship is carrying 60 containers of vitrified highly radioactive Japanese nuclear waste en route from the Cogema reprossessing plant at La Hague, France to a depository in Japan. This is the first time nuclear waste shipments have passed through the Panama Canal. Political and diplomatic protest against the shipment has been widespread in Panama and the Caribbean region.
At approximately 4:30 this morning (Panama time), the three activists from Belgium, Switzerland and Chile boarded the Pacific Swan as it approached the Panama Canal at slow speed. Two UK activists were also involved in the direct action. The purpose of the action was not terrorism, but the delivery of a message - stop nuclear shipments.
As the ship sailed in from the Caribbean Sea, the protesters boarded. No one was there to stop or in any way obstruct them as climbed a crane on the front of the vessel and hung a banner reading "STOP Plutonium! Greenpeace."
Then the three chained themselves to the superstructure of the crane. As the ship entered the first lock at Gatun Lake, the Greenpeacers were found, still chained up, by a group of local journalists and dignitaries who had been invited by the shipping company to tour the nuclear waste ship. The journalists had been told no cameras or tape recorders, but they witnessed the arrest of the demonstrators.
It is still unclear which authority has the protesters in custody, Panama Canal officials or the those of the government of Panama. Tom Clements of Greenpeace, Washington, DC is searching for them at this time.
"We are engaged in a peaceful protest, aimed at the shipment of nuclear waste and not at the Panama Canal Commission or at the Government of Panama." said Clements. "The plutonium industries of the UK, France and Japan are responsible for producing and transporting this waste, and the U.S. Government for allowing this deadly cargo to go through the Canal and threatening the environment of the Panama Canal and Central America."
The Swan contains 60 canisters of highly radioactive nuclear waste packed inside three transport casks. The cargo contains a staggering 30,000,000 curies of radioactivity, the waste is so deadly that a person within one metre of a single unshielded glass block would receive a fatal dose of radiation in less than one minute. The nuclear waste contains approximately the same amount of the dangerous isotope cesium which was released during the Chernobyl disaster.
Pacific Swan at her berth in England.
The "Pacific Swan" shipment is the largest waste shipment of its kind and is part of a program to ship some 3,000 canisters of nuclear waste from Britain and France to Japan.
Greenpeace alleges that in addition to waste shipments, "France and Britain have clandestine plans to ship tens of tons of weapon-usable plutonium to Japan in the next decade," the group said in a statement.
Countries and environmental groups throughout the Caribbean and Central America have protested the current shipment, including the twelve Commonwealth Caribbean countries. High Commissioners in London have called on the UK and France not to make any new nuclear contracts with Japan.
"France, Britain and Japan are turning a deaf ear to the rightful protests of people and politicians throughout the Caribbean and Latin America," said Clements. "It is outrageous that there are no environmental assessments, serious emergency response plans or adequate liability arrangements for such dangerous shipment. It is clear that countries must take appropriate national, regional and international action to ban these transports and end the commerce in plutonium and nuclear waste."
NUCLEAR SHIPPING FIASCO IN EUROPE
On Tuesday, under fierce pressure to resign, German Environment
Minister Angela
Merkel and her French counterpart Dominique Voynet, blamed the energy
industries of
both countries for failing to report a series of radiation leaks from
nuclear waste shipments
since the1980s.
Rail and road shipments of spent nuclear power fuel rods
traveled from Germany to
France for reprocessing, and back to Germany for storage. Some shipments
showed spots
of radiation over 3,000 times the tolerance level. Industry experts
were aware of the
contamination and have apologized for not disclosing the information.
Bayernwerk, a
German utility, claimed there was no health risk and no
legal obligation to report the
contamination.
seer7@netusa1.net
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