• by IPS Correspondents (manila)
• Saturday, December 24, 1994
• Inter Press Service

MANILA, Dic 24 (IPS) - Asia may remain a favourite passageway for ships carrying nuclear or hazardous waste, but more and more governments are speaking out and saying they will not allow lethal cargo through their waters.

The latest subject of controversy is the planned voyage from France to Japan in February 1995 of a ship carrying nuclear waste that would be sent back to Japan after spent fuel from its nuclear plants is reprocessed in France and Great Britain.

The contracts state that the waste, which results from the separation of plutonium in reprocessing plants, be returned to the country of origin.

The cargo consists of 28 170-litre cylindrical glass blocks of high-level waste with 13 million curies of radioactivity. More than 3,000 such canisters are to be sent to Japan over the next 15 years, requiring 15 to 30 shipments until the year 2010.

In Paris last week, U.S. physicist Edwin Lyman said a study he did raised serious doubts on the safety of transporting the deadly cargo and said the voyage should be postponed.

Though the shipment will not leave France until late February, the report has already raised the hackles of Asian nations that fear they might on the ship's path on the way back to Japan.

On Wednesday, Philippine President Fidel Ramos directed government agencies to "take all appropriate measures to prevent the entry of such (shipment) into Philippine territory. This should not be allowed in Philippine seas".

In 1992, the Ramos government also denied passage to the ship 'Akatsuki Maru', carrying 1.7 tonnes of plutonium from France to Japan. Said Ramos: "We see no reason to change this policy."

Foreign Secretary Roberto Romulo added the Philippines prefers such shipments be barred "even in adjacent seas as the effects of an accident will not respect maritime boundaries".

The Akatsuki Maru had stirred an international controversy, prompting South-east Asian nations like the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia to bar entry or passage of the ship. The Akatsuki Maru completed its journey safely after making a detour, says the international environmental group Greenpeace.

According to Greenpeace, the new shipment's possible routes to Japan include the Caribbean, Panama Canal and Hawaii, around South Africa through the Indian Ocean, the Straits of Malacca and South China Sea, or around Australia and South Pacific islands.

"(Manila's action) is a strong rebuke to Japanese, French and British authorities who are making plans, in secret, to transport high-level nuclear waste," Greenpeace said Wednesday.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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