FRANCE: Ship with Deadly Nuclear Cargo Prepares to Sail to Japan
PARIS, Dic 17 (IPS) - A ship loaded with lethal nuclear waste is being prepared for a secret voyage from France to Japan in February 1995, despite the unresolved safety issues surrounding such shipments -- and should be held in port, says a U.S. expert.
An independent analysis conducted by physicist Edwin Lyman and released in Paris this week called for the suspension of the shipment until fuller safety arrangements could be guaranteed.
Lyman, of Princeton University, New Jersey, said "serious" safety questions justify postponement. He said his findings, based on available data, suggest that the French and Japanese authorities may be accepting narrower safety margins to cut costs.
The study was commissioned by Greenpeace International, the Citizens Nuclear Information Centre in Tokyo, Japan and the Nuclear Control Institute in Washington.
Japan sends spent fuel from its nuclear plants to reprocessing centres in France and Great Britain where plutonium and other usable elements are extracted. The contracts specify that waste from this process must be returned to the country of origin.
In February France is to ship to Japan 28 170-litre cylindrical glass blocks of high level waste, containing 13 million curies of radioactivity. Greenpeace spokesman Damon Moglen said a person standing a metre from an unshielded block would die in a minute.
Industry sources report that more than 3,000 such canisters will be delivered to Japan over 15 years, requiring between 15 to 30 shipments until the year 2010.
According to unconfirmed reports, the February cargo will be loaded on the British ship 'Pacific Sandpiper', departing from the French port of Cherbourg and sailing on a secret route.
At end 1992, the Japanese ship 'Akatsuki Maru' sailed from France to Japan loaded with 1.7 tonnes of plutonium. The trip raised an international row and many countries banned the ship from their territorial waters. The ship completed its voyage safely.
Lyman said that when first asked to conduct the analysis, he was sceptical and warned the groups the study could lead nowhere. But by its end, he believed there were reasons for concern.
He said the shipments were already established practice with no major accidents so far. This however may owe more to luck, the small number of shipments and short travel time -- rather than the inherent safety of the shipping system itself.
© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service