Inge Ruigrok
A SHIP loaded with deadly nuclear waste, including weapons-grade plutonium, may sail through South African waters on its way from France to Japan within the next two weeks.
The Cape Town-base Environment Monitoring Group has urgently appealed to the government to notify the Japanese government of South Africa’s formal opposition to these shipments and to support international calls for all such cargoes to be banned.
This follows appeals by Greenpeace International, in conjunction with other environmental organisations, for the governments of France, Japan and the United States to conduct a detailed environmental assessment of the risks and dangers of the shipment.
Greenpeace claims the cargo is the most concentrated, radioactive waste ever transported and the release of even a small fraction of this material could result in an environmental and public health disaster.
After receiving a briefing from Greenpeace International, the Cape Town- based Environment Monitoring Group has called on the government to make public information received about the forthcoming shipment, and to describe any contingency plans it has to deal with the impending shipment.
Until now the exact route of the ship has been kept secret.
The shipment is the result of an international agreement by the French and British governments to send back to Japan nuclear waste that has been generated by reprocessing Japanese spent nuclear fuel in Europe.
In the period between November 1992 to January 1993 a shipment containing hundreds of kilograms of weapons- usable plutonium passed the Cape Coast on board the vessel ”Akatsuki Maru”.