Activists seek ban on plutonium freighter

Activists seek ban on plutonium freighter

JAKARTA (JP): Environmental activists have called on the
government to bar a British freighter, which is carrying
plutonium from France to Japan, from passing through Indonesian
waters.

"Although the route is a heavily-guarded secret, we have
reason to believe that the ship may choose to go through the
narrow Straits of Malacca," Muhammad Anung of the Indonesian
Forum for the Environment (Walhi) said during a discussion on
Friday.

Attended by activists, politicians and journalists, the
meeting was the first time that the transportation of plutonium
by the Pacific Pintail has been publicly discussed in Indonesia.

The vessel set sail on Thursday from France's Cherbourg
harbor. Its precise route has not been disclosed.

Greenpeace, the London-based environmental group which has
been campaigning for international opposition to the shipment,
speculated that the ship might pass through the Straits of
Malacca, an international shipping lane jointly administered by
Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Another route would be through
the Straits of Lombok, which is administered by Indonesia.

Island countries in the Pacific have already rejected the
shipment of radioactive waste through their waters. Fiji was the
last country to join in, with its foreign ministry sending an
official objection to the Japanese embassy in Suva on Wednesday.

Caribbean countries have also stated their opposition.

If the ship rounds the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa is
reported to be planning to track its progress along the coast.

Apart from the Philippines, Southeast Asian countries have not
announced a position on the shipment, strengthening Greenpeace's
suspicion that the Pacific Pintail may pass through Indonesian
waters.

Japan needs the plutonium as a raw material for its extensive
nuclear power reactors. The plutonium comes from reprocessing
plants in France and Britain.

Anung said Walhi opposes any shipment of plutonium,
"especially if it passes through Indonesian waters".

The slightest leakage of the radioactive material, which could
occur in an accident, would cause a major catastrophe, he said.

Legislator Laksmiari Priyonggo from the Indonesian Democratic
Party, which attended Friday's discussion, warned of the
possibility of the waste being dumped into the ocean along the
way. "I think it would be very hard to keep track of the ship.
The containers could even be empty by the time they reach Japan,"
she said.

Local human rights activist H.J.C. Princen said that NGOs
"must be confident that they can make a difference."

"Anti-nuclear campaigns must be organized extensively and must
involve a wide section of the public, something which can be
achieved through the mass media," he said.

Greenpeace has drawn up four possible routes which the
plutonium ship might take: through the Caribbean Sea and the
Panama Canal, passing near Hawaii while crossing the Pacific;
around the Cape of Good Hope, across the Indian Ocean and then
either through the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea or
around Australia and then north through the islands of the south
Pacific; through the Mediterranean Ocean and the Suez Canal; and
around Latin America (Cape Horn) and then across the Pacific.

Greenpeace said that the plutonium shipments "are a recipe for
disaster which will only be stopped by public opposition and
political and legal action."

In 1992 a shipment of plutonium from France to Japan provoked
international protests as many countries closed their territorial
waters to the Akatsuki Maru, which carried 1.7 tons of plutonium.
(pwn)