NUCLEAR WASTE OFF-LOADED IN ROKKOSHO

The highlevel nuclear waste on board the Pacific Pintail was off- loaded late yesterday and early today in Rokkosho, northern Japan amidst continued protest at the port of Mutsu Ogawara. The governor of Rokkosho relented in his stand-off with the Japanese government and the plutonium company but local protesters who are adamant that their community should not become a nuclear dump continued to voice their opposition.

Greenpeace has learned that, already, two ships are being prepared to receive more spent nuclear fuel to be transported around the world for reprocessing. Japan, France and the UK, by continuing to take part in the plutonium reprocessing trade, intend to send more than one hundred shipments of spent fuel, plutonium and waste around the globe between now and 2010.

Below is Greenpeace's final release from Mutsu Ogawara about the off-loading of the waste. Additional updates from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty talks at the UN in New York will follow this. That remains the world's best hope for ending this trade and the environmental threats it presents.

Best Wishes and No Nukes! Blair Palese

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NUCLEAR WASTE ARRIVES IN JAPAN TO CONTINUED CONTROVERSY

Mutsu Ogawara, 26 April 1995--Despite continued protest, the Pacific Pintail unloaded its deadly cargo of 14 tonnes of highly radioactive waste in the Northern Japanese port of Mutsu Ogawara.

Greenpeace has called on the Japanese government to stop its plutonium program in response to international controversy and condemnation.

The environmental organisation today warned that two ships, the Pacific Sandpiper and the Pacific Pintail, both operated by Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited (PNTL) of the UK, would be leaving Japan in the coming days with cargoes of highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel bound for plutonium factories in France and Britain. The "reprocessing" of Japanese irradiated fuel in Europe will generate hundreds of tonnes of nuclear waste and tens of tonnes of weapons-usable plutonium.

The imminent transports by the Sandpiper and Pintail are expected to attempt to transit the Panama Canal and Caribbean Sea in some 40 days time. The transit of these shipments through the Caribbean will be in direct conflict with a regional declaration of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) demanding that the Caribbean be bypassed by such nuclear waste and plutonium transports.

The British-flagged Pacific Pintail was delayed from unloading for 24 hours when the Governor of the Aomori Prefecture refused to allow the shipment into port until he had been given assurances that the waste's final resting place would not be in the region.

"This 14 tonne shipment is only the first of some 1500 tonnes of waste due for transport from France and Britain to Japan. The spent fuel which will leave Japan in the next few weeks will create even more waste and weapons-usable plutonium which will be retransported around the globe," said Damon Moglen of Greenpeace International in Tokyo.

"These transports have mobilized countries around the planet to protest the international plutonium trade. In a sense, the industry has sown the seeds of its own demise with these reckless and secretive shipments."

Moglen said this week is the third week of the Non Proliferation Treaty negotiations in New York, where countries have an opportunity to put a stop to the plutonium economy.

"The militaristic plutonium industry creates three things: plutonium, radioactive waste and victims. Somewhere this madness has to stop and the NPT negotiators have the opportunity to do so," said Moglen.

The Pacific Pintail left Cherbourg, France with its 14-tonne cargo of highly radioactive plutonium waste on February 23, 1995.

The Greenpeace ship Solo accompanied the Pintail to provide information to enroute nations threatened by the otherwise secret transport. The nuclear freighter was turned aside from its intended route through the Panama Canal by intense opposition in the Caribbean and Central America.

The Pintail then forced its way through the coastal waters of South America and Cape Horn despite the formal opposition of South American governments. After skirting the dangerous waters off Cape Horn the ship sailed for over four weeks across the Pacific. Ultimately, the Pintail and its cargo was banned by over 35 nations and denounced by numerous others. ends

Contact:
Damon Moglen, Greenpeace Tokyo: ++813-5351-5400
Blair Palese, Cindy Baxter, Greenpeace Communications: ++44171- 833-0600