Dangerous shipment of Japanese High-Level
Radioactive Nuclear Waste Crossing Pacific Ocean
on Defective Vessel
08 February 2010 (Kyoto, Japan)
For more information contact: +81-90-3620-9251 (Smith)
For immediate release: A shipment of 28 canisters of highly toxic Japanese vitrified high level radioactive waste departed Sellafield, UK on 20 January aboard the Pacific Sandpiper bound for Japan. The cargo is today passing through the Panama Canal and will be entering the Pacific Ocean momentarily. The high level waste (HLW) has been produced by the reprocessing of spent reactor fuel from Japanese electric utilities. It is the first of this kind of shipment from the UK.
A press release issued 25 January by the Nuclear Free Local Authorities in the UK states:
“The Pacific Sandpiper has recently been issued with three Statutory Memos demanding the completion of work related to crew safety, Emergency Towing Procedures, and engine room fire extinguishing systems. The available evidence implies that this work has not yet been carried out.
During recent Port State Control Inspections in Europe and Japan, the Pacific Sandpiper has been shown to have a number of deficiencies including Fire Safety measures.
The Asia Pacific Port State Control Inspection (PSCI) organisation’s website currently reports that the Pacific Sandpiper has a Target Factor of 81 and a High Risk Level.
If this vessel was an oil or chemical tanker, seeking to carry a full cargo of oil or toxic chemicals across two major oceans and through the globally identified Marine High Risk Areas between the UK and Japan, it would be considered as a pariah ship and a potential toxic time bomb. ”
The Pacific Sandpiper is still operating despite having been built to the same design and construction standards as predecessor vessels decommissioned or scrapped following discovery of “run away” corrosion.
Findings of a report* issued April 2009 and commissioned by NFLA (Nuclear Free Local Authorities), a coalition of more than 70 local authorities in Ireland and the UK, found this fleet to be:
*Report by independent marine pollution consultant, Tim Deere-Jones.(April 2009)
“It is unconscionable that Japan and the UK are engaging in this dangerous transport with an old, defective ship, passing it across the Pacific with no viable emergency plan in place” stated Aileen Mioko Smith, executive director of Green Action based in Japan.
Martin Forwood of CORE (Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment) is quoted as saying, “The high security surrounding today’s shipment is testament to the dangers posed by this highly radioactive material and the unwholesome global trade in which the nuclear industry is immersed. Sellafield needs to wake up to the harsh reality that today’s world and its oceans are a significantly more dangerous place than they were 30 years ago when the contracts were signed.”
This shipment is the first of many such transports scheduled for return to Japan. It is expected that Japan will receive a total of up to 1000 HLW canisters at the rate of around one shipment (4 transport flasks) from Sellafield each year.
According to the press release issued by CORE (Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment) on 20 January, future shipments will be not be made on the Pacific Sandpiper (launched1985) which, as the oldest ship of the Pacific Nuclear Transport (PNTL) fleet and already at its 25 year sell-by date, is due for retirement.