Viewpoint
Closing The Nuclear Highway
In the Marshall Islands, Kiritimati and French Polynesia, Pacific islanders are living with the legacy of the nuclear activities of metropolitan powers. For some it is a legacy of ill health, for others economic hardship and dislocation, exacerbated by the refusal of governments such as the United States to adequately compensate nuclear survivors.
But Pacific Islanders face another nuclear threat, that of the regular nuclear shipments plying the Exclusive Economic Zones of a number of islands nations en route to Japan. These shipments could devastate Pacific livelihoods, economies and environments in the event of an accident. They are part of a cycle that perpetuates the production of dangerous nuclear materials.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
 |
|
|
In 1999 a shipment of plutonium Mixed Oxide (MOX) went to Japan, through the Pacific to great protest from governments, churches, environmental groups and unions. There were protests outside the Japanese embassy in Suva, and discussions between diplomats. Then it was discovered that British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) falsified crucial safety data relating to that shipment and Japan refused to accept the fuel.
The controversial shipment is due to be returned to the United Kingdom in July. The route through several Pacific Islands exclusive economic zones and the Tasman Sea is preferred. This preference partly stems from the perception that the Pacific Islands are weaker in their opposition than other en route states, particularly in the Caribbean and South America. It means that we could face up to 80 shipments of nuclear materials through our waters over the next decade.
In response to the shipments, Pacific Islands States, through the Pacific Islands Forum, have been engaged in liability and compensation discussions for some years. You would think that the experience of the Marshall Islands, still awaiting nuclear compensation payments, would have taught us something.
Nonetheless, the discussions continue, although Forum member, Australia, has its own nuclear industry and a reason to keep the nuclear highway through the Pacific open. The liability negotiations are averaging one unproductive meeting a year. In addition, the ten million dollar "goodwill fund" agreed between Japan and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat has complicated these negotiations as there have been different perceptions among Forum member countries as to whether the liability and compensation negotiations and the fund are linked. Statements from the Forum are becoming weaker.
Pacific Islands countries often speak of a sense of impotence and frustration about their inability to stop these shipments. But a benchmark has been set by the Caribbean Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) which in May this year said: "The COFCOR reiterates, in the strongest possible terms, its implacable and steadfast opposition to the continued use of the Caribbean Sea for the trans-shipment of nuclear waste. It urges those responsible to respect the clearly expressed wishes of the governments and peoples of Caribbean Basin states to desist from this practise which represents the most devastating threat to the safety and security of the region." The COFCOR says it will explore all legal and other means of stopping the shipments.
New Zealand Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Phil Goff has also revealed that nuclear transport states have agreed not to enter New Zealand's exclusive economic zone. In March last year, the Rio Group of 19 Latin American countries invoked their rights to protect their EEZs under the International Law of the Sea.
Other regions are standing firm. Now it is time for Pacific governments to make public statements of opposition to the shipments, demand assurances that the plutonium shipment will stay out of their EEZs, and where possible, cooperate to send out patrol boats to police their EEZs. Pacific Islands governments need to take charge in regional fora too, and tell Australia that its nuclear ambitions are our nuclear nightmares.
Angie Heffernan is a Greenpeace campaigner based in Suva, Fiji.
