Pacific Magazine > Magazine > February 28, 2008

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Kabua Calls For Nuke Waste Storage

In December, Marshall Islands President Amata Kabua requested the U.S. Congress consider the islands as a possible site for the storage of high-level nuclear wastes from U.S. nuclear power plants.

In budget legislation passed just before Christmas, the Congress voted to include the Marshall Islands as a possible candidate. President Kabua said the Marshall Islands wants a feasibility study to determine if it is safe to store nuclear waste in the islands. The substantial compensation that would accompany the dump, suggested as $100 million annually, interests the Marshall Islands.

The proposal, however, sparked several days of debate when the Nitijela (Parliament) convened in early January. Senator Tony DeBrum challenged the proposal, asking why the Marshalls is seeking a feasibility study for nuclear storage when all 50 states and five U.S. territories don’t want to be considered as a site for nuclear waste.

Speaking for the president, adviser Glen Elkins told the Nitijela that the $100 million compensation doesn’t mean the same “development opportunity” to a state such
as Nevada, which has gambling, as it would  to the Marshall Islands.

Bikini and Enewetak, site of 66 nuclear tests during the 1940s and 1950s, and
uninhabited Erikub Atoll, were mentioned on the Nitijela floor as sites for possible study. Senator Carl Heine said that storing nuclear waste on an uninhabited island might be isolated from the U.S., but it wasn’t isolated from the surrounding
atolls of the Marshall Islands.