From: Greenpeace vessel MV Solo tracking Pacific Pintail
Date: THU 30-MAR-95 05:52:19 GMT - DAY 36, PART I
The Pacific Pintail's position (0700 GMT) is 28 degrees 34 minutes south, and 115 degrees and 00 minutes west, and the ship's course is 320 degrees, sailing at a speed of 12 knots through the Pacific.
We've learned through Greenpeace Pacific that the islands of Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas) has sent a message to the Japanese Embassy in FIJI protesting the plutonium shipment. It refers to Greenpeace's Lymans report which sites safety concerns about the shipment and its cargo. The FIJI TIMES and ISLANDS BUSINESS (main regional magazine) have run full page ads by a group called Japanese Citizens Concerned About Plutonium, protesting the Pintail's voyage with clip-off coupons to be sent by readers to the Japanese Embassy in FIJI.
This transport of highly radioactive waste is an example of the renewed dedication of the Japanese government to its massive program of civil plutonium production, procurement and stockpiling. As part of this program, and supported by the United Kingdom and France, Japan is quietly preparing to make more than one hundred trans-oceanic shipments of plutonium, spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste before the year 2000.
These shipments are legitimised by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty's (NPT) promotion of nuclear power and plutonium reprocessing. Ultimately the only solution is to halt the industry that produces the plutonium waste onboard the Pacific Pintail. Greenpeace is calling for a world-wide ban on the production of all plutonium, both military and commercial. The organization is encouraging countries around the world to call for a halt to the plutonium industry at the NPT Extension Conference in April at the United Nations in New York.
Greenpeace also calls on the Pacific Island States to stand up pressure from nuclear weapon states and to oppose indefinite extension of the Treaty for which Pacific States will play a crucial role. An indefinite extension would protect the position the nuclear weapon states enjoy in the world-order and their special ability to threaten global security with their nuclear forces. France, the United Kingdom, the USA and the other nuclear weapon states have been actively promoting an indefinite extension of the NPT.
Greenpeace calls on countries along possible shipping routes to prohibit these highly dangerous radioactive transports from the waters under their jurisdiction. The Greenpeace legal paper "The Right to Control Passage of Nuclear Transport Vessels Under International Law" is available from Greenpeace International, or via the Internet as a hypertext document. Return to the main home page and access the Multilateral Treaties section or go directly to: http://www.greenpeace.org/~intlaw/nuk-law.html
For additional information on the Pacific Pintail's voyage or it's cargo of plutonium waste, contact Bas Bruyne on the Solo (phone: ++874-1301166--WARNING $10 PER MINUTE), or Karen Richardson at Greenpeace UK (phone: ++44-171-226-3151). Photo, video, or other media requests to Blair Palese at Greenpeace Communications (phone: ++44-171-833-0600).
Best regards and No Nukes!
Ulf Birgander (Captain)
From: Greenpeace vessel MV Solo tracking Pacific Pintail
Date: THU 30-MAR-95 19:09:03 GMT - DAY 36, PART II
The Pacific Pintail's position (1900 GMT) is 26 degrees 34 minutes south, and 116 degrees and 48 minutes west, and the ship's course is 320 degrees, sailing at a speed of 12.5 knots.
The Pacific islands have had more than their share of other nation's nuclear testing and waste dumping. The French have been testing nuclear weapons both atmospherically and underground in the Pacific islands up until their recent acceptance of a temporary ban on such tests. The US as well used the Bikini Atol to test atmospheric nuclear weapons before moving all tests underground in Nevada. They too are taking part in the current nuclear test moratorium for the time being.
These countries and others have looked to the Pacific for nuclear waste dumping as well as for chemical weapons storage and incineration. Greenpeace's Pacific campaign has been fighting these practices in the region for almost two decades.
The people of the Pacific have become vocal opponents to their world being used in this way by the nuclear states--one of the reasons this nuclear waste shipment now travelling through their waters is considered so heinous. In areas where nuclear testing has been carried out, long-term health impacts have been reported in high numbers--thyroid cancer, miscarriages, birth defects. Greenpeace has released a number of reports along with photo and video documentation throughout our years of work there and we've joined Pacific islanders in their fight to prevent the nuclearization of their islands.
Greenpeace calls on countries in the Pacific and elsewhere along possible shipping routes to prohibit these highly dangerous radioactive transports from the waters under their jurisdiction. The Greenpeace legal paper "The Right to Control Passage of Nuclear Transport Vessels Under International Law" is available from Greenpeace International, or via the Internet as a hypertext document. Return to the main home page and access the Multilateral Treaties section or go directly to: http://www.greenpeace.org/~intlaw/nuk-law.html
For additional information on the Pacific Pintail's voyage or it's cargo of plutonium waste, contact Bas Bruyne on the Solo (phone: ++872-1301166--WARNING $10 PER MINUTE), or Karen Richardson at Greenpeace UK (phone: ++44-171-226-3151). Photo, video, or other media requests to Blair Palese at Greenpeace Communications (phone: ++44-171-833-0600).
Best regards and No Nukes!
Ulf Birgander (Captain)