After PCB, here comes nuclear waste • DEQ assails use of CNMI waters to transship radioactive material

The Division of Environmental Quality has condemned the practice of using the CNMI waters for the transshipment of nuclear wastes without informing the island government.

A comprehensive report entitled, Shipment of Nuclear Waste By Sea, and Its Impact on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, revealed that these ships carrying large amounts of weapons grade plutonium sailed from Europe to Japan on July 2, 1999 and came within a few hundred miles of the CNMI — with the U.S. blessing.
The report was prepared by the Office of Rep. Melvin O. Faisao, chair of the Federal and Foreign Relations Committee.

DEQ Director Ike Cabrera urged the CNMI Legislature to adopt immediate and appropriate measures to protect the people and natural resources of the Commonwealth.

In a letter to Faisao, the DEQ chief acknowledged that the situation presents the most alarming human health and environmental risks. He expressed concern on the “far-reaching and long lasting effects of any accident on the environment and people of the CNMI, especially as the report documented the safety concerns of the shipping containers and potential for terrorist activity.”

Cabrera said DEQ is committed to assisting Faisao in rectifying the egregious situation.

“The fact that the U.S. Government can ship extremely dangerous radioactive waste within yards of our shoreline without even providing CNMI notification of such shipments is appalling,” said Cabrera. He said DEQ agrees with Faisao’s recommendation that this situation must be immediately corrected.

The threat to the Northern Marianas from these transshipments of plutonium and radioactive waste needs immediate attention since the CNMI is prone to typhoons, is strategically located in the Pacific, and is being used for periodic U.S. military activity.

Unfair

Article I Section 9 of the Commonwealth Constitution specifically prohibits the storage or dumping of nuclear waste or materials. However, the document is silent with regards to the shipment of nuclear waste through the CNMI waters.

In addition, Section 104 of the Covenant to establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in political union with the United States of America, delegates to the U.S. complete responsibility for foreign affairs and defense, which the U.S. interprets as giving it complete authority to allow or not the movement of foreign vessels through the exclusive economic zone. This includes ships carrying high level nuclear waste, Faisao said.

“This political situation puts the Commonwealth at a clear disadvantage compared to other Pacific States with regards to both controlling the movements of ships carrying nuclear waste, and making our voice heard in the international community,” the report said.

Members of the South Pacific Forum have made specific conditions and limitation on the transportation of hazardous materials throughout the region under the Waigani Convention.

Although this includes the EEZ of the CNMI, this does not apply to the Northern Marianas since it does not have the legal authority to enter into such treaties.

Death

In case a ship carrying nuclear waste either sinks or catches fire in the CNMI waters, the entire island would have to be evacuated, and virtually all the residents could expect to die of cancer, said Dr. Marvin Resnikoff of Radioactive Waste Management Associates. He thoroughly researched on the issue using Pohnpei as an example.

Over the next 15 years, up to 30 shipments of high-level waste will pass through the South Pacific en route from France to Japan. Each shipment will hold several heavy metal cylindrical containers (casks), each cask containing about 575 times the amount of cesium and strontium released by the Hiroshima bomb.

Only a very small percentage of this massive inventory need to be released to cause major contamination of an island. Needless to say, countries along the sea route are most likely not equipped to handle a radiological accident should one take place.

Shipments

Fears expressed by the international community are based on recent new cycle of sea shipments of large cargoes of highly toxic radioactive materials.

In November 1992, Japan shipped 2200 pounds (one metric ton) of plutonium in a refitted freighter called the Akatsuki Maru from France to Japan, going around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and then south of Australia and New Zealand before turning north traverse the Pacific to Japan.

In February 1995, the British vessel Pacific Pintail carried 28 canisters of high-level vitrified nuclear waste in glass blocks, each weighing 1,000 pounds, going around Cape Horn at the tip of South America and then across the Pacific.

In early 1997, the British vessel Pacific Teal carried 40 such canisters of high-level vitrified nuclear waste, going around Africa and then up through the Tasman Sea.

In January 1998, the British vessel Pacific Swan carried 60 canisters of the same toxic waste, going through the Panama Canal. French officials estimate that one or two of such shipments will be made each year for the next 15 years.

“These highly-toxic and long-lived poisons could endanger large coastal populations or create an ecologically dead zone in the ocean for thousands of years. They are extremely difficult to handle, and the equipment necessary to salvage them in the event of an accident have not yet been developed,” the report said.

If a vessel carrying such a cargo collided with another vessel causing an intensely hot and long-lasting shipboard fire, the report warned that radioactive particles could become airborne, putting all nearby life forms in grave danger of catastrophic health impacts.

In 1995, Brazil, Argentina and Chile exerted every possible pressure to keep the Pacific Pintail from traveling through their territorial waters and exclusive economic zones. In August 1998, Argentina and Chile conducted joint naval exercises to prepare for a hypothetical accident in which a ship carrying ultra hazardous radioactive materials collided with an iceberg.

Second class

While the duty to consult is one of the most venerable and well-established principles of international law, the shipping and nuclear nations are reluctant to acknowledge that they must consult with affected coastal nations regarding these ultra hazardous shipments.

They agree that such consultations would interfere with their freedom of navigation and may assist terrorists who wish to attack the shipments.

But Prof. Jon Van Dyke of the University of Hawaii Law School argues that freedom of navigation is not an absolute freedom and is subject to qualifications in the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention and other international agreements.

An expert on maritime and international law, Van Dyke said shipping and nuclear nations are now engaged in a process of consultation and notification with regard to many of the affected coastal states.

Some larger states have been notified in advance of shipments, but the smaller Pacific and Caribbean nations have been left in the dark regarding these shipments, and treated as second-class citizens and denied the right to learn what is going on. “Obviously, such a situation is unfair and unacceptable,” he said.

Safety

Preparing an environmental impact assessment is a logical way to fulfill the obligation of informing the affected nations, which is required by the U.N. Law of the Sea Convention.

The report noted the importance of listening to the concerns expressed by the affected nations as they may have ideas regarding shipping lanes and weather patterns that can reduce the risks to these voyages.

The areas of Western Pacific, for instance, are subject to intense typhoons during certain times of the year. The coastal states’ understanding of the shipments and their cargoes can enable them to use their rescue equipment in a manner that is more likely to be helpful in an emergency.

“A nation that is consulted about a project outside its borders that may affect it does not have a veto power over the project. But it does have the right to understand the risks it is being subjected to and to offer constructive advice to reduce those risks,” said the report.