TL: Greenpeace Statement-Nuclear Shipments Through the Panama Canal SO: Andrew Davis, Greenpeace International DT: 3-AUG-90 15:44:18 GMT Keywords: nuclear weapons nfs oceans greenpeace statements panama warships latin america gp / At this time, hundreds of tonnes of highly radioactive nuclear spent fuel from Japanese reactors, are carried through the Panama Canal on a yearly basis. Each of these shipments is likely to contain more radioactivity than was released during the reactor accident at Chernobyl in 1986. A ship accident involving a load of this irradiated spent fuel would have tragic impact on the people and environment of Panama. While the past decade will have seen the passage of thousands of tonnes of Japanese spent fuel through the Canal, the next decade could be marked by shipments of high level nuclear waste and plutonium as well as further spent fuel shipments. Plans for shipment of plutonium to Japan are scheduled to begin as early as 1992/93 and shipments of high level nuclear waste as early as 1995. These shipments should be stopped. The danger posed to the people of Panama is immense. Greenpeace urges the Panamanian government to ban all further shipments of nuclear spent fuel through the Panama Canal. Plans to ship plutonium and high level waste through the Canal during the next decade should be immediately discontinued. Greenpeace also calls on the U.S. government to support the Panamanian government in guaranteeing the health and well being of the people of Panama. As a partner in the operations of the Panama Canal, through the Panama Canal Commission, the U.S. government has a moral, political, and perhaps legal responsibility to see that these radioactive shipments are suspended until comprehensive environmental assessments are conducted. During the past year and a half, the U.S. has suspended shipments of spent fuel into the U.S. and high level radioactive waste shipments from the U.S. pending environmental assessments. Surely the U.S. government is not prepared to allow shipments prohibited in the U.S. to transit the Panama Canal. The people of Panama have a right to be informed about these shipments and the dangers they pose. They also have a right to receive this information and make their deliberations without the continued passage of shipments through their country. The Japanese government should respect this right and should discontinue all further shipments of spent fuel through the Canal until an assessment has been made. ---------- Command: 15:47 2111107 To: Everyone From: Andrew Davis Date: FRI 3-AUG-90 15:47:23 GMT Subject: gp brief on Pacific Sandpiper (3 Pages) ---------- Greenpeace Briefing Paper The Pacific Sandpiper The Deadly Threat In early August, the Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd. ship, Pacific Sandpiper will transit the Panama Canal with a full cargo of highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel (known as "spent" fuel). The Sandpiper's cargo of spent nuclear reactor fuel could contain 45% more radioactivity than was released during the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The spent fuel on board the Sandpiper is being moved from Japan to reprocessing plants in Europe. No extraordinary precautions will be taken in the Panama Canal as this shipment is a regular occurrence--just like the ten or so such shipments that have taken place per year during the last decade. The Pacific Sandpiper's Current Voyage When the Pacific Sandpiper moves through the Panama Canal in early August it will be on the final leg of a nearly 30,000 mile journey. On April 18, 1990, the Pacific Sandpiper left its home port, Barrow-in-Furness in England, with a cargo of empty casks for the carriage of Japanese spent nuclear fuel. The ship sailed to Cherbourg, France, where the boat picked up additional empty casks from the la Hague nuclear reprocessing plant. The Sandpiper then proceeded across the Atlantic and transitted the Panama Canal into the Pacific on May 11. It arrived in Japan on June 6, and delivered its cargo of empty casks to a number of ports which service Japanese nuclear power plants along the east coast of the island of Honshu. Having unloaded its cargo of empty casks, the Sandpiper then picked up casks which had been filled with spent nuclear fuel. It travelled for over 600 sea miles along the east coast of Honshu with its increasingly large cargo of highly radioactive spent fuel. By the time the Sandpiper left Ikata, its final port stop in Japan, the ship had picked up radioactive cargo from at least five nuclear reactors. Since its departure from Japan on July 11, the Sandpiper has been sailing across the Pacific towards Panama. Upon its expected arrival sometime towards the end of the first week of August, the ship will transit the Panama Canal. It will then continue through the Caribbean and across the Atlantic to Barrow-in-Furness where the ship's radioactive cargo will be moved by rail to the Sellafield reprocessing plant. All told, the ship will have travelled some 15,000 miles, half way around the globe, with its cargo of deadly radioactive waste. The Ship The Pacific Sandpiper is a so called "purpose-built" transport ship designed for the carriage of spent nuclear fuel. The Pacific Sandpiper has the capacity to carry 20 casks of nuclear spent fuel. The ship is owned by Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd, of the UK. The Sandpiper is one of five such ships which are used solely for the carriage of spent nuclear fuel From Japan. The other four ships are the: Pacific Crane, Pacific Pintail, Pacific Swan, and the Pacific Teal. The Cargo The Pacific Sandpiper carries spent nuclear fuel. Spent fuel is the material which is removed from a nuclear reactor after the material is no longer useful in sustaining the reaction which powers the reactor. In the course of its use in the reactor, this spent fuel becomes much more radioactive than it was when it was placed in the reactor. Reactor spent fuel is in fact one of the most concentratedly radioactive materials that we know of. The Japanese send their spent fuel to the Sellafield (UK) and la Hague (France) reprocessing plants. At these plants, plutonium, destined for return to Japan, is extracted from the other radioactive waste in the spent fuel. In the course of this reprocessing, a huge amount of radioactive waste is produced--a certain amount of which is also to be returned to Japan. While spent fuel from Japan will continue to transit the Canal, plans are underway to ship both plutonium and high level radioactive waste back through Panama to Japan. The Pacific Sandpiper has cargo capacity for 20 casks of spent fuel. Each of these casks can weigh as much as 110 tonnes and can contain 3.25 tonnes of irradiated uranium fuel. Accordingly, the Sandpiper is capable of carrying as much as 65 tonnes of spent fuel. The Threat As mentioned above, spent nuclear fuel is extraordinarily radioactive material. With a maximum cargo capacity of about 65 tonnes of spent fuel, the Pacific Sandpiper could be carrying material emitting 45% more radioactivity than was vented during the reactor accident at Chernobyl. Radioactive contamination from Chernobyl has forced the permanent evacuation of some half a million people, the abandonment of about 50,000 square kilometers of farmland, and is now thought to have caused an economic impact of between $283-358 billion. If there were an accident involving the Pacific Sandpiper and its cargo of spent fuel, the results would be tragic. If a serious fire, explosion and or collision were to break open the Sandpiper's spent fuel casks and distribute the radioactive materials within, results could include: -Mass evacuations of major populations--including Panama City, Balboa, Colon and/or Cristobal -Long term contamination of the waters of Gatun Lake and the rest of the Canal -Contamination of local animals, vegetables and fruit -Immediate loss of human life with long term cancer fatalities and mutations -The contamination and closure of the Panama Canal for decades if not centuries --END-- . ---------- Command: 8 Green2 3-AUG-90 15:51 1311943 To: Everyone From: Andrew Davis Date: FRI 3-AUG-90 15:51:31 GMT Subject: gp brief on spent fuels shipments through canal (3 Pages) ---------- Greenpeace Briefing Paper Nuclear Transports through the Panama Canal The Panama Canal is major thoroughfare for international shipping from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. More than 12,000 oceangoing ships a year transit the Panama Canal during their trans-oceanic voyages. Unfortunately a number of these ships contain cargoes of radioactive materials. Such cargoes range from material of low radioactive content bound for reactors around the world, to highly radioactive nuclear spent fuel and waste, to "Special Nuclear Materials" with which nuclear weapons could be produced. These cargoes are in turn transported on board ships as diverse as specially built spent fuel carriers to normal cargo container ships carrying a mixture of consumer goods, foodstuffs and radioactive waste. Greenpeace believes that no radioactive material should be transported, but we are particularly concerned about a range of extremely dangerous materials which are currently, and will be increasingly shipped through the Panama Canal. These deadly cargoes include the following: -Highly radioactive nuclear spent fuel from Japan on its way to the la Hague (France) and Sellafield (UK) reprocessing plants. Spent fuel is the highly radioactive byproduct of nuclear reactors. The fuel, as it sustains the nuclear reaction which provides energy in the reactor, is itself transformed in the course of the fuel's use. The spent fuel which is removed from the reactor is therefore a veritable witches brew of extremely toxic radionuclides--some of which will be poisonous for tens of thousands of years. The Japanese have contracts with reprocessing plants in England and France to which they send their spent fuel. At these plants, plutonium, destined for return to Japan (see below), is separated from the highly radioactive spent fuel. In the course of this separation process, a tremendous amount of radioactive waste is produced (reprocessing spent fuel produces over 160 times as much nuclear waste as was started with). As part of its contract, Japan must accept the return of some of this waste (see below). Since 1978, shipments of Japanese spent fuel have sailed through the Panama Canal and Caribbean. At this time, there is at least one shipment every month to month and a half. Shiploads of radioactive spent fuel could contain 75% more radioactivity than was released during the reactor accident at Chernobyl in 1986. -High level nuclear waste in a glasseous form going back to Japan from the Sellafield and la Hague reprocessing plants. As is noted above, a tremendous amount of nuclear waste is produced in the course of reprocessing spent fuel. As part of their contracts with Sellafield and la Hague, the Japanese have agreed to receive nuclear waste produced by the reprocessing of their spent fuel. This highly radioactive waste is supposed to be mixed into a molten glass solution to form highly concentrated glassified waste. This glass is then to be loaded into casks and put on board the same ships which carry spent fuel from Japan. Given the intense concentration of high level waste in these glass rods, a full ship-load of glassified waste could contain nearly 15 times the radioactivity vented during the accident at Chernobyl. From 1995 through 2005, some 60 casks containing a total of 1,200 glass rods are scheduled to be transported by sea via the Caribbean and Panama Canal on the return journey to Japan. At the same time, The U.S. has signed an agreement with the West German government to ship this same kind of high level nuclear waste to the FRG. In all, the U.S. plans on sending 32 canisters of glassified waste, with a total gross weight of 31,500 lbs, from a nuclear weapons production facility in Washington state. The material was slated to be shipped on board three normal cargo ships as early as the Fall of 1989 but public concern and protest in West Germany and the U.S. has held up the shipments and is conducting an environmental assessment of the shipments. According to U.S. officials, the shipments could leave the U.S. early in 1991. These shipments are most likely to be shipped from Seattle, Washington or Portland, Oregon. In both of these cases, this radioactive waste would go through the Panama Canal. This radioactive waste is as much as twice as radioactive as nuclear spent fuel. -Highly refined plutonium on its way to Japan from la Hague and Sellafield. Spent fuel contains plutonium which is built up in the fuel during its use in a nuclear power plant. During reprocessing, this plutonium is extracted. The plutonium is then used in nuclear weapons or could be used in new types of nuclear power plants. The Japanese intend to build a number of these new reactors and therefore have contracted for the return of the plutonium extracted from their spent fuel. Accordingly, Japan is supposed to receive between 100,000 and 400,000 kilograms of plutonium (for reference, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki contained only 5 kilograms of plutonium--modern weapons contain less). The plutonium from Sellafield and la Hague is scheduled to be transported by sea through the Caribbean and Panama Canal beginning as early as 1992/93. Plutonium presents multiple dangers. It is an extremely toxic element--a single microgram quantity of plutonium (smaller than a grain of sand) if inhaled into the human lung is capable of causing fatal lung cancer. The dispersion of this material in an accident could be disastrous. At the same time, plutonium is the most highly prized fuel for nuclear weapons. As such, these shipments would be of particular interest to countries or organizations wishing to seize plutonium or sabotage the shipments for political or personal reasons. -Highly Enriched Uranium spent fuel from research reactors in Asia, Australia and Europe on its way to reprocessing plants in the U.S. and Europe. Since the 1950's, the U.S. has signed nuclear cooperation agreements with over 43 countries around the world. As part of these agreements, the U.S. has provided these countries with highly enriched uranium fuel for research reactors in the client countries. Because highly enriched uranium, in both the fresh and spent fuel, can be used in nuclear weapons, the U.S. has offered/requested that the spent fuel be sent back to the U.S.. Return shipments of HEU spent fuel have been returned to the U.S. since the late 1960's--sometimes through the Caribbean and Panama Canal. As of Jan. 1, 1989, the U.S. has had a self-imposed moratorium on these return shipments due to public concern and protest over the potential danger of the transports. The U.S. government is conducting an environmental assessment of these shipments after which it hopes to resume its receipt of the HEU spent fuel. Accordingly, shipments of this dangerous material could resume as early as late this year. As of 1984, the U.S. had exported about 16,700 kg of HEU to other countries and had received about 1,500 kg of HEU spent fuel. In the meantime, with the apparent acceptance of the U.S., the Dounreay reprocessing plant in Scotland is apparently negotiating contracts with a number of these client countries to store and reprocess their HEU spent fuel. HEU spent fuel from Australia and Asia bound for Dounreay would of course be shipped through the Panama Canal and Caribbean. --END-- ---------- Command: 9 Green2 3-AUG-90 15:55 0816838 To: Everyone From: Andrew Davis Date: FRI 3-AUG-90 15:55:22 GMT Subject: gp brief on accidents in panama canal (3 pages) ---------- Greenpeace Briefing Paper Nuclear Spent Fuel Shipments in the Panama Canal; An Accident Waiting to Happen Accidents in the Panama Canal The Panama Canal is one of the most highly travelled bodies of water in the World. On average, over 12,000 oceangoing ships a year pass through the Canal--in given years, over 14,000 ships have passed through. On average, 33 ships a day pass through the Panama Canal--as many as 65 ships have begun their transit through the Canal in a single day. At the same time, the accident rate in the Canal is one accident for every 261 transits--between 45 and 50 accidents a year. This means that an accident occurs in the Canal, on average, once every 7-8 days! In part, this accident rate is due to the concentration of traffic involved and the mechanical and navigational problems of moving through the Canal. But the Canal is also a demanding and unforgiving body of water. In an article published in the Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce, the Canal is described as: "...a perilous, treacherous waterway, with dense, suddenly appearing fog banks, restricted waters and perhaps unique currents." It is a testament to the hard work of the employees of the Canal that more accidents do not occur. Problems with the Carriage of Spent Fuel Despite assurances from the nuclear industry, there are a number of obvious and serious problems relating to the transport of nuclear spent fuel. The essential policy of the nuclear industry is to maintain that the casks, which carry the spent fuel, will contain the radioactivity and material within the cask under normal conditions and will protect the contents under accident conditions. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) tests cask designs under a series of conditions in order to assure their capacity to maintain their integrity under a range of accident conditions including: -a drop from 30 feet onto an unyielding surface -a drop from 4 feet onto a spike 6 inches in diameter -submersion in water at a depth of 45 ft for up to 8 hrs -a hydrocarbon fire of 1,850 F for 30 minutes While such tests may appear rigorous they are neither adequate nor do they assess real damage for or under realistic conditions. For instance, while the IAEA fire test is for 30 minutes at a temperature of 1,475 F, average shipboard fires are both far longer and hotter than the parameters of the test. According to the International Maritime Organization, on average, shipboard fires last for more than 20 hours. Other studies have also shown that actual hydrocarbon fires burn at temperatures ranging from 1,500 F to 2,400 F. What do these obvious shortcomings mean? A U.S. report published by the IAEA found: 1) "A cask will survive a minor fire of the order of 30 minutes, without loss of integrity." 2) "A fire lasting an hour or more would cause the pressure relief devices to vent. This intermediate fire would release the contaminated cooling water but would not fail any of the fuel elements." 3) "After approximately four hours some fuel elements will begin to fail." 4) "An extended fire of nine hours or more might be required to fail all the fuel pins." These results show that in a fire of as little as one hour, the spent fuel casks will expel their radioactive coolant water, and that after as little as 4 hours, the fuel rods in the casks will begin to melt and will therefore become all the more liable to release radioactivity to the environment. It is worth noting that the second most transported commodity through the Panama Canal is petroleum products. A collision, fire or explosion involving a petroleum or chemical transport and Pacific ship could obviously have terrifying impact. Although Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd. does not like to discuss these matters, they have none the less had to deal with this kind of problem. The Pacific ships have now been built with the capacity to vent radioactivity to the environment if there is a problem with the casks. PNTL in fact says that this will be likely to happen one time for each of its five ships within a 15 year period. Accident Scenarios It is very hard to postulate the effects of an accident involving a spent fuel shipment in the Panama Canal. Generally speaking, a shipboard fire which breached the spent fuel casks could release radionuclides the environment in a manner similar to that during a nuclear reactor accident. While weather conditions would effect the direction and diffusion of the radioactivity, the heat and air current caused by the fire would loft the radionuclides up above the ship forming a plume of radioactivity. Humans and animals downwind of the accident would be victim to fallout and inhalation of radioactive particles. Fallout would also cause the radioactive contamination of food and water supplies. At the same time, effects of such an accident would also depend on the capacity to control the fire and evacuate and decontaminate effected localities. Fighting a fire involving nuclear materials is both very dangerous and very complicated. Will those involved have the correct clothing and equipment to protect them? Will they have the correct material with which to fight the fire and limit the spread of radioactivity? At the same time, will local authorities be able to quickly and effectively identify the nature of contamination and evacuate effected or endangered populations? And what about decontamination? As we have seen from the impact of Chernobyl, some half a million permanent evacuations and the loss of 50,000 sq. kilometers, claims of the nuclear industry about conducting orderly and effective decontamination have collapsed under the horrible weight of radioactive reality. Without extensive studies it is not possible to fully evaluate all the effects of accidents involving shipments of spent fuel in the Panama Canal. But it is clear that the effects of a major accident would be catastrophic. --END-- ---------- Command: [Greenbase Inventory April 22, 1991 ] =======##=======