Hazards Caused by Nuclear Waste Show Disregard for People's Basic Safety

Workers' Daily Internet Edition : Article Index :

Hazards Caused by Nuclear Waste Show Disregard for People's Basic Safety

Protests against Reckless BNFL Transport of Nuclear Material

Israeli Increases Diplomatic Drive to Oust Arafat

An Official Ratification of A Deeply Rooted Racism

Almost 90 per cent of Britain's hazardous nuclear waste stockpile, including atomic bomb waste, is so badly stored it could explode or leak at any time, The Observer has reported.

A nuclear industry report the newspaper obtained revealed that medium-level radioactive waste with the equivalent mass to 725 double-decker buses is being stored in a dangerous manner. And the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee discovered that 88 percent of Britain's intermediate-level nuclear waste had not been treated for safe storage at up to 24 British locations.

The report concluded that volatile material can spontaneously combust in air, explode on contact with water or leak in liquid form that can be found at nuclear sites across Britain.

Despite this, British Nuclear Fuels on Tuesday paved the way for its re-emergence as a privatised nuclear power operator and so-called clean-up expert by taking on an extra £2bn in waste liabilities to be funded by the state.

BNFL is technically bankrupt, with more liabilities than assets. But the Blair government is planning to bail it out by removing £20bn worth of nuclear liabilities – and giving them to the taxpayer. This, says its chief executive, Norman Askew, will "liberate the company".

BNFL was accused on Wednesday of using British government grants for environmental clean-ups to subsidise its day-to-day running costs. Massive losses for the state-owned nuclear giant coincided with a report by a nuclear analyst saying BNFL has been re-directing money from a fund established to deal with its liabilities.

Commissioned by Green Party MEP Nuala Ahern, the examination of BNFL's reports and accounts, written by independent expert Mike Sadnicki, also claims the company is losing money on the Thorp reprocessing plant at Sellafield.

The findings of the Sadnicki report should be investigated by the British National Audit Authority, according to Nuala Ahern. The MEP is also complaining to the European Commission that the British government is effectively subsidising the running costs of the company, in contravention of EU regulations. "The main finding of this report is they were apparently using money for waste management and clean-up for current operations," she said.

The Sadnicki report also says BNFL has paid over the odds to acquire foreign nuclear companies and has seriously underestimated its liabilities. The company's published accounts justified a previous report by Mike Sadnicki, again commissioned by the Green Party MEP, that stated BNFL was practically bankrupt, according to Nuala Ahern. "BNFL's accounts admit huge losses, yet the company said for years it was making money from reprocessing," she said.

Less than two weeks ago, the British government estimated Britain's nuclear clean-up bill to have risen to £68bn, and said that responsibility for the clean-up is to be taken away from BNFL and handed over to a new government agency.

BNFL represents what remains of Britain’s state nuclear power industry, comprising its fuel and waste operations and its older nuclear reactors. The rest of the industry was privatised in 1996 and formed the backbone of the company known as British Energy.

Having announced record losses of £2.3bn, BNFL pressed the government for early legislation to set up the proposed new Liabilities Management Authority, or LMA, that will take over more than £40bn of liabilities on its sites. The establishment of the LMA is also seen as a precursor to a part-privatisation of BNFL, as the company would look more attractive to investors without its inherited historic liabilities.

BNFL is eagerly anticipating the establishment of the new agency that the government has promised will take over its expensive liabilities. Details were announced in a White Paper on July 4, causing BNFL to postpone plans to publish its annual report that day.

"The UK government's decision to establish the LMA was the most important BNFL-related decision for many years," said Norman Askew. "It will remove a substantial proportion of our net liabilities from the balance sheet. We therefore stand on the threshold of fundamental change within our company."

As the company pressed for legislation governing the LMA to be announced in the next session of parliament, it emerged that the group's two US units, Westinghouse and BNFL Inc, had been paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to US political parties. Norman Askew, the chief executive, said both he and his board had been unaware of these controversial payments until recently.

BNFL wants legislation to be announced in the next session of parliament and to be enacted preferably by the autumn of 2003 or April 2004 at the latest.

The LMA "enables the rest of the company to be put into a very competitive and commercial position," said chairman Hugh Collum, alluding to plans for a partial privatisation which he believes will now take place in 2006.

"The establishment of the LMA will liberate the company," he says in BNFL's annual report, which is viewed by anti-nuclear campaigners as a sustained lobby for a dozen new nuclear power stations. The report is due to be published later this month.

BNFL's loss last year included £375m of provisions for the early closure of two Magnox power stations, Calder Hall and Chapelcross. Its generating business lost a further £160m and is likely to lose even more in the current year when reduced output at the Thorp reprocessing plant could also depress earnings.

"We are technically insolvent," Norman Askew conceded as he reported that BNFL's net asset deficit is now £1.84bn. But the group can carry on trading as it has £1bn in cash and a further £9bn in guarantees from the government to meet its net share (£12.8bn) of liabilities.

"We have run out of money to discharge these liabilities for many years to come," he said. "We rely on the secretary of state's statement that when the LMA comes in, this will reconstruct our balance-sheet." BNFL will transfer about £20bn in liabilities to the LMA.

Norman Askew said the liabilities, dating back to the 50s, were mostly on management of waste from Britain's original atomic bomb programme and early Magnox reactors. The waste was originally due to be stored in a repository by waste management body Nirex, but its plans have been abandoned. "We cannot wait any longer and need to put it in a safe and passive form," the chief executive said, pointing to the need for new facilities.

On Wednesday, BNFL said it would cost £1.9 billion more than previously expected to clean up Britain's 40-year-old nuclear waste problems. The nuclear fuel and waste company said the revised bill for the clean-up was the company’s "best estimate" at this stage, but warned that there were still "inherent uncertainties" involved in calculating the cost of cleaning up nuclear sites – including those at Sellafield in Cumbria, where Britain's worst nuclear accident occurred in the 1950s. BNFL said it would take an exceptional charge of £2.35 billion, including the cost of closing two Magnox reactors, pushing its losses for the year to March 31 to £2.33 billion compared with a £66 million loss a year ago.

These stockpiles consist of all the medium-level wastes created by more than 50 years of civil and military nuclear activities at Sellafield, Chapelcross and elsewhere. It is estimated that there are currently 44,100 cubic metres of nuclear waste in storage, plus another 67,300 cubic metres to come from decommissioning defunct nuclear facilities.

The waste is likely to be encapsulated in concrete and stored in stainless steel drums. But Pete Roche of Greenpeace said: "The real agenda is to use the LMA to give them the freedom to go off and build more nuclear reactors and create more waste when they don't know how to handle it." BNFL's plan is to concentrate on building new reactors, designed by its subsidiary Westinghouse, in Britain and around the world. "Specifically we expect our expertise in new reactor design to pave the way for our participation in the resurgent global nuclear energy market," Norman Askew predicted. BNFL is promoting two new reactors, known as AP600 and AP1000, as replacements for existing stations such as those at Hunterston in Ayrshire and Torness in East Lothian.

The British government built nuclear reactors as early as the 1950s and retained possession of the world's largest uranium mines long after US oil companies had sold off theirs in the 1960s. The government was drawn to the use of nuclear power with the aim of servicing the building of nuclear weapons within the context of their dreams of rebuilding a disappearing empire.

Currently a highly dangerous nuclear cargo is being transported across the Pacific en route from Japan to Britain. Two ships carrying enough plutonium to make 50 nuclear bombs have completely disregarded several requests from Pacific governments to remain outside their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs).

The consignment began its voyage to Sellafield on July 4, after being turned away from Japan. The ships left Japan under armed guard, hours before environment group Greenpeace was due to launch a challenge at the High Court in London. Greenpeace dropped the case when it emerged the cargo of nuclear fuel had already set sail. The ships are due to take six weeks to arrive at Sellafield.

Japan's Kansai Electric Power company rejected the waste after finding that data for a 1999 shipment from Britain had been falsified. The cargo is a potentially weapons-usable mix of plutonium and uranium oxides, known as MOX. According to Greenpeace, which is monitoring the ships' movements, the vessels are "slow, lightly-armed and vulnerable to attack". Greenpeace pointed out that an accident or attack on a nuclear transport at sea could have catastrophic consequences for coastal states. Yet the British and Japanese governments have refused to consult with countries along the route, not even concerning plans for emergencies or liability agreements in the case of radioactive contamination.

The two ships, Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal, carrying 255 kgs of weapons-usable material, have in the last week breached the Exclusive Economic Zones of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. The ships by mid-week were close to Rennel Island within the Solomon's EEZ and Torres Island and Espiritu Santo within the Vanuatu EEZ. This puts the ships on a course to transit through the EEZ of the Pacific Island of New Caledonia.

This blatant disregard of the wishes of Pacific states and international law of the sea demonstrates the absurd and dangerous lengths to which the Japanese and British governments are willing to go to prop up this dangerous, polluting industry, Greenpeace said.

Although British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) has called the environment group irresponsible for publicising the location of this dangerous shipment, it is BNFL who are avoiding their responsibility, Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Angenette Heffernan said.

"Under international law, BNFL is required to inform nations that they are in their waters, and it was their irresponsibility in falsifying crucial safety data which is bringing this shipment through the region twice unnecessarily," she said.

"Australia, New Zealand and Ireland have been notified about the route and the time of the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal's transit, but BNFL have failed to consult with the Pacific Nations and are now trying to silence any information being released to the Pacific countries about the whereabouts of the ships. This is tantamount to racism. They are showing blatant discrimination towards these islands by showing no concern for the opinions, wishes and safety of the Pacific," Angenette Heffernan said.

The Vanuatu Deputy Prime Minister Serge Vohor has accused Japan and Britain of disrespecting his country's sovereignty.

The Prime Minister of Fiji, laisenia Qarase, called on the Heads of Government at the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) meeting in Fiji on Thursday to join the Pacific in its outrage and opposition to the shipments of plutonium MOX waste travelling through the region. The ACP meeting, attended by delegations representing 78 countries, is being held in Nadi, Fiji, and the Prime Minister made the statement during the opening session.

The Prime Minister said in his opening speech, "As I speak a ship carrying plutonium is heading for our waters, having traversed other parts of the region. We will be asking you to join with us in expressing our outrage and opposition to those who are so willing to put the Pacific and our peoples at risk." The response from the meeting was applause.

Each nation has the right to protect the marine environment within its EEZ under the Law of the Sea Convention. In the light of the dangers to the marine environment and populations of coastal states, the failure of the shipping states to take basic steps such as consulting with en route states about the route and safety arrangements, the BNFL ships have no rights to "innocent passage" through territorial waters. They can be asked to stay out of en route countries' EEZs. The United Kingdom is the flag State of the vessels. Britain had previously given New Zealand an assurance the shipments would not pass through New Zealand's EEZ. The passage through the EEZs of other Pacific states, despite their specific request to stay out, is discriminatory and insulting to those smaller states, as well as dangerous.

Protesters are setting sail from around the Pacific to form a Nuclear Free Pacific Flotilla in the Tasman Sea. These protesters share a common concern about the dangers posed by British Nuclear Fuel's shipment of weapons-usable plutonium past their countries, and they are determined to ensure it never happens again.

The Irish government is also trying to get international support to stop the two ships passing through the Irish Sea. Irish Environment Minister Martin Cullen said: "This type of shipment is totally unacceptable to the world at large and the international community. We have been putting enormous pressure, both legal and diplomatic, on the United Kingdom authorities with regard to the whole issue of Sellafield. There are two legal cases running, and what Ireland has to do now is bring on board the international community on this. The world has got to ask – have we got to get involved in these hugely dangerous shipments moving around the world? I think it is unacceptable to everybody."

Martin Cullen said that he was in "close contact" with London. He also said a new public body to oversee the clean-up of Britain's nuclear legacy "does not in any way reduce Ireland's concerns about the Sellafield operations".

Eamon Gilmore, marine spokesman for the Irish Labour Party, called on Dublin Marine Minister Dermot Ahern to "go immediately to the international Maritime Organisation (IMO) and to use every international convention on marine safety and the marine environment to prevent this shipment from going through the Irish Sea". He said, "Every state has the right to insist that its citizens and security are protected from dangerous shipments in neighbouring waters."

Leader of the Irish Green party Trevor Sargent said that Irish and Welsh protesters would launch a flotilla in protest when the ships entered the Irish Sea.

Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer has visited Egypt to try to convince President Hosni Mubarak that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat should be removed. Israel's calls for his removal are being backed and orchestrated by US President George W Bush.

Arab leaders have responded coolly to this call and news agencies say that Hosni Mubarak was to give the Israeli Defence Minister only a polite hearing. Mubarak said in comments published on Monday that sidelining Arafat would be a mistake and that he had warned Bush of the "dangers" of such a move. "Sidelining Arafat will be a big mistake we will all regret. The man with his experience and role has the loyalty of Palestinians inside and abroad," he told Kuwait's al-Seyassah daily.

A senior Israeli political source had said that the meeting will be "part of Israeli efforts to convince the international community, and especially the Arab world, that Arafat must leave the political stage for there to be progress towards peace".

Mubarak and Ben-Eliezer were to meet in Alexandria one day before the "Quartet" of big powers – the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia – held talks in New York. The Quartet was also to receive the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan, the only Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel.

Egypt's role in Middle East diplomacy is important as it was the first Arab state to make peace with Israel in 1979 and has been a pivotal ally of the Palestinian Authority. Ben-Eliezer's visit will be the third by an Israeli official to Egypt in less than a week. Israeli Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh visited Cairo last Thursday, for talks with Egyptian presidential adviser Osama el-Baz. Israeli parliamentary speaker Avraham Burg said on Sunday that fresh Egyptian efforts to resolve the Middle East crisis could lead to a new round of peace talks. He was speaking in Cairo after meeting Baz.

In the Gaza Strip on Sunday, a missile fired by an Israeli warplane demolished a building that the army said belonged to a Hamas militant and was used to make bombs for attacks on Israeli troops and Jewish settlers in the territory. Palestinian witnesses said a senior Hamas operative, Youssef Abed al-Wahab, escaped from the house after hearing the roar of aircraft moments before missiles destroyed the building in the town of Khan Younis. Hamas's military wing said in a statement on Monday that five of its men had escaped "assassination" in the airstrike and vowed not to let it pass without a "deterrent punishment".

The decision of the government of Israel on July 7 – to support racist legislation prohibiting the sale of lands to Arabs at the so called "Community Residences" and areas that the Government intends to "Judaize", allegedly for reasons of "national security" – marks a further stage in the process of adopting an open outright anti-Arab racism as an official Government policy. The proposal was supported by an overwhelming majority of 17 Ministers, with two dissenting and one abstaining. Labour’s members of the coalition Government, excluding one who opposed the proposal, made themselves scarce at the time when they were called upon to cast their vote.

It is with full appreciation that we greet the many people who took a stand in opposition to this despicable decision. We call upon every decent human being to join and reinforce the campaign, waged in order to make the Knesset abort this obscenity, when it is presented to it for approval.

This hideous decision is only a recent one to the series of racist discriminating measures taken by this Government against Israel’s Arab citizens. Among the more notoriously infamous of these was the decision to diminish the payment of social security benefits for children to those families that are not "Army draft liable". The obvious intention of that was to deprive Arab families of those benefits. To these we must add a whole series of bills, passed recently by the Knesset, the sole purpose of which is to exclude the Arab citizens from the political arena in Israel. Should this tendency persist, Israel’s becoming an Apartheid country will be assured!

The discrimination against Arab citizens (consisting approximately 20% of the population in Israel) in all spheres of life is, and was, a policy deeply rooted in the entire Zionist movement, including all former governments of Israel. In the past, though, Governments shied away from giving an open outright legal and official status to racist policy, concealing it under a variety of pretexts ("land expropriations for development sakes," etc.). But this government unashamedly declares in the open its racist policy, supporting official legislation accordingly.

The Israeli Government took these above-mentioned racist measures also on pretexts pertaining to the state of national security. Its continuing assault on the Palestinian Authority – the areas under its jurisdiction having been reoccupied almost entirely without any intention to retreat in the foreseeable future – being in the background.

The most formidable and lasting assault on the Palestinian people since the occupation in June 1967 is being launched these days. One of the reasons for its being carried out for such a long time already is the open unequivocal support, more than ever before, which it gains from the US, which has stopped even to pretend to have any balanced attitude in its policy.

We are especially expressing our denunciation of President George W Bush’s recent assailment of the Palestinian Authority and of the Palestinian President – Yassir Arafat. We condemn his demands to replace the Palestinian leadership as a precondition for the forwarding of peace talks. The US has no right whatsoever to dictate to the Palestinian people, or to any other people, who should be their leaders or what kind of changes they should make.

In conditions of extensive occupation of almost all of the Palestinian areas, of daily killings, of repression, humiliations, curfews and blockades – the US does not demand anything from the occupier and oppressor. Only from the Palestinians... The hypocrisy in the US’s demands for the "democratisation" of the Palestinian Authority is only emphasised by its steady and mighty support given to all of the Arab dictatorships. Egypt, Jordan, and of course Saudi Arabia and Gulf Emirates, all of them are, as everybody is aware, renowned for their democratic regimes.

The present American policy exhorts Israel, more than ever, to subsist in its extensive and unprecedented military activities, sinking our region in bloodshed. In addition to the many victims, this causes considerable socio-economic damage. The Palestinian people in the occupied territories, of whom many lodge under inhuman conditions, suffering from unemployment and terrible poverty, are those who got hurt most by these. The people of Israel pay an economic price too. Recently there was a considerable rise in the prices of a series of elementary consumer goods. There were also unprecedented cuts in the payments of unemployment benefits, minimum income insurance benefits and of all the welfare benefits.

Considering the present state of affairs, in our view it is significant to intensify the protest activities of the Arab population in Israel and of the Jewish democratic forces against the Government's policies of war, occupation and racist discrimination!

We demand the immediate revocation the recent racist decision made by the Government, as well as all of the other racist measures adopted recently, and all those taken in Israel in past!

We demand a thorough change in the Israeli Government’s policies concerning the Palestinian people, the Arab population of Israel and in the socio-economic sphere!

We call upon all of the peace forces of the world to intensify activities in solidarity with the Arab Palestinian people, and protest activities against the Government of Israel and against the US, the policies of which serve to boost up bloodshed and to prevent, more than ever, any chances for peace in the region!