Study shows danger of nuclear waste traffic
A serious accident involving a ship carrying highly radioactive nuclear waste through the waters of the Federal States of Micronesia would result in increased cancer risks, require a ban on the consumption of local food and cause extensive damage to marine resources, a report commissioned by Greenpeace has concluded.
The Pacific Teal, a British freighter carrying high level waste from France to Japan, passed through the Pacific near Micronesia in March, and shipments are set to increase to two or three a year over the next decade.
Each shipment contains one or more casks, each containing about 575 times the amount of cesium and strontium released by the Hiroshima bomb.
The study, by a US-based firm, considers the impact from two types of accident near the island of Pohnpei: a ship fire which damages the casks and a cask lost overboard and buried in the seabed. In both situations, the report concludes that even if only a tiny percentage of the cargo was released, exposure to dangerous levels of radioactivity would result.
People in Pohnpei would be exposed to levels of radiation 350 times the nuclear industry's legal limits. Evacuation of the island would be required to avoid additional doses of radioactivity as local food and fisheries would be contaminated.
The report concludes that Micronesia could be expected to lose more than half of its total income from exports, tourism and fishing fees. The report also calculates, based on Lloyds of London shipping statistics, that there is a 6% probability of an accident leading to the total loss of a vessel occurring over the period of the 30 planned shipments.