The United States, Britain, France and Japan have been accused of a "reckless disregard for safety" by planning to launch the first sea shipment of concentrated, highly radioactive waste this month despite scientific evidence that the protective packaging of the waste is defective, according to three international organizations that have been monitoring the issue. The shipment should be postponed until the waste canisters can be independently verified as corrosion-free and safe to ship, the groups say.

In a statement issued today in Washington, DC, Paris and Tokyo, the Nuclear Control Institute, Greenpeace International and the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center warn that the planned shipment, soon to depart from France for Japan aboard a British ship along a route yet to be disclosed, will contain many times the cesium and deadly radioactive poisons released by the Chernobyl accident -- and constitutes "a virtual floating Chernobyl."

"This shipment must not be allowed to proceed," say the three organizations. "Dozens of shipments are to follow, each containing the deadly waste products of reprocessing plants, where plutonium is extracted from highly radioactive spent fuel of nuclear power reactors." The groups say the containers into which molten, radioactive glass was poured, and which are now awaiting shipment at La Hague, France, are made with steel that weakens at extremely hot temperatures and becomes susceptible to corrosion that could cause the containers to rupture in an accident at sea, exposing nearby populations and marine life to highly toxic, radioactive poisons.

A study by a Princeton University scientist, Dr. Edwin Lyman, released by the three organizations in December, cited technical evidence of this problem. "Dr. Lyman has since uncovered U.S. government studies dating back to the 1970s showing that the class of alloy of stainless steel selected by France to package the Japanese nuclear wastes was rejected by U.S. experts as unsafe for such high-temperature applications. The studies note that such steel, when subjected to the very high temperatures associated with production and cooling of the molten glass, is particularly susceptible to 'sensitization' -- weakening that sets the stage for corrosion. U.S. experts have selected other alloys with special properties that protect against sensitization for use in packaging molten wastes."

Dr. Lyman will present his findings next week at an international conference on plutonium in Berkeley, California. The Pacific Plutonium Forum on the Civilian Use and Sea Transport of Plutonium, to be held February 21-24, is being hosted by Plutonium Free Future, in cooperation with the Nuclear Control Institute, the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, the Plutonium Action Network in Kyoto and Hiroshima, and the World Information Service on Energy in Paris.

The organizations that sponsored Lyman's report have presented his latest findings to British, French and Japanese authorities as evidence that the packages are defective and potentially dangerous for shipment. "We have demanded that they examine the canisters for corrosion, inside and out, to determine whether they can be shipped safely," the groups said in a joint statement. The highly radioactive waste gives off extremely corrosive compounds as it cools into glass inside the steel canisters; the ocean air that cools the canisters awaiting shipment in France contains corrosive salts. Obviously, the canisters should be checked for corrosion."

British, French and Japanese authorities have refused the groups' requests that they meet with Dr. Lyman, as they refused earlier requests to conduct a full safety and environmental review and to disclose the results to en-route countries. Now they refuse to respond to Dr. Lyman's evidence that the steel used to package the waste has sensitized, and they refuse to acknowledge the possibility of corrosion." We are astonished at their arrogance and their apparent willingness to put en-route populations and ocean life at risk," the groups said.

The organizations also expressed concern that the U.S. Government is ignoring appeals by Members of Congress from the Caribbean and the Pacific, whose districts are along the expected route of the shipment, to invoke U.S. controls over plutonium and wastes that are derived from U.S.-supplied nuclear fuel. "Instead, the White House has quashed an attempt by the Department of Energy to do its own safety and security analysis of the waste shipments, and the Department of State now assures nations that 'the shipments will in fact be carried out in a prudent manner.'

"Such reckless disregard for safety must not be allowed. Defective steel is being used to package the world's most dangerous wastes. It is unconscionable that the waste packages are about to be allowed on the high seas without being examined for corrosion and determined to be safe. Coastal nations and territories along the possible routes should demand postponement of the shipment until the safety of the waste canisters has been independently verified'" the groups say.

The first sea shipment is to consist of a single, 112-ton cask containing 28 glass logs of high-level nuclear waste in steel canisters. Eventually, 3,200 canisters will be returned to Japan in 15 to 30 sea shipments over a 15-to-20-year period -- and average of six to seven casks per shipment. "The total amount of long-lived radioactive material (with a half-life exceeding 10 years) in each cask (is) quite large," according to Dr. Lyman's study. "The total consists of 11 to 15 million curies of radioactivity -- about three to four times the amount released by long-lived radionuclides in the Chernobyl accident."