By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Columnist

Environmental organizations and some Pacific nations are becoming increasingly concerned about the shipping of radioactive materials.

Most recently, Fiji, New Zealand, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia and other nations expressed worry about a shipment of nuclear power plant fuel that left Japan during the first week in July, bound for England.

The armed vessels Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal, which are designed to carry and protect nuclear material, are hauling cargos of mixed uranium and plutonium oxide.

The fuel was made in Britain by British Nuclear Fuels and shipped to Japan. But the load was rejected by the Kansai Electric Power Co.'s nuclear plant in Takahama after it was learned that the documentation associated with its manufacture had been improperly prepared.

That shipment was to travel south from Japan through the western Pacific and around South Africa to enter the Atlantic. Other nuclear cargos sometime transit the Panama Canal and cross the central Pacific south of Hawai'i.

University of Hawai'i law professor Jon Van Dyke, who has written papers on the legal issues surrounding the transporting of hazardous radioactive materials, said a major issue is that the shipment of nuclear fuels does not have the same kinds of security that hazardous shipments such as oil have.

"(Shippers of radioactive materials) have the right to travel but they have the responsibility to meet environmental requirements," Van Dyke said.

In case of terrorism, or accidental collision or sinking of a ship carrying a radioactive cargo, there are insufficient procedures and financial protections in place, he said.

"We're talking about a combination of plutonium and uranium. This is dangerous stuff," Van Dyke said.

"Ships collide all the time. They sink on a regular basis. The British acknowledge that if this ship sinks in the deep sea, the equipment is not there to salvage it.

"The Pacific islands are saying that this could cause a dead zone for a quarter of a million years," affecting tourism, fishing and national reputations, he said.

One issue is insurance, what Van Dyke calls a "liability regime." There are extensive processes in place to cover the cost of cleanup when an oil tanker runs into trouble. That level of security is lacking for nuclear transports, he said.

Congressman Robert Underwood of Guam is among those who have expressed concern. He wrote Secretary of State Colin Powell about the most recent shipment.

"Such a shipment, without adequate and heightened security protections, threatens to compromise the environmental safety of the Pacific and may be harmful to U.S. national security interests," Underwood said. "The health and welfare of the people of the Pacific Islands stand at risk."

Jan TenBruggencate is The Advertiser's Kaua'i bureau chief and its science and environment writer. Reach him at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.