American firm promotes nuclear waste

T Marshall MCail (frill PPOH

Islands government has contracted with B&W Nuclear Environmental Services Inc to conduct a detailed feasibility study for low-level nuclear waste storage in the Marshalls. The US firm is a subsidiary of Babcock and Wilcox, a giant in the nuclear and engineering indus try in the US. Part of the deal includes agreement between the Marshalls government and B&W to form a joint-venture corporation to pursue the nuclear waste

option.

Because President Kabua announced a temporary hold on the feasibility study, it is unclear when it will proceed. Nevertheless, the May 9 agreement calls for B&W to investigate the technical, environmental, social, legal and political feasibility of perma nent storage of low-level radioactive waste in the Marshalls. The study is expected to cost upwards of SUSIS million and take about two years to conduct, according to government officials.

Three developments are fuelling speculation that the agree ment is for more than a feasibility study: • the government’s refusal to publicly release the agreement, on the grounds that it is proprietary information of the company

and government; • the declaration by gov ernment party Senator

Ataji Balos that the B&W pact undermines the sovereignty of the nation and threatens the health and safety of the Marshalls; and • B&W’s promotion of the nuclear-waste storage plan.

Public statements by B&W are emphasising the benefits of a nuclear-waste facility to the Marshall Islands. A nuclear waste facility in the Marshalls will be used to safely store radioactive materials from both Asian nations and nuclear-test-affected islands, allowing these island to be reinhabited, said a B&W official recently.

In a June 19 letter to a Hawaii resident who wrote objecting to the plan, B&W official Richard Covers said that "this project will help to improve the health and economic well-being of the Marshallese”. A waste facility will not pollute the islands, he said. "On the contrary, its facilities will serve as a place to col lect and safely store the existing low-level radioactive materials from the atolls that remain contaminated after the nuclear weapons testing in the Marshalls in the 1940 s and 19505,”

Covers said. "This will help to free up those islands to be rein habited after 50 years.” ■