N-waste plan opposed

Press, 22 August 1979, Page 13

N-waste plan opposed

PA Wellington International terrorists could raid a South Pacific island if nuclear waste was stored there, the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) has said. This possibility was worrying the Cook Islands Premier (Dr Toni Davis) and the Governor of Hawaii (Mr George Ariyoshi), he told a news conference. He was answering questions about a New York Times News Service report that the United States was considering using Palmyra, in the Line Islands, 1176 km south-west of Hawaii, to store nuclear waste. He said there was concern because the waste material was capable of being con-

i verted into nuclear weapons. > Palmyra, where the : Americans had a wartime > base, comes under Honolulu’s ; administration. It is about > half-way between the northern Cook Islands and ■ Hawaii. • He said Dr Davis had ■ suggested that the Americans s should dig a hole in the ; Arizona desert and bury the nuclear waste there. ; “It seemed to me like a : pretty good idea," said Mr : Muldoon. ; He had discussed the , question with Dr Davis at i the recent South Pacific > Forum meeting in Honiara and with Governor Ariyoshi

at the Kiribati indepedence celebrations a few days later.

Forum leaders had come out strongly against the proposal. The New Zealand Environmental Defence Society will ask the United States Government to keep nuclear waste in its own country. The society’s director (Mr R. Mann) said the society had k n °wn of the American plan for some time and had received reports on it from the United States Government. The society’s attitude was in line with its opposition to French tests in the Pacific. It could see no reason why people not receiving the benefits of nuclear power should be placed at risk by its waste products.