Pacific nuclear talks

Press, 22 September 1980, Page 13

Pacific nuclear talks

PA Wellington The president of the Federation of Labour, Mr W. J. Knox, will ask representatives of South Pacific nations to meet to discuss the spread of nuclear materials into the Pacific. The meeting, to be held probably in New Zealand within the next six months, is expected to consider nuclear stockpiling, nuclear shipping, and the dumping of nuclear waste in the region. Representatives of all South Pacific countries are expected to be invited, with the main participants being New Zealand, Australia, and Fiji. Mr Knox has backed a call by the Fiji Trades Union Congress for help to thwart Japanese plans to leave nuclear waste in the Pacific Ocean. The Fiji T.U.C. also sought help from the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

Last week, two Japanese scientists visited Fiji to assure the Government and the people that the dumping would cause no contamination of the sea or any part of the region. But the national secretary of the Fiji T.U.C., Mr J. Raman, said that the congress viewed the assurances “with extreme scepticism.”

Mr Knox has criticised the New 7 Zealand Government’s acceptance of the Japanese assurances.

“The Prime Minister should not have done that without first holding an inquiry,” he said. The fact that the Japanese waste would be dumped in concrete-encased drums was no assurance of. safety. He had read of one such drum breaking recently and although no damage had resulted, a threat existed.

Japan or any other country had no right to use the Pacific as a dumping ground for nuclear waste.