American officials justify the Truxtun visit

Press, 22 September 1980, Page 16

American officials justify the Truxtun visit

Comment from the Capital

By

BRIAR WHITEHEAD

This morning at 8 a.m. the guided missile cruiser U.S.S. Truxtun will drop anchor in Wellington harbour, for a week. Her visit has sparked reaction from unions and anti-nuclear groups who say the visit is not necessary under the A.N.Z.U.S. treaty, contravenes the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, pollutes the environment, makes Wellington a nuclear target, ignores Geneva nuclearweapons free zone criteria, and exposes Wellington to the risk of nuclear accident. The cruiser is a floating twin nuclear reactor and may or may not be nucleararmed. For security reasons the U.S. Navy is not saying. The police are expecting “some protest boats” but are not sure of their intentions. There will be demonstrations on the wharfs.

The U.S. Navy knows all about the risks — “sea protests are inherently dangerous situations,” says the defence attache to the United States embassy, Captain J. Crummer — but it is quite convinced that welcomes outnumber protests by five to- one, judging by local offers of hospitality received so far. “New Zealand stands out in the level of protest recation to U.S. nuclearpowered vessels,” says Captain Crummer. “We don’t know of any other place where there is as much of this sort of thing. We’ve got these ships in northern ports all over the place, all the time. No-one even notes the fact.”

The navy has a list of stock answers to what it has obviously come to regard as

stock questions and claims. They all reduce finally, to one justification — the global balance of power. “It’s an unpalatable fact, but it is basically the existence of nuclear weapons, and the perception on both sides about the balance, that has kept us from a major war for the past 35 years,” says the Embassy’s political officer, Mr R. J. Dois. “To maintain that stable security situation we have to travel great distances and have world-wide port access. To carry on our activities in this part of the world, is to ask, at least port access of New Zealand.”

The navy rejects the Geneva disarmament criteria for a South Pacific nuclear-weapons-free zone. It says the 15 criteria reduce to about five, of which only two relate to the South Pacific. The first is that a zone must not disturb the “necessary security arrangements” in the area and the other is policing of the area to see the,, first criterion is observed. “A nuclear-free zone would obviously disturb our security arrangements,” Mr Dois said. “The Soviets would back a zone because they have no territories, no lines of communication to protect. A nuclear-free zone would gun A.N.Z.U.S. Inability to enter New Zealand ports would also frustrate A.N.Z.U.S. obligations. The preamble to the A.N.Z.U.S. treaty says the agreement was signed “ . . .

so that no potential aggressor. could be under the illusion that any of them (U.S.

Australia, N.Z.) stand alone in the Pacific area,” The Government has allowed the Truxtun to visit under article 2 of the treaty: “ . . . the parties separately and jointly by means of continuous and effective selfhelp and mutual aid will maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack.”

Put another way: “New Zealand has an anti-subma-rine navy, but if you can’t operate against nuclear powered submarines you are not being realistic,” Mr Dois said.

The Truxtun is in New Zealand for military exercises with the New Zealand Navy and Air Force. From frigate rendezvous with the Truxtun at Norfolk Island, to New Zealand territorial waters, 24-hour-a-day exercises have been in tram. These were a month in planning stages, and designed to show flaws in combat situations.

“They are extremely beneficial,” said Captain Crummer. “This works, that doesn’t. You can find problems with radio frequencies in the area, differences in acceleration rates. It helps you update operation procedures.”

The U.S. Navy disputes that Wellington would be a target in the event of outbreak of war during the Truxtun’s visit. “This is based on the assumption that Russia has so many weapons it could put one on

any target in the world,” Mr Dois said. “It can’t.” “Russia would be happy if it had all our warships here, out of the play of the game,” said Captain Crummer.

The Institute of Nuclear Sciences in Wellington has done calculations based on a “pessimistic” probability assessment by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute of Nuclear Exchange before the year 2000 A.D. During the visit of the Truxtun, the probability of nuclear exchange capable of razing a large city is equal to the risk of an average New Zealand driver being killed on New Zealand roads in a six months period — 1 in 7300.

The chances of a nuclear accident while the Truxton is in Wellington Harbour are one to 100 million, according to New Zealand nuclear scientists. To give that perspective they note that the probability of a Napier-scale earthquake within 5000 sq km of Wellington in any year is one in 10,000. A nuclear accident includes reactor core melt-down or radioactive leak.

Captain Crummer said safety requirements on United States nuclear vessels were more stringent than those for land nuclear reactors. “It is common to reject components perfectly acceptable in a civil reactor. Cost is not a factor; reliability and safety are. The naval reactor is built to withstand battle shock, it is full of redundancy.”

The National Radiation Laboratory, Christchurch, monitored radioactivity from the Truxtun during its 1976 Wellington visit. The results were published five months later. The report says that water and air sampling before and after and continuously during the visit showed radioactivity levels never exceeded those naturally occuring in the area before the arrival of the Truxtun.

“Had the ship remained in port under the same conditions for a full year, the resulting exposure to the local people would have been less than one per cent of the dose limit for members of the public set by the International Commission on Radiological Protection," the report said. People in inner city areas are regularly subject to twice the levels of radioactivity measured near the Truxtun. Parliament buildings has one of the highest measured rates in New Zealand —more than three times Truxtun levels, but well below international risk levels.

The precautions being taken for the Truxtun’s visit are almost identical to those taken in 1976, in accordance with New Zealand’s Atomic energy and nuclear shipping codes. The only variations are a more sheltered anchor for the Truxtun (still outside accident risk limits) and

fewer air sampling sites (1976 tests showed unnecessary duplication of results). Civil defence’s contingency plan is identical. Fully equipped decontamination centres are set up. staffed by four two-man teams. Monitoring of water twice daily from the top metre and downstream of the Truxtun will be done from two launches continuously circling the vessel. 'These and air samples taken continuously will be sent immediately to Christchurch for analysis. After the visit samples from sea sediment and molluscs will be compared with samples taken beforehand. Weather forecasts at 6hourly intervals will allow plotting of areas at greatest risk in the event of accident. Stocks of protective clothing and potassium iodate tablets will be available for teams entering areas of health hazard.

Tug and shore monitoring teams will be on 30-minute standby, communications tests will be made every 24 hours, and monitoring instruments will be regularly checked for correct operation. Eight navy and army teams will be involved in sea patrols and on-shore operations. Patrol launches will be equipped with early warning gamma alarm meters. The police will be watching demonstrations on-shore and the path of protest boats. The N.Z. nuclear shipping code requires vessels to stay out of the course of nuclearpowered ships, to keep 100 m away from them in motion, and 600 m clear of the anchorage.