[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 34 (Thursday, February 23, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E417]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        THE DANGERS OF PLUTONIUM

                                 ______


                         HON. RONALD V. DELLUMS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 23, 1995
  Mr. DELLUMS. Mr. Speaker, today more than 300 people are gathered in 
Berkeley, CA, in the 9th California District, to mark the 54th 
anniversary of the discovery of plutonium on the University of 
California's Berkeley campus. They gather to express their concerns 
about the dangers associated with the continued trafficking in highly 
toxic radioactive plutonium and plutonium waste. The principle vehicle 
for this will be a public hearing on ``The History and Consequences of 
Civilian Plutonium Use.''
  The event that has brought them together is the Pacific Plutonium 
Forum, sponsored by Plutonium Free Future, a United States-Japan 
citizens's organization and the Plutonium Free Future Women's Network, 
a women's international campaign for safe energy based in Berkeley. 
They are acting in cooperation with the Citizens' Nuclear Information 
Center of Tokyo; the Nuclear Control Institute of Washington, DC; the 
Plutonium Action Network of Hiroshima and Kyoto; and, the World 
Information Service on Energy of Paris.
  The forum has attracted a distinguished list of participants, 
including His Excellency Bernard Dowiyogo, President of the island 
nation of Nauru in the Pacific; Dr. Carlos Arellano Lennox, director of 
Environmental Research at the Panama Canal Institute of the University 
of Panama and the former president of Panama's National Assembly; as 
well as representatives from more than 20 countries, including leading 
scientists, scholars, experts on energy and the environment, and 
citizens activists.
  The forum also will include a candlelight vigil: to heal the wounds 
of the nuclear age, fitting held on the campus at which Nobel Laureates 
Drs. Glenn Seaborg and Ed McMillan discovered plutonium 54 years ago 
today.
  Participants are gathered to consider alternatives to plutonium 
energy production and to urge all nations involved to cease such 
programs and to seek safer, more ecologically sound energy 
alternatives. Ending civilian plutonium use by all nations will ease 
serious environmental threats and will reduce for all who inhabit the 
globe the national security risks posed by the potential for the 
proliferation of nuclear weapons.
  I join with the forum participants in highlighting our deep concerns 
over this week's sea shipment of 1,200 tons of high-level plutonium 
waste from France to Japan, most likely via the Panama Canal. This 
toxic, radioactive waste is produced by extracting plutonium from the 
spent fuel of Japanese nuclear reactors--much of the original fuel for 
which was composed of U.S.-origin materials.
  There is considerable scientific evidence suggesting that
   the containers in which this waste is to be shipped do not meet 
sufficient safety requirements, and that they may be susceptible to 
damage by fire, corrosion, or collision during transport at sea and by 
the additional dangers of these type posed by their ultimate placement 
in the highly active seismic zone of Japan Aomori prefecture.

  A number of my colleagues have called on President Clinton, Energy 
Secretary O'Leary, and other senior administration officials to urge 
Japan, France, and Great Britain--the Governments most directly 
involved--to postpone the planned shipment until the critical 
environmental, health, and safety issues can be addressed and 
satisfactorily answered. Today, I join with these colleagues in calling 
for the shipment to be postponed until a definitive scientific 
assessment on the risks involved can be completed.
  I also will ask the Departments of Energy, Defense, and State to 
review their approval of these sea shipments of plutonium and plutonium 
waste and to seek ways to assist Japan with finding alternatives for 
energy security that do not involve the use of plutonium.
  Beyond raising our concerns regarding the transport of plutonium, I 
join the Forum's participants in calling for a critical reappraisal of 
the role of nuclear weapons in national security strategies and the 
efficacy of the continued civilian use of plutonium in energy 
production. As we approach the 50th anniversaries of the atomic 
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is incumbent on the world 
community to assess the entire legacy of the nuclear age, both positive 
and negative, and to form new policies for the next 50 years that 
better serve the world's environmental and energy needs.
  I proudly join the citizens of Berkeley who, 2 years ago, passed the 
first public resolution calling for a plutonium-free world, and who 
have this week reaffirmed that clear and courageous conviction by 
organizing this historic gathering.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to reflect on the dangers that 
plutonium poses to our security and the world's environment and, I 
congratulate these citizens for taking the time to further explore this 
problem at today's Forum.


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