|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 22 August 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Alerting Lankans to dangers of nuclear waste I have read with deep concern a front page news in an English daily newspaper of August 16 - announcing the possibility of Sri Lanka becoming a nuclear waste dump. The matter is so urgent and of such vital importance that I feel compelled to respond to it immediately. In my legal work both academic and judicial, I have had occasion to consider and write on the acute dangers to the developing world of their becoming waste dumps for nuclear and noxious material which industrialised countries need to dispose of. The most dangerous of these is nuclear waste and this has become a matter of deep concern particularly to developing countries. There is a vast amount of nuclear waste accumulating in arms factories, nuclear reactors and research establishments throughout the world and there is no reliable inventory of these. There is always the possibility of unaccounted waste being sought to be disposed of wherever a repository could be found. Currently it is estimated that the generation of nuclear energy and military activity produce over 10,000 cubic metres of highly radioactive waste and over 200,000 cubic metres of low and medium range radioactive waste annually, as well as the spent fuel rods from reactors. The conditions of developing world countries, particularly where there is no strict record of incoming materials and where controls are lax offer a very tempting dumping ground for these agencies which have vast financial resources at their command. They can make very attractive offers to countries or even individuals who are prepared to help them, and these short term advantages may be too dazzling to resist. I have known of instances where such deposits have been surreptitiously made with considerable sums of money being illicitly paid to those who facilitate the surreptitious disposal of waste in some obscure place in the countryside where controls and supervision are poor. Sri Lanka could well be an attractive area in which such interests would look for possible dumping grounds and it is vitally important in our national interests that every citizen in this country be alerted to this danger. Even the half life of nuclear waste extends over 20,000 years and such deposits are a source of danger for untold generations to come. In my work I have also been made acutely conscious of the dangers of radiation and the deformities and genetic defects that can result. In the Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion which was heard by the International Court of Justice, the court was given a sad catalogue of the gross deformities that had resulted from radiation when nuclear tests were carried out. Witnesses from the Marshall Islands spoke in the saddest terms of genetic deformities including a child born with two heads, another without knees, and yet another with three toes, in addition to "jelly fish babies" who are born with no bones in their bodies, and a transparent skin through which one could see their hearts pulsating. The record of cancers, genetic defects, malfunctioning of bodily organs and keloids resulting from radiation is sad and has been amply documented. Recent research further indicates that contamination from radiation can be more agonising than direct contact with nuclear weapons as evidenced by the case of radiation from depleted uranium and as confirmed by research studies by professors in Japan. Whatever the inducements offered we have no right whatsoever to inflict this danger on our children and our descendants for 20,000 years to come. All that I have recounted thus far is sad even to relate but it is essential for every Sri Lankan to know that these results can continue for thousands of years if the dumping of nuclear waste should occur even surreptitiously. This is an appeal to all concerned and a message to the general public to be on the alert against this possibility, for one of the most troublesome problems in the nuclear industry is the disposal of waste and it would be prepared to go to very great lengths to pass this problem on to others. Hence I have a particular cause for concern in this regard as I have dealt with this possibility in my academic writing since the 1980s and in more than one of the Opinions I delivered at the International Court of Justice. I am currently the President of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) and we are concerned with all aspects of the nuclear problem ranging from the manufacturing of weapons to the disposal and transportation of waste. Justice C. G. Weeramantry, Former Vice President, International Court of Justice. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
