Ray Smuts
APART from its reputation as the Cape of Storms, the Cape of Sinking and the Cape of Spills, South Africa's coastline is about to earn itself another unenviable epithet as the Cape Nuclear Highway.
Last week a British merchant ship carrying a cargo of mixed oxide fuel containing enough plutonium to make 20 atomic bombs steamed around the southernmost tip of Africa on its 30 000 mile trip to Japan via Australia and New Zealand.
FTW understands plans are afoot to send 80 more ships carrying plutonium around the Cape over the next ten years, sparking angry reaction by activists to what they believe could herald the advent of a Cape nuclear highway.
No matter how much you try to design out the risk, accidents can and do happen and ships sink, particularly off the Cape, says Greenpeace International's Mike Townsley.
These ships (currently rounding the Cape) carry enough nuclear fuel to devastate the entire South African coastline, and in the event of a mishap you could kiss the entire fishing and tourism industry goodbye.
The British vessels, Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal, operated by Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited, are armed with three 30mm naval cannons and each has a contingent of armed civilian police on board in the event of an attack by pirates, terrorists or suchlike.
It is not clear, for security reasons, which of the ships is carrying the deadly cargo.
Captain Bill Dernier, media spokesman for the South Arican Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA), told me that the vessels had what is known as 'innocent passage of sea' according to international maritime law which means they are not obliged to stay beyond South Africa's 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone. The horrible fact of life is that they can come in as close as 12 miles if they wish.
He says the vessels' route was top secret but that SAMSA was tracking their passage by vessel tracking system. There is no cause for alarm. These ships are not rustbuckets and are very professionally run so there is no immediate threat at this moment in time.
Plutonium is one of the most toxic substances known to mankind.
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