PORT OF SPAIN – Caricom Chairman, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, has voiced strong condemnation of France’s proposed shipment of high-level radioactive waste through the Caribbean Sea.
Mr. Manning said, in a statement issued by the Caricom Secretariat on March 14, 2006, “the Caribbean Community wishes to reiterate that any accidental or deliberate spill of nuclear or toxic waste in the Caribbean Sea could pose a serious threat to the economies of the Region and is concerned that despite its repeated opposition to the shipments, the practice continues.”
He urged all countries shipping or transhipping radioactive waste through Caribbean waters to desist “in the interest of the environmental safety and integrity of an already fragile regional eco-system and ultimately the security of the Caribbean population.”
The shipment of radioactive waste is planned to pass through the Panama Canal via the Caribbean Sea.
