Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea: Public Ideas ... - IMO

Changing the Global Ocean Dumping Regime 147
Table 8.2
Votes on the 1985 Low-Level Radioactive Waste Moratorium. Source: LDC 1985a,
p. 37.
In favor (26)
Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Finland,
Germany, Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, Ireland, Kiribati, Mexico, Nauru,
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea,
Philippines, Spain, St. Lucia, Sweden
Against (5)
Britain, France, South Africa, Switzerland, United States
Abstentions (7)
Argentina, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Soviet Union
sider their position if dumping was banned” (Brown 1985c). The United
States cautioned governments that “similar action in the future on other
important issues will not only undermine the fabric and regulatory framework
of the London Dumping Convention, but also tend toward its politicization.”
60 The Canadian chairman of the consultative meeting again
appealed for a compromise at a subsequent press conference, saying that
it was “better for all countries to take one step forward than some to take
five steps back and others none at all” (Brown 1985c). 61
The resolution called for suspension of all ocean dumping of radioactive
waste pending studies of wider legal, social, economic and political aspects
of resuming radwaste disposal (LDC 1985c, Annex 4: Resolution
LDC.21(9) “Dumping of Radioactive Wastes at Sea”). Thus the resolution
was intended to broaden the regime’s decision-making principle to include
considerations other than scientific and technical ones. While the exact
nature of such considerations were not clearly spelled out, future proposals
to dump should be examined in the light of what international law said
about liability, duty to cooperate, and the oceans legal status as “common
heritage of mankind.” Economic considerations would, or could, include
losses to the fishing industry. Dumping in the Atlantic, for example, has
repeatedly resulted in reduced sales of fish in Spain. 62 In 1980, the Japanese
market for sablefish collapsed after a photograph of a sablefish swimming
near drums dumped in the Pacific off San Francisco was published in newspapers
around the world. All orders for sablefish, not just ones from the
West Coast of the United States, were canceled (Bishop 1991). Risks and
costs of land disposal also had to be examined.