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

148 Chapter 8
An examination would have to be made of whether it could be proven
that radwaste disposal would not harm human health or cause significant
damage to the marine environment. Crucially, the resolution thus shifted
the onus of proof to those interested in dumping who in the future would
have to demonstrate that no harm would be inflicted on the marine environment
or humans. This decision, in particular, was a significant victory
for those opposing radwaste disposal, and delegations considered that such
a proof could not be made (Brown 1985b). 63 This regime development evidently
did not reflect scientific opinion, as the knowledge-based approach
would expect.
At the tenth consultative meeting of the global ocean dumping regime,
held in October of 1986, it was decided that scientific and technical aspects
of radwaste disposal would be examined by one group under an
Intergovernmental Panel of Experts on Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea
(called IGPRAD), while other groups would consider legal and social
aspects of resuming dumping. 64
In 1988, the British government formally announced that radwaste disposal
would not resume (Flowers 1989, p. 108). Significantly, Britain continued
to reserve a right to resume radwaste disposal of some large waste
objects. 65 In 1989, however, a proposal to dump decommissioned nuclear
submarines by the British Ministry of Defence was rejected by ministers. 66
While domestic regulation in the United States practically prohibited ocean
dumping of low-level radioactive waste, the administration had not definitively
canceled plans to dump low-level radioactive waste. 67 But resuming
dumping, which would need the approval of Congress, was unlikely given
public sentiment on this issue (interview, Robert S. Dyer, September 27,
1991). 68 Japan had no plans to dump, although domestic law did not rule
out the option (interview, Takao Kuramochi, August 30, 1991).
An attempt to amend the London Convention to finally prohibit dumping
of low-level radioactive waste surfaced at the fourteenth consultative
regime meeting, held in November of 1991. 69 But the meeting wished to
postpone the decision on such a conference until after the so-called Rio
Conference (officially the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development) in June of 1992. In 1993, after a series of meetings for which
governments, and later also ENGOs, had prepared studies and papers,
IGPRAD presented the London Convention meeting with options for deciding
on radwaste disposal.