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

Notes to pp. 135–139 223
within a short period of time. Failure by Congress to act within 30 days on a permit
request results in a legislative veto, resulting in a denial of the permit. The bill’s
sponsors deliberately chose this procedure because they expected it was extremely
unlikely that Congress within so brief time could consider a permit.
20. See “Navy Prefers to Bury Subs,” Science News 125 (May 26–June 9, 1984),
p. 358. See also Trupp 1984, pp. 34–35.
21. On the Seabed Working Group of the NEA (OECD), see Curtis 1985 and Deese
1977.
22. Greenpeace has since its beginning been an anti-nuclear organization working
to reduce nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons testing, and nuclear power. Its nuclearfree
seas campaign has aimed at “ridding the seas of nuclear weapons” (GREEN-
PEACE . . . for a cleaner, safer earth). A newsletter released in relation to
Greenpeace’s campaign against radwaste disposal explained that “a ban on dumping
of radioactive waste would hasten the death of the nuclear industry, particularly
in the U.K.” (quoted on p. 79 of Rippon 1983).
23. A major international scandal followed when in 1985 the Rainbow Warrior
was blown up by French agents in Auckland Harbor.
24. On Greenpeace’s campaign within Britain, see Blowers et al. 1991, pp. 74–85.
A good source of information is the Greenpeace documentary film Desperate
Measures, which documents the Greenpeace campaign from its beginning in 1978
through 1982.
25. No one was injured in the accident. See “Dutch Ship Stops Dumping Nuclear
Waste,” New York Times, August 30, 1982.
26. See “A Dutch Ship Resumes Dumping Nuclear Waste Off Northern Spain,”
New York Times, August 31, 1982.
27. Quoted on p. 427 of Wassermann 1985b.
28. “Dutch to Stop Dumping Nuclear Wastes at Sea,” New York Times, September
23, 1982.
29. See van Weers et al. 1982, pp. 461–462.
30. For a short history of the “greening” of the Netherlands, see Bennett 1991.
31. See Article 15 (2).
32. The London Convention originally puts the onus of proof on those wanting to
halt pollution. See Article 1.
33. Other Pacific Basin nations, such as Fiji, had chosen not to do so because they
have considered the regime too lenient as demonstrated by Japan’s claim that its
proposed dumping was in accord with the convention. Kiribati (the former Gilbert
Islands, which gained independence from Britain in 1979) became a member of the
London Convention on June 11, 1982; Nauru (a former United Nations trust territory
that became independent in 1968) became a member on August 25, 1982.
34. For the discussion, see LDC 1983a, pp. 19–30.
35. See LDC 1982.