V.I. Delegate Donna M. Christian-Christensen has asked President Clinton and the U.S. ambassadors to Japan, England and France to intervene in averting the upcoming nuclear shipment due to pass through the Caribbean this month.
Christensen expressed "outrage and opposition that once again radioactive nuclear waste is on its way to Japan via the Caribbean," according to a release from her office.
In a letter to President Clinton, she wrote, "I urge you to do all you can to protect the American citizens residing in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico from this very serious threat, which according to the international environmental organization Greenpeace is a 'floating Chernobyl.'"
She appealed to Clinton "to come to our aid, once again, and ensure that this current shipment which is expected to arrive in the Caribbean in about a week, is in compliance with all relevant international standards for the transportation of radioactive materials and that the wishes of the various nations opposing the transport of nuclear waste and plutonium in the Caribbean region will be respected."
Christensen said she has been an advocate on this issue since taking office in 1997.
Two years ago, she wrote to Clinton for assistance in re-routing another nuclear shipment which ultimately passed through the Indian and Southwest Pacific Oceans. She also spoke out against the shipment at a Greenpeace press conference in 1998 and again on the floor of the Legislature of the Marshall Islands where she commended them for refusing to accept nuclear waste for disposal there.