Features

Risk Too Close

U.S. Nuclear Subs Test In Nuclear-Free Zone

Sarah O’Donnell, (CUP)

For the past 30 years, the nuclear
threat has floated beneath the surface of
Vancouver’s Georgia Strait despite the
city’s declared nuclear-free status.

British Columbian peace and
environmental groups say it is time for
the American military to get its nuclear
toys outof Canadian waters.

Since the mid 1960s, the federal
government has allowed the American
navy to test their nuclear submarines at
the Canadian Forces Maritime
Experimental and Test Ranges
(CFMETR) in Nanoose Bay,
approximately 15 miles west of
Nanaimo, on the east coast of Vancouver
Island.

That agreement is up for
renewal next year, and B.C. peace and
environmental activists are urging the
federal government to
drop its plans to extend
the arrangement for
another ten years.

Michael
Candler, coordinator of
the Nanoose

Conversion Campaign, says CFMETR
is a relic from the Cold War era.

“People here do not believe in
nuclear power, and yet the federal
government is forcing us to live. with a
threat of a nuclear accident in our
waters,” Candler said.range to test its sub
warfare technology. example, was used
to design the naval version of the cruise

missile.

Although CFMETR is
maintained by the Canadian
government, Steve Staples, coordinator
of End the Arms Race, says 75 per cent
of the testing is done by the American
navy who do not have to take any
responsibility for their actions in
Canadian territory.

American ships are exempt from
Canadian environmental laws, and
Staples says torpedoes have been known
to go haywire and run completely off
course during tests.

“There have been cases where
torpedoes have washed up on shore,”
Staples said. “They’ve lost them and
they’ve washed up on someone’s beach
front.”

The hazards posed by nuclear-

powered subs in the Georgia Strait go
beyond an occasional stray torpedo.
Several million people who live in
Victoria, Nanaimo, the Sunshine Coast,
and the Lower Mainland are put at risk
of a catastrophic nuclear accident
everyday.

“What we’re primarily afraid of
happening would be a leak of radiation;

a fire on board one of the subs that
resulted in the release of a radioactive
cloud,” Staples said.

Depending on wind conditions,
Staples says such a cloud could kill as
many as one million people in Victoria
or even more if it were to blow over
Vancouver.

In its own nuclear-emergency
response plan, CFMETR admits the
possibility of “a release of radioactive
particles into the atmosphere in the form
of radioactive cloud.”

Candler says the base tries to
downplay the risk, and hasn’t even
considered the effects on the surrounding
civilian population.

“The worst thing that they could
possibly think of in terms of an accident
was [a radioactive cloud] that
went 550 metres from the

accident,” Candler said.

Several million people are put at risk of a
catastrophic nuclear accident everyday

“After Chernobyl,
where the radioactive clouds
went all around the world, to
say that it’s only going 550
metres is ridiculous.”

Candler says the 550 metre
estimate happens to coincide exactly
with the distance to the nearest building
at CFMETR.

“Tt was a paper exercise — it has
nothing about helping people outside the
base gates. They say that’s not their

responsibility.”

The risk of a nuclear submarine
accident is not just hypothetical.
According to Staples, more than half of
ome point in their career, leaking
radioactive water or having small fires
on board.

The most recent accident
occurred when the Nemitz, a nuclear
powered aircraft carrier, came up the
Georgia Strait trailing a jet fuel spill
three kilometres long and 100 yards
wide.

“They didn’t even know about
it until a reporter was flying overhead
ina helicopter... and said ‘What’s that
big oil spill behind the Nemitz?’ The
captain on board didn’t even know about
it,” Staples said.

As the CFMETR agreement
comes up for renewal in 1996, both

January 23, 1996

 

Candler and Staples are lobbying the
federal government to end the US testing
and make the Canadian public aware of
the nuclear machines in their waters.

Under Candler’s coordination,
the Nanoose Convention Campaign
aims to end all weapons testing in
Georgia Strait, to end the agreement
between the United States and Canada
that allows the U.S. to perform weapons
testing in the Strait and convert the
facility at Nanoose Bay to peaceful,
environmentally-secure uses.

“Last year Canada cancelled
cruise missile testing and [the federal
government’s] stated reason was
because the Cold War is over,” Candler
said. “Now we need to say the Cold War
is over here, too.”

Candler’s message to the U.S.
military is simple. “You should thank us
that we put up with you for 30 years,”
he said. “Now please get out.”

 

 

 

 

   
  

 

 

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