MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Vessel with radioactive waste avoids Cape Horn.

The “Fret Moselle” transporting nuclear residue from Australia to France will not be crossing Cape Horn in the extreme of South America as originally suspected, according to reports from Argentine and Chilean diplomatic sources.

Reliable information indicates that the "Fret Mosell" that left Australia for France with irradiated nuclear fuel will not be using the Cape Horn route", reported the Chilean Foreign Office. However there's no mention to an alternative route for the vessel that left Sydney last October 27.

According to environmentalist organizations the vessel could either sail through the Cape of Good Hope or the Panama Canal.

The nuclear residue originated in the Lucas Heights reactor managed by the Australian government, and will be reprocessed by Cogema in France one of very few plants in the world capable of doing the job, reports Greenpeace.

The passage of the vessel by Argentine waters was specifically banned by a federal judge in Tierra del Fuego following a request from the Argentine chapter of Greenpeace. The Argentine Navy and Coast Guard with the support of the Argentine Foreign Office were able to prove to Judge Federico Calvete that the "Fret Moselle" had not chosen the Cape Horn route, but rather "Cape of Good Hope", reported a spokesperson for Greenpeace.

In the nineties the transport of radioactive material from France to Japan triggered strong protests from South American countries who fear the high risks of accidental contamination because of collision or loss of the vessels.

The latest crossing of radioactive material through Cape Horn was in January 2001 with the "Pacific Swan".