沖縄鳥島と同様の、米海兵隊による劣化ウラン弾「誤射」事件がプエルトリコ
でも発生したようです（これが正確にいつかということでは原子力規制委員会と
海軍の報告書で食い違っている）。プエルトリコのVieques Islandの射爆場で
「誤って」２６３発のDU砲弾を発射してしまったとのこと。
米海軍のスポークスマンによると、原因は戦闘機が基地で「誤って劣化ウラン
砲弾を積んだ」ため。この射爆場での劣化ウラン弾の使用は禁止されている。現
在のところ５７発の砲弾が回収された。この射爆場では今年の４月１９日、米海
軍戦闘機の５００ポンド爆弾の「誤爆」があり民間人が死亡して、プエルトリコ
人の怒りが高まっている時期だった。
間違ってこういうものを積むというのがホントなら恐ろしい話です。ユーゴ爆
撃の練習だったのかも。以下のAPの記事は、この射爆場がコソボ爆撃の練習にも
使われている、と書いています。日本は大丈夫なのか。もう一度（実は一度も尋
ねてない）政府は、在日米軍に劣化ウラン弾の貯蔵と使用を照会する必要がある
でしょう。
この事故でも、プエルトリコ当局は正式に通知を受けてないとのこと。沖縄の
事件と同じ構造があります。
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By Michelle Faul Associated Press Writer
Friday, May 28, 1999; 6:41 p.m. EDT
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Puerto Rican officials said Friday they
were
never told about the mistaken use of radioactive shells during Navy
target
practice on an outlying island.
In disclosing that a Marine fighter jet accidentally fired 263
armor-piercing shells loaded with depleted uranium at a practice range
on
Vieques Island earlier this year, the Navy said Thursday it had informed
all appropriate federal and local agencies.
Puerto Rican nationalists opposed to the U.S. Navy presence allege that,
during the decades that part of Vieques has been used as a target range,
the island has become contaminated with radioactivity. They say this
contributes to a cancer rate among the 9,300 inhabitants that is twice
that
of the Puerto Rican average.
Navy spokesman Roberto Nelson said a fighter jet was mistakenly loaded
either at Mayport, Fla., or Norfolk, Va., with depleted uranium shells.
Their use on Vieques is forbidden by federal and local laws, as well
as
Navy regulations.
The ``isolated, one-time incident'' was reported to the local Environmental
Quality Board and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission well within
the
required week, Nelson said.
But Gov. Pedro Rossello's office said he wasn't notified. Secretary
of
State Norma Burgos also claimed ignorance and was skeptical about the
claims of disclosure.
``This is information we have to verify because it wouldn't surprise
me if
it were more incorrect information, another lie,'' she said.
Burgos added that environmental board chairman, Hector Russe, testified
Thursday before a special commission studying the Navy's effects on
Vieques
without mentioning any such accident. Russe could not be reached, and
an
aide said he would be in meetings all day Friday.
Nelson said the accident occurred in early March. Roger Hannah, a spokesman
for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told The Associated Press that
the
Navy said in a report filed March 5 that the accident occurred Feb.
19.
The military uses depleted uranium because it is extremely dense and
can
pierce through thick armor. Hannah maintained ``there is virtually
no risk
to public health and safety'' because depleted uranium has low radiation
and the area where it was released is a restricted military zone.
Nelson also claimed there was no health hazard but admitted that only
57 of
the shells had been recovered, adding that the rest must have exploded
on
impact. The target range is 11 miles from the island town Isabel Segunda.
In a similar accident, the U.S. military acknowledged that jets mistakenly
fired 1,520 depleted uranium bullets at an uninhabited island near
Okinawa
in 1996 -- then waited a year before notifying Japan.
Tara Thornton of The Military Toxics Project said use of the shells
posed a
health risk because uranium burns on impact when it is fired and then
oxidizes, creating dust-like particles that can be carried for miles
by
air, wind and water.
``They fired enough to poison every man, woman and child on the island
420
times over,'' said Thornton, whose request to the Navy under the Freedom
of
Information Act unwittingly led to the Vieques revelation.
On its Internet site, the Department of Defense says the heavy metal,
while
chemically toxic, isn't a radiation hazard unless inhaled. The Nuclear
Regulatory Commission warns that inhaling even 0.01 grams requires
automatic health testing.
Each of the 25 mm shells fired on Vieques contained a third of a pound
of
depleted uranium -- meaning almost 90 pounds of the material was used.
Puerto Ricans remain angered over an April 19 accident in which a Navy
jet
missed its target at the same firing range and dropped two 500-pound
bombs
that killed a civilian security guard.
The Navy took over two-thirds of Vieques, east of the main Puerto Rico
island, in 1940. It has used it to practice for every major military
engagement since World War II, including the Kosovo bombings. The island's
civilians are sandwiched into a six-mile long strip.
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Masahiko Aoki
青木雅彦
btree@pop06.odn.ne.jp
アドレスが変わりました
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