China, Britain, Belgium Accept Nuclear Waste Dumping Ban

A ban on nuclear waste dumping at sea moved a step closer to reality Friday with news that China, Britain and Belgium would toe the line and accept the restrictions in a last-minute change of heart.

All three, along with France and Russia, had abstained when 37 other countries agreed in November to ban dumping at sea of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste. Dumping of higher-level waste is already banned.

France had recently said it would change policy and go along with the ban, and the announcements in Britain, China and Belgium on Friday seemed to leave Russia in the lurch.

In London, Agriculture Minister Gillian Shephard said in a statement released to Parliament that Britain still believes scientific evidence suggests that a ban is unnecessary but that it would bow to international feeling.

In Brussels, an Environment Ministry official said Belgium had changed its mind and would accept the ban. The official New China News Agency said Beijing would also fall into line.

The ban is being established under the terms of the London Convention on marine pollution and dumping, and the signatory countries that abstained in the November vote had until midnight Sunday to say whether they would toe the line.

The new ban is to be reviewed internationally in 25 years, and Britain said it would reopen negotiations if the weight of opinion changed in favor of radioactive dumping.

It is not legally binding on dissenting nations who are signatories to the London Convention. But they remain bound by its original ruling, approved in 1972, which prohibits the dumping of higher-level radioactive waste.