Nuclear-free zone

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A nuclear-free zone is an area where nuclear weapons and/or nuclear power are banned. The specific ramifications of these depend on the locale in question.

Many local authorities worldwide have declared themselves "nuclear-free". However, this label is largely symbolic, since most local authorities would be powerless to stop the construction of a nuclear plant even if one was planned for the area. In the case of New Zealand its status as a nuclear weapons-free zone is not symbolic but enshrined in the nations legislation. New Zealand was the first Western-allied nation to legislate towards a nuclear weapons-free zone, effectively renouncing the nuclear deterrent.

1 Austria
2 Canada
3 New Zealand
- 3.1 "Gone by lunchtime"
4 Nordic countries
5 United Kingdom
6 United States
7 References
8 See also
9 External links

[edit] Austria

Austria is a nuclear free zone, because when a nuclear power station was built during the 1970s at Zwentendorf, Austria, its start-up was prevented by a popular vote in 1978.

Moreover, on July 9, 1997, the Austrian Parliament voted unanimously to maintain the country's anti-nuclear policy.^[1]

[edit] Canada

Vancouver is a nuclear weapons free city. Victoria, British Columbia also is nuclear weapons free city. This has caused problems as nearby Esquimalt houses CFB Esquimalt, Canada's Pacific naval base and is used frequently by the United States Navy. The USN routinely sends ships or aircraft carriers loaded with nuclear weapons to Esquimalt. As a result, the ships are forced to dock out of the city limits as not to violate the city by-laws. Red Deer, Alberta is also a nuclear weapons free city.

[edit] New Zealand

Under the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987,[1], the territorial sea and land of New Zealand is a nuclear weapons-free zone. After this act was passed by the Labour government of David Lange, the United States government suspended its ANZUS obligations to New Zealand. The legislation was a milestone in New Zealand's development as a nation and seen as an important act of sovereignty and self-determination. Further, many were driven by a sense of responsibility to support peace and the rights of all humans, not just in New Zealand, but worldwide. [2] The act prohibited "entry into the internal waters of New Zealand {12 miles (22.2 km)} by any ship whose propulsion is wholly or partly dependent on nuclear power" and bans the dumping of radioactive waste within the nuclear-free zone, as well as prohibiting any New Zealand citizen or resident "to manufacture, acquire, possess, or have any control over any nuclear explosive device." Similar provisions were made for biological weapons. [3] [4] The United States wants New Zealand to repeal its nuclear-free legislation, which would then allow U.S. warships possibly with nuclear weapons to visit New Zealand ports. In February 1985, a port-visit request by the United States for the USS Buchanan was refused by the New Zealand government on the basis that the Buchanan was capable of launching nuclear depth bombs. New Zealand’s decision to rebuke the notion of deterrence based on mutual assured destruction resulted in the United States suspending its treaty obligations, hence the ANZUS treaty between the two countries became inoperative. Pressure from the United States increased in 2006, with U.S. trade officials linking the repeal of the ban of American nuclear ships from New Zealand's ports to a potential free trade agreement between the two countries. [5]

New Zealand has long maintained an independent foreign policy initiative, with various Labour Governments ignoring American and other countries' policy demands. While New Zealand meets its international responsibilities towards maintaining global peace, its pacifist based anti-nuclear stance reflects the mainstream ideology held by the majority of its residents. New Zealand's opposition to nuclear weapons is rooted in the belief that the proliferation of such weapons of mass destruction does not reflect an attempt to preserve peace in the form of a nuclear deterrent. New Zealand's nuclear-free zone option looks to remove the nation from under the nuclear umbrella. [6] According to opinions polls taken before the 1984 election, only 30 per cent of New Zealanders supported visits by US warships with a clear majority of 58 per cent opposed, and over 66 per cent of the population lived in locally declared nuclear free zones. [7] An opinion poll commissioned by the 1986 Defence Committee of Enquiry confirmed that 92 per cent now opposed nuclear weapons in New Zealand and 69 per cent opposed warship visits; 92 per cent wanted New Zealand to promote nuclear disarmament through the UN, while 88 per cent supported the promotion of nuclear free zones. [8]

Community inspired anti-nuclear sentiments largely contributed to the New Zealand Labour Party election victory under Norman Kirk in 1972. As an integral component of New Zealand’s nuclear-free ambitions, the third Labour Government under Kirk reacted swiftly to France blatantly ignoring a ruling by the International Court of Justice (1972), (case launched by Australia and New Zealand),[9] which ordered that the French cease atmospheric nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia in the southern Pacific Ocean. [10] Australia’s Labor government told France that “the tests would be unlawful”, and warned that if France did not stop testing it would “institute proceedings in the ICJ to restrain the conducting of future tests in the Pacific.” In a symbolic act of protest the Kirk government sent two of its navy frigates, HMNZS Canterbury and Otago, into the test zone area (1973). [11] A Cabinet Minister was randomly selected to accompany this official New Zealand Government protest fleet. This voyage included a number of local kiwi peace organisations who had coordinated an international flotilla of protest yachts that accompanied the frigates into the Mururoa zone. Peace yachts attempting to disrupt the French tets had been sailing in cordinated protests into the Mururoa exclusion zones between 1972-1991. These included that of the first mission in 1972 by the joint Greenpeace- CND campaign with the yacht Vega (renamed Greenpeace III), followed by the subsequent 1973 voyage by the Peace Media protest yacht Fri,Spirit of Peace,Boy Roel, Magic Island and the Tanmure. [12]. During numerous voyages to Mururoa atoll (organised out of New Zealand between 1972- 1991) the protest yacht Fri, Vegas and Greenpeace were boarded by French commandos and members of their crew assaulted. The French Military conducted more than 200 nuclear tests at Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls over a thirty year period ending 1996, 40 of them atmospheric. In August 2006 people of French Polynesia welcomed an official report by the French government confirming the link between an increase in the cases of thyroid cancer and France's atmospheric nuclear tests in the territory since 1966. [13] [14]

Information workshops at the Nambassa 3 day Music & Alternatives festival, New Zealand 1978.

It is often speculated that the French government-sponsored terrorist act against New Zealand's sovereignty (which was ordered by former French President Mitterrand [15]) with the 1985 sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland's Waitemata Harbour, was an unnecessary act of revenge against Greenpeace and New Zealanders themselves for their successful campaigns to enforce a nuclear weapons test ban at Mururoa. When the French DGSE agents Commander Alain Mafart and Captain Dominique Prieur were captured in New Zealand and eventually sentenced to 10 years prison for their roles in sabotage of the Rainbow Warrior and manslaughter of Fernando Pereira, the French government threatened New Zealand with trade sanctions to the European Union if the pair were not released. [16] [17] From a Pacific perspective, the military attack on the Rainbow Warrior only served to consolidate New Zealand’s and the Pacific communities nuclear free zone ambitions. (Treaty of Rarotonga - South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty). The attack served to further isolate the French in that part of the world, which resulted in strong anti-French political campaigns for independence in Tahiti (French Polynesian legislative election, 2004) and New Caledonia. (Politics of New Caledonia}. [18]

Under the present New Zealand Labour Government, its Prime Minister Helen Clark maintains New Zealand’s nuclear-free zone status, a bipartisan position supported by the opposition New Zealand National Party.

[edit] "Gone by lunchtime"

In January 2004, then leader of the National Party Don Brash promised a senior US Congressional delegation that the nuclear ban would be 'gone by lunchtime' if he became Prime Minister. This statement was later withdrawn, and National promised a referendum before changing the nuclear policy.^{[citation needed]} Some months later Brash had resigned not only as leader of the opposition National Party, but from parliament altogether.[19] [20]

Bibliography

Elsa Caron, (ed.) 1974, Fri Alert (Caveman Press, Dunedin). The Yacht Fri's own story of her protest voyage into the French Bomb Test Zone

Making Waves the Greenpeace New Zealand Story by Michael Szabo ISBN 0 7900 0230 2

Stephen Kos, 1984, ‘Interim Relief in the International Court: New Zealand and the Nuclear Test Cases’, Victoria University Wellington Law Review.

Nuclear Free: The New Zealand Way, The Right Honourable David Lange, Penguin Books, New Zealand,1990.

Legal Challenges to Nuclear Weapons from Aotearoa/New Zealand. By Dr. Kate Dewes Ph.D. O.N.Z.M, (Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit)

Disarmament and Security Centre, New Zealand Peace Foundation

[edit] Nordic countries

Nuclear weapons-free Nordic (Finn. Ydinaseeton Pohjola) was an initiative by the President of Finland Urho Kekkonen for a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Nordic countries. The aim was to prevent the Nordic countries from becoming a nuclear battleground and a route for cruise missiles in the event of a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and NATO. Nuclear energy is used in Finland and Sweden, however.

[edit] United Kingdom

The Nuclear Free Zone Movement in the United Kingdom was very strong in early 1980s, up to 200 local authorities including County councils, District councils and City councils such as the Greater London Council (GLC) (before its abolition) declared themselves to be 'nuclear free'. This was legally underpinned by Section 137 of the Local Government Act, which allowed local authorities to spend a small amount on whatever members considered was in the interest of their area or a part of their area.

Wales became 'nuclear free' on 23 February 1982 after Clwyd County Council declared itself 'nuclear free' and the Nuclear Free Wales Declaration was made.

The scale of the NFZ movement was the main reason for the cancellation of the national 'Hard Rock' civil defence exercise due to the non-cooperation of the NFZ authorities - this has historically been seen as a victory for the British Peace movement against the policies of Margaret Thatcher. The first 'Nuclear Free Zone' in the UK was Manchester City Council in 1980 - this still exists to this day. Generally, NFZs were predominantly Labour Party controlled Councils but Liberal Party and even a few Conservative Party Councillors were often active in this respect too.

[edit] United States

A number of cities in the United States established themselves as Nuclear-Free Zones in the 1980s. One of the first in the country and most prominent is Takoma Park, Maryland, which was officially declared a nuclear-free zone in 1983 by then mayor, Sam Abbott. A citizen committe of the local city council continues to monitor city contracts. The city cannot hold contracts with any company associated with any apsect of nuclear weapons without a waiver from the citizen committee. In September 2005, Takoma Park took a stand against the transportation of high-level nuclear waste through the City. It voted to amend its Nuclear-Free Zone Ordinance to give its citizen committee responsibility to collect information and from this information and from consultations with individuals and organizations involved in the transportation of high-level nuclear waste, to advise the City on how to promote the safety and welfare of its citizens from harmful exposure to high-level nuclear waste. For more on Takoma Park's nuclear-free history see: http://www.takomaparkmd.gov/committees/nfz/nftpc.htm.

Another well-known nuclear-free community is Berkeley, California, known for its radical politics, whose citizens passed the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act in 1986 which allows the city to levy fines for nuclear weapons-related activity and to boycott companies involved in the United States nuclear infrastructure. The City of Berkeley has posted signs at each of its borders proclaiming its nuclear free status, which specifies possible fines for such activities within its borders. This is particularly ironic considering that the University of California, Berkeley, is deeply involved in the history of nuclear weapons, and the University of California system until recently managed operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a U.S. nuclear weapons design laboratory, and continues to manage the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. As well, at the time of the passage of the act, the University operated a nuclear reactor for research purposes, which it continued to operate after the act went into effect. However, The University of California, as a state institution, is not subject to Berkeley's municipal regulations (including the ban).