The Chilean government and environmentalists are protesting the passage around Cape Horn of a ship carrying about 76 tons of spent nuclear fuel from the U.K. to Japan. Greenpeace Chile fears that the southern route around South America, longer and more treacherous than a trip through the Panama Canal, will become the preferred route for shipping nuclear waste. The group says that if an accident were to occur to the ship en route, it might rival the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. In 1995, the last time nuclear waste was shipped around Cape Horn, Chile’s navy blocked the ship from entering its waters.
