[ RadSafe ] German activists delay nuclear shipment

[Sandy Perle]

Index:

German activists delay nuclear shipment 
Head of British Nuclear Group to leave
Egypt's peaceful nuclear program strategy almost completed: official 
===================================

German activists delay nuclear shipment 

BERLIN Nov 12 - Protesters who suspended themselves from a rope 
across railroad tracks Sunday temporarily stopped a train carrying 
reprocessed nuclear waste in Germany. 

The activists from the environmental organization Robin Wood 
stretched the rope between trees on either side of the tracks about 
several miles from the train's destination in the northern city of 
Dannenberg. Two activists, supported by two more in the trees, then 
climbed across the rope and chained themselves to it, dangling over 
the tracks.

The group called it a "symbolic action," and police were able to 
quickly clear the way for the train to proceed. It was carrying 
reprocessed nuclear waste to a German storage facility from France.

The protest was one of many small demonstrations along the route that 
slowed the train, which left late Friday from the French town of 
Valognes.

After reaching Dannenberg in the afternoon, the waste containers were 
loaded onto trucks to be driven to nearby Gorleben for storage. The 
trucks were scheduled to arrive on Monday.

The annual shipment is sent to Gorleben under an agreement that sees 
spent fuel from Germany's nuclear power plants transferred to France 
and Britain for reprocessing before being returned for storage. 
Gorleben has been a traditional focus of anti-nuclear protests, and 
the shipments have in the past led to clashes between demonstrators 
and police.

Activists argue that neither the waste containers nor the Gorleben 
site - currently a temporary storage facility - are safe. The waste 
is stored in a warehouse near an old salt mine that has been deemed a 
suitable, permanent underground storage site.

The protest movement has faded somewhat since the German government 
embarked in 2003 on plans to phase out nuclear power, but activists 
complain that the two-decade timetable for closing Germany's nuclear 
plants is too slow.
---------------

Head of British Nuclear Group to leave

LONDON (Reuters) Nov 13 - The boss of British Nuclear Group (BNG) is 
planning to leave the state-owned nuclear clean-up company, which the 
government is planning to break up and privatise, the Daily Telegraph 
reported on Monday.

Chief Executive Lawrie Haynes would walk away with a financial 
package worth well over 1 million pounds ($1.92 million), the 
newspaper added, without citing sources.

Haynes was preparing to quit BNG after failing to convince the 
government to sell the firm as one entity, it said. Had that happened 
the chief executive might have remained in his post and run the 
business for the new owners.

A comment on the situation was not immediately available from BNG 
parent British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL).

The government last month said it planned to split up BNG for a four-
part sell-off, reneging on its original plan to sell the business 
complete.

The move came three months after U.S. engineering and construction 
company Fluor Corp wrote to BNFL with an offer of up to 400 million 
pounds for the unit, depending on contracts.
----------------

Egypt's peaceful nuclear program strategy almost completed: official 
         
Egyptian minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abu Naga said on 
Sunday that the Egyptian government is about to finish a study on the 
resumption of a program for the peaceful use of nuclear energy, the 
official news agency MENA reported. 

In a statement before a meeting of the People's Assembly Energy and 
Industry Committee, Abu Naga said that the Egyptian government will 
submit the plan to the Supreme Council for Energy by the end of the 
month. 

Abu Naga said in her statement that the strategy stressed Egypt 's 
right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy in accordance with the 
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which contains a provision 
granting such right to all parties of the treaty. 

Egypt's resumption of its nuclear program is a basic right granted by 
international treaties, she said, adding that Egypt's adoption of 
such drive is based on a thorough and future study of the non-
renewable sources of energy, as petroleum and natural gas. 

Petroleum is expected to be exhausted not only in Egypt, but also in 
all world countries in about 17 years and natural gas in 34 years 
which calls for alternative sources of energy, said Abu Naga. 

In the 1980s, Egypt signed with several countries agreements covering 
the nuclear field, but the implementation of such agreements was put 
off following the 1986 Chernobyl reactor incident and for security 
reasons, she added. 

However, the risk of depletion of petroleum reserves brought such 
agreements in the limelight again, she continued. 

In the meantime, Abu Naga also said an Egyptian-Chinese businessmen 
council is due to convene on Monday to discuss ways to boost 
bilateral cooperation in the nuclear sphere. 

The government's nuclear strategy will determine the cost of using 
alternative sources and the partners Egypt would work with in this 
field, together with means of finance and technical aid to be offered 
to help set up nuclear reactors, security systems and training 
cadres, the official said. 

According to the strategy, said Abu Naga, Egypt is in need of four 
nuclear reactors at the first stage, with the number expected to 
increase to eight later on. 

It will take 12 to 18 months to announce a tender to finance the 
establishment of such reactors, added the minister. 

Moreover, she disclosed that both Russia and China welcomed such 
decision during President Hosni Mubarak's recent visit to the two 
countries. 

Egypt's decision to resume its nuclear program is both strategic and 
inevitable, especially for the coming generations, she added. 

On Sept. 21, Mubarak announced that Egypt would continue its 
scientific research to develop peaceful nuclear technology regardless 
of its high cost. 

Egypt started very limited nuclear technological research in 1957, 
but its nuclear program was frozen in 1986 in the aftermath of the 
accident at former Soviet Union's Chernobyl nuclear plant in the same 
year. 

In 1968, Egypt signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and 
officially supports the elimination of nuclear weapons in the region.

Sandy Perle

Fineart Photographic Gallery: 
http://www.zazzle.com/sandytravel*/products

World Travels Personal Journal: http://sandy-travels.com/