German atomic waste ends controversial odyssey

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Index:



German atomic waste ends controversial odyssey

Campaigners fail to block UK nuclear waste dumping

New Russian atomic energy chief good news for U.S.

TEPCO unveils management plan with capital spending cut

TEPCO to delay use of MOX fuel at Fukushima nuclear plant

Petition filed for ordinance to hold plebiscite over MOX fuel

Nuke Reactor in Ukraine Shut Down

Some U.S. nuclear scientists spurn polygraph tests

Looming Energy Bottlenecks Might Sap US Recovery: Art Pine

Nuclear Control Institute Hosts April 9 Conference On Nuclear Power 

Baker says U.S. must help Russian nuclear storage

Smoke on nuclear sub alerts Gibraltar fire brigade

Turbine woe forces Czech nuclear plant to cut output

============================================



German atomic waste ends controversial odyssey



GORLEBEN, Germany, March 29 (Reuters) - A massive show of force by 

German police on Thursday thwarted planned blockades by anti-nuclear 

activists and allowed delivery of a cargo of radioactive waste after 

a four-day odyssey from France. 



After skirmishes all along the 500-km (300-mile) rail route from the 

French border, the last short stretch by road to the Gorleben storage 

facility, south of Hamburg, was completed in a dawn raid that 

surprised weary and outnumbered eco-activists. 



Water cannon and tear gas deployed at times this week and familiar 

from earlier shipments of reprocessed German waste from France were 

not needed, though mounted officers and the odd baton were used to 

keep some of the several thousand demonstrators at bay. 



A few wept in front of the massed ranks of the law as trucks bearing 

the six containers reached their goal. Yet as they straggled off in 

the cold morning rain from the woodland site near the river Elbe, 

there was also a sense of achievement. 



In delaying the cargo for a day with their sit-ins and occasionally 

violent assaults on police lines, tying up as many as 15,000 officers 

in one of Germany's biggest peacetime security operations, they said 

they were swinging the economics of electricity generation away from 

nuclear power. 



"It has been a great success," a Greenpeace spokesman said. "They 

have to accept that (it is) not politically viable." 



"I'm sorry we couldn't stop it. The police were everywhere," said 18-

year-old Rangna from Hamburg, shivering with cold and fatigue as she 

stared over high wire fences at the "Castor" waste container wagons 

drawn up at the warehouse. "But it's been a success. We're making it 

too expensive for them." 



Police estimated their costs at some $50 million. But the head of the 

police union sought more money, saying officers deserved a bonus for 

long hours served in cold weather and tough conditions. 



READY FOR NEXT TIME 



The government coalition, which includes the Greens, said the first 

transport since a ban three years ago was a vital part of last year's 

agreement to phase out nuclear power by around 2025. Without their 

own facilities, German reactors must send spent fuel to France for 

reprocessing. 



Environment Minister Juergen Trittin, a Green who once led protests 

at Gorleben, called the shipments "unavoidable." But the phase out 

plan is taking far too long for many activists. 



Otto Schily, the interior minister, who was himself arrested at anti-

nuclear demonstrations in the 1980s, promised to use the full force 

of the law against the violent minority. 



Trittin took a softer line. "I respect the overwhelming majority who 

demonstrated there," he told parliament. 



Peaceful local demonstrators blamed young anarchists for the violence 

but criticised police for over-reacting and vowed to be back next 

time. About two transports a year are now planned. 



"They can beat us off the streets and blast us with water cannon," 

said Annette Peich, 44, who lives near the Dannenberg railhead. "But 

we'll be back next time with new tactics." 



Even the police confessed surprise at covering the last 20 km (12 

miles) stretch of road from Dannenberg in just 80 minutes. During the 

last shipment from France in 1997, it took many hours to drag and 

water-cannon thousands from the road. 



This year the biggest disruption was caused by just a handful of eco-

warriors, including a 16-year-old local girl, who chained and 

cemented themselves to the rails. Freeing them caused much of the day-

long delay in reaching the rail depot. 

- -------------



Campaigners fail to block UK nuclear waste dumping

  

LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - Anti-nuclear campaigners failed in a bid 

to block the discharge of radioactive waste at two British nuclear 

weapons plants on Thursday. 



The campaigners said the Environment Agency, which is responsible for 

regulating the disposal of radioactive waste, had failed to 

investigate the possible health risks before letting the Atomic 

Weapons Establishment (AWE) plants go on dumping dangerous material. 



The UK-based Nuclear Awareness Group were challenging a ruling of 

December 1999 which allowed the AWE to discharge limited amounts of 

radioactive waste into the environment at its Aldermaston and 

Burghfield sites, west of London. 



The Environment Agency said the court's decision confirmed that it 

had acted in the public interest. 



"The regulatory system ... has offered the public unprecedented 

levels of access and scrutiny to the process of determining discharge 

limits at Aldermaston," it said in a statement. 

- ------------



New Russian atomic energy chief good news for U.S.



MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's appointment of a new atomic energy 

minister could be good news for a U.S. administration anxious to keep 

Iran from obtaining Moscow's nuclear know-how, industry experts said 

Thursday. 



"President Vladimir Putin's decision to fire Atomic Energy Minister 

Yevengy Adamov is a significant event in the area of nuclear non-

proliferation," said Vladimir Orlov, director of the Center for 

Policy Studies in Russia, in a statement. 



Adamov was replaced Wednesday by Alexander Rumyantsev, the head of 

the Kurchatov Institute, one of Russia's leading nuclear 

laboratories. Part of his job will be to ensure Russia's stocks of 

fissionable material do not fall into the hands of terrorists or 

states bent on acquiring nuclear arms. 



But he has yet to take a public stance on proliferation issues. 

Moscow insists it is respecting all its international obligations to 

prevent the spread of nuclear material and know-how. But critics say 

Adamov's bids to sell Russia's civilian nuclear technology abroad 

undermined this claim. 



The outgoing minister was the prime mover behind India's import of 

nuclear fuel for its Tarapur power plant, a deal which a dismayed 

U.S. State Department said raised questions about Russia's commitment 

to nuclear non-proliferation. 



Adamov also wanted to sell Tehran three reactors in addition to a 

nuclear power plant under construction at Bushehr on the Gulf coast, 

causing further consternation in Washington. 



A DEAL TOO FAR? 



The daily business newspaper Kommersant said Adamov had been 

dismissed because the Kremlin was unhappy that he had been 

"excessively active in reaching nuclear deals with Iran," long a U.S. 

bogeyman. 



"With tensions rising in relations with the United States, Adamov's 

Iranian projects were inappropriate," Kommersant said. Significantly, 

Adamov was the only minister not given a new job in Wednesday's 

reshuffle, it said. 



Proliferation issues have been at the heart of a transatlantic war of 

words between Washington and Moscow since Bush took office. 



U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has accused Moscow of being an 

"active proliferator" of missile and nuclear technology, which 

justified the U.S. decision to go ahead with a $60 billion national 

missile defense shield denounced by Russia. 



German police foiled at least two bids to sell nuclear material 

stolen from Russia in the 1990s. The U.S. Carnegie Endowment think 

tank has said conspirators tried to steal 41 pounds of weapons-usable 

material as recently as 1998. 



The think tank said less than a 10th of Russia's highly enriched 

uranium stockpile has been made useless for weapons. 



Also in Rumyantsev's in-tray is a plan by his predecessor to import 

nuclear waste for treatment in Russia. Parliament last week delayed a 

vote legalizing the imports. 



In televised comments Wednesday, the new minister said the project 

was "reasonable, but concretely how this should be carried out must 

be carefully discussed." 



Adamov's project, which supporters said could earn Russia $20 billion 

over two decades, enraged ecology groups and liberals who said it 

would turn Russia into the world's nuclear dustbin. They say such a 

scheme is madness in a country whose own storage facilities are in a 

pitiful state. 

- -------------



TEPCO unveils management plan with capital spending cut



TOKYO, March 29 (Kyodo) - Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on 

Thursday announced a fiscal 2001 management plan featuring a 

substantial cut in capital spending in the face of dwindling demand 

for electricity and increasing competition. 



Japan's biggest electric power supplier says the plan assumes a cut 

in annual capital spending to an average of 900 billion yen or less 

over the three years from fiscal 2001, which starts on Sunday. 



The fiscal 2000 management plan called for spending an average of 1.1 

trillion yen annually in the three years through fiscal 2002. 



For fiscal 2001 alone, TEPCO plans capital outlays of 972.2 billion 

yen, budgeting for less than 1 trillion yen in spending for the first 

time since fiscal 1979. 



Funds saved through the spending cut will be used to reduce debts and 

finance new projects such as laying fiber-optic cables, it said. 



TEPCO plans to reduce its interest-bearing debts, currently at around 

10 trillion yen, by more than 2 trillion yen by fiscal 2005 in the 

latest management plan. 



The plan also calls for putting off construction of 22 plants, which 

are to have total capacity of 11.8 million kilowatts, at 10 power 

stations. 



In February, TEPCO said it would freeze the construction of new power 

plants for three to five years. 



But in the latest plan, TEPCO also postpones the operational launch 

of a coal-burning thermal power plant in Fukushima Prefecture by two 

years to July 2004, apparently in response to local opposition. 



Two nuclear power plants in Fukushima are planned to begin operating 

in 2007 and 2008, one year later than initially scheduled, for 

technical reasons, according to the plan. 

- ------------



TEPCO to delay use of MOX fuel at Fukushima nuclear plant



TOKYO, March 29 (Kyodo) - Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has 

decided to postpone the launch of plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) 

fuel at its nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern 

Japan because of opposition from the governor, company sources said 

Thursday. 



The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was scheduled to become the 

first nuclear plant to use MOX fuel in April. However, Fukushima Gov. 

Eisaku Sato said last month that the prefecture will not allow the 

use of MOX fuel on the grounds that residents are against it. 



MOX, a pellet mixture of uranium dioxide and plutonium dioxide, is 

designed to be burned in light-water reactors, a process known as 

plutonium thermal use. Plutonium is obtained by reprocessing spent 

nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants. 



Sato has said the government must review its energy policy, including 

the use of MOX fuel. 



TEPCO is also planning to start using MOX fuel at its Kashiwazaki-

Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture, and Kansai Electric Power 

Co. intends to do the same at its Takahama nuclear plant in Fukui. 

Both plants are on the Sea of Japan. 



The electric power industry plans to carry out the ''pluthermal'' 

project, which uses MOX fuel in a thermal reactor, at 16 to 18 

reactors by 2010. Originally, the project was scheduled to be 

launched in 1999. 

- ------------



Petition filed for ordinance to hold plebiscite over MOX fuel



NIIGATA, Japan, March 29 (Kyodo) - Residents and assembly members of 

the village of Kariwa, Niigata Prefecture filed an official petition 

Thursday requesting that the village establish an ordinance to allow 

a plebiscite over a plan to use plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) 

fuel at a local nuclear plant. 



Village officials said the petition was filed with village chief 

Hiroo Shinada, and that the Kariwa assembly is expected to deliberate 

an ordinance bill during an extraordinary session convening in April.



The move follows the submission by a group of Kariwa residents and 

assembly members on March 2 of a similar petition bearing the 

signatures of 1,540 eligible voters, 37% of total voters in the 

village, and calling for a plebiscite over the so-called 

''pluthermal'' project at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, which is 

operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. 



The plant on Saturday received 28 containers of MOX fuel from France, 

but it has not yet been officially decided when the project will be 

launched. 



In March 1999, the assemblies of Kashiwazaki and Kariwa on the Sea of 

Japan coast rejected a petition calling for a plebiscite over the 

issue. 



The Kariwa assembly last December passed a similar bill submitted by 

assembly members, but Shinada vetoed it and ordered the assembly to 

revote. The bill was then rejected in January. 



The pluthermal process entails using MOX fuel -- made by mixing 

uranium with plutonium chemically extracted from spent nuclear fuel --

 to power a thermal reactor. The power company plans to introduce the 

system at the plant's No. 3 reactor. 

- -----------



Nuke Reactor in Ukraine Shut Down



KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - A reactor at Ukraine's Zaporizhia nuclear power 

plant was briefly shut down following a short circuit, officials said 

Thursday. 



The plant's reactor No. 6 was halted late Wednesday and was restarted 

four hours later following repairs, the Emergency Situation Ministry 

said. No radiation leaks were reported. 



Ukraine, site of the world's worst nuclear accident at the Chernobyl 

plant in 1986, currently runs 13 nuclear reactors at four atomic 

plants. They are frequently shut down for maintenance or because of 

malfunctions but still account for about 40 percent of the former 

Soviet republic's electricity. 



Chernobyl was closed down for good on Dec. 15, 2000. 

- ------------



Some U.S. nuclear scientists spurn polygraph tests



WASHINGTON, March 28 (Reuters) - Some U.S. nuclear weapons scientists 

in New Mexico are boycotting required polygraph tests on the grounds 

that they contain questions unrelated to national security, a senior 

scientist said on Wednesday. 



"The polygraphers are asking medical questions -- what medication 

you're taking and what medical conditions you have -- after we were 

told there would be no such personal questions," said Al Zelicoff, an 

employee at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

Zelicoff is an outspoken opponent of polygraph tests at the U.S. 

Department of Energy's three nuclear weapons laboratories. 



The tests were ordered after former nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee was 

targeted in an espionage scare last year at the department's Los 

Alamos National Laboratory. After being held in solitary confinement 

for nine months, Lee pleaded guilty to one count of mishandling 

classified information, the government dropped 58 other charges 

against him, and he was sentenced to time served. 



Zelicoff, one of some 15,000 workers in the Energy Department's 

nuclear weapons lab system, said some of his colleagues in sensitive 

programs had refused to take polygraph tests and thus were barred 

from performing their jobs. 



Zelicoff called the medical questions irrelevant, saying the taking 

of medication had no impact on the tests' outcome. 



"I have scoured the medical literate, and there is not a single 

publication that establishes with any scientific credibility the 

effect of any medication on the results of the polygraph," he said in 

telephone interview from Albuquerque. 



"These scientists will not sacrifice any of their civil liberties for 

nonsense," he said. 



In Washington, a spokeswoman for the Energy Department said it was 

using standard procedures followed by every federal agency that gives 

polygraph tests. 



"We're obligated to ask these questions. We're not interested in 

personal lifestyle. We're interested in administrating a fair test," 

spokeswoman Jeanne Lopatto said. 



She said the department needed to know if employees were taking any 

medications that could affect the outcome of the tests or had a 

medical condition that could be aggravated by the stress of the 

tests. 



"The people subject to the test have access to the most serious 

nuclear information and material that we have," Lopatto said. 

"Certainly people who are in jobs that require high security 

clearance do know they give up certain privacy issues." 



She said the department knew of the scientists' concern and would 

deal with it in a Washington meeting with a delegation from the 

Sandia laboratory. 

- --------------



Looming Energy Bottlenecks Might Sap US Recovery: Art Pine

  

Washington, March 29 (Bloomberg) -- America's looming energy  

shortage is threatening to impede the nation's economic growth  rate 

over the next several years, possibly muting the expected  recovery. 



It isn't just California, or electricity or oil. One way or  another, 

the squeeze is expected to show up in the entire gamut of  energy 

sources, including natural gas, U.S. energy experts say.  The problem 

won't be easy to solve.  



``There's a serious problem, and it's going to remain  serious,'' 

said Philip K. Verleger, an energy economist with the  Brattle Group 

in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ``The U.S. economy  could be constrained 

by the energy problem for three or four  years.''  



The problem comes mainly from a shortage of refineries, gas  

pipelines, high-voltage transmission lines and generating  stations. 

Lulled by low prices and dependable energy supplies, the  U.S. hasn't 

built enough of those to meet today's needs.  



``All of our energy sectors are extremely tight,'' said John  Felmy, 

chief economist for the American Petroleum Institute, who  has been 

tracking the situation closely. They're operating at the  limit of 

their capacity.  



Surging Demand  



The U.S. Energy Department estimates that overall energy  demand is 

likely to grow by 30 percent between 2000 and 2020.  Demand for oil 

is expected to rise by 33 percent, electricity 43  percent and 

natural gas 54 percent, the agency says.  



``These are indications that going forward the U.S. is going  to need 

a lot more energy -- how are we going to get it?'' Felmy  asks. Most 

forecasters expect that additional pipelines,  refineries and other 

equipment needed to provide that energy won't  be nearly large 

enough.  



The problem reflects a variety of factors: The 10-year-old  economic 

boom boosted demand for all kinds of energy. Utility  generators have 

switched from coal to natural gas. Environmental  rules are tougher. 

The Internet consumes huge amounts of power.  



The reluctance of consumers -- and governments -- to permit  

construction of refineries and generating stations in high-demand  

areas also has played a significant role. In some areas, no new  

power plants or generating stations have been built in decades.  



Nuclear Power  



Nuclear power is stymied, too. No new permits for  construction of 

nuclear power plants have been granted since 1979,  and many of the 

103 existing plants aren't expected to seek  renewal of their 

licenses because regulation is so strict.  



Finally, sweeping changes in the structure of U.S. business  also 

have exacerbated the situation, as huge companies that used  to 

handle every stage of a production process have parceled out  major 

portions of their businesses to specialty firms.  



That, combined with deregulation and just-in-time inventory  

practices, Verleger says, has eliminated longtime incentives for  

energy companies to build up large stocks of petroleum or gas or  to 

maintain sizable reserve capacity for power-generation.  



``Nowadays, if something breaks as demand surges, you  immediately 

have a problem,'' he said.  



As a result, the U.S. now faces a shortfall of electric  generating 

capacity, bottlenecks in the transmission of oil,  natural gas and 

electricity, a shortage of natural gas supply and  impediments in 

petroleum production and transportation.  



The blackouts in California haven't been the only warning  signs. The 

Northeast escaped a similar fate in 2000 only because  of cool 

weather. Gasoline refiners were thwarted by a pipeline  disruption. 

Heating oil prices soared when tankers were scarce.  



1,900 New Plants Needed  



Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham estimates that if demand for  

electricity grows at the same pace as it has in the past decade,  the 

U.S. will need almost 1,900 new generating plants by the year  2020 --

 and power lines and transformers, too.  



The consequences have begun spreading beyond the energy  sector. 

Higher prices already have forced the shutdown of some  manufacturing 

plants. Farmers are growing soybeans rather than  corn because prices 

of nitrogen fertilizers are so high.  



How much the energy squeeze will constrain economic growth in  the 

U.S. is difficult to predict. Verleger says it will impede any  

recovery and depress productivity growth and investment, keeping  the 

economy in the doldrums for years.  



Former President Bill Clinton essentially ignored the energy  

situation. While Clinton sent Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to  

the Middle East to ask Arab states to boost production when oil  

prices rose, he did nothing to head off today's energy squeeze.  



President George W. Bush has warned that the U.S. faces a  ``major 

energy supply crisis'' reminiscent of the oil embargoes of  the 1970s 

and has set up a high-level task force -- headed by Vice  President 

Dick Cheney -- to craft a national energy policy.  



Spurring Exploration  



Cheney is expected to propose new steps to help spur more oil  and 

gas exploration -- partly by permitting oil drilling in  Alaska's 

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- and to speed  construction of new 

generators and pipelines.  



Although the administration is unlikely to emphasize it, its  energy 

program also will give a green light to keeping prices  relatively 

high to help encourage new exploration, conservation  and 

construction of pipelines, generating stations and the like.  



Verleger, for one, says that won't be sufficient. He wants to  impose 

new energy taxes to spur consumers to conserve, and he says  

governments should speed up construction of more energy projects  

such as generating plants and pipelines.  



He also says the government should identify U.S. industries  that are 

energy-inefficient and prod them into shutting down.  ``We're going 

to have a triaging of the nation's economy, whether  it's orderly or 

disorderly,'' he said.  



Stephen P. A. Brown, an energy economist at the Federal  Reserve bank 

of Dallas, argues that the markets can do the job of  sorting out 

survivors better than Uncle Sam.  



``If we look at situations where the government has tried to  pick 

winners and losers, they're terrible at it,'' Brown said.  



`No short-term fixes'  



Nevertheless, as Bush himself has pointed out, there are ``no  short-

term fixes.''  



The gasoline shortages of the 1970s primarily involved  letting pump 

prices rise enough to force Americans to cut back  their driving and 

persuading Arab oil producers to end their  embargo.  



The current situation calls for a broad array of changes,  among them 

convincing consumers and states to permit construction  of new 

generating stations, pipelines and the like in areas where  demand is 

highest -- and paying higher prices to support them.  



That will take a long and steady education campaign, without  the 

help of a bogey man -- such as the Arab oil producers provided  in 

the 1970s -- to help rally public support for painful policy  

prescriptions. It also will take billions of dollars.  



Meanwhile, the outlook seems stark. Energy analysts warn that  even 

with the economy slowing, the shortages might begin to show  up as 

early as this summer, with temporary blackouts in the  Northeast. 

Soaring energy prices also will worsen inflation.  



``Although a short-term recession will curb some demand, a  fast 

recovery will just re-trigger the capacity and price  problem'' in 

the energy sector, said Carole L. Brookins, head of  World 

Perspectives Inc., a Washington consulting firm.  



``No matter what is decided about drilling today and opening  up 

access to new sources of reserves, those supplies will take  five to 

seven years to come onto the market,'' Brookins pointed  out. Energy 

will be a drag on the economy until that is fixed.  

- --------------



Nuclear Control Institute Hosts April 9 Conference On Nuclear Power 

and the Spread of Nuclear Weapons

  

WASHINGTON, March 28 /PRNewswire/ -- A dozen top international 

experts on nuclear power, energy alternatives, and the spread of 

nuclear weapons will speak at an April 9 conference in Washington 

sponsored by the Nuclear Control Institute. The conference marks 

NCI's 20th Anniversary and will take place at the Carnegie Endowment 

for International Peace. 



In the wake of the California energy crisis, there is renewed 

interest in nuclear power as the solution to national and global 

electricity needs. But North Korea's nuclear missile capability, 

Iraqi and Iranian nuclear-weapons potential, and tensions between 

nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, all point to a connection between 

national nuclear power programs and nuclear proliferation. 



Headline speakers include:  



- -- Ambassador Robert Gallucci, Dean of the Georgetown School of 

Foreign   



Service and diplomatic troubleshooter on North Korean, Iraqi and   

Iranian nuclear weapons issues, will give the luncheon address: "The  

Continuing Relevance of Nuclear Power to the Problem of Nuclear 

Weapons Proliferation." 



- -- Former U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary will discuss the 

Clinton and   



Bush Administrations' nuclear and alternative energy policies. 



- -- Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of "The Making of 

the  Atomic Bomb," will make the case for nuclear power. 



- -- Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, will make the case 

for the "soft-energy" path: energy conservation and efficiency 

instead of nuclear power. 



For two decades, the Nuclear Control Institute has worked to de-link 

nuclear power and nuclear weapons by seeking a halt in commerce in 

plutonium and bomb-grade uranium. NCI is hosting the April 9 

conference to raise these questions:  



- -- Can we have nuclear power without nuclear weapons? Are there good 

technical fixes? 



- -- How essential is nuclear power? How viable are advanced, non-

nuclear alternatives? 



- -- Are nuclear power plants vulnerable to attack and sabotage? 



- -- What role has nuclear power played in the acquisition of nuclear   

weapons? Are current non-proliferation agreements effective? 



Other conference participants include: Richard Garwin, IBM Fellow 

Emeritus; William D. Magwood IV, Director of Nuclear Energy, Science 

& Technology, U.S. Department of Energy; Robert Williams and Harold 

Feiveson, Princeton University; Marvin Miller, Massachusetts 

Institute of Technology; Lawrence Scheinman, former Assistant 

Director, U.S. Arms Control & Disarmament Agency; George Perkovich, 

author of "India's Nuclear Bomb;" Bertram Wolfe, past Vice-

President/Nuclear, General Electric Co.; and Zachary Davis, Livermore 

National Laboratory. 



The conference and reception that follows are open to the media. The 

complete conference program and registration can found at:   



http://www.nci.org/conference.htm  

- -------------



Baker says U.S. must help Russian nuclear storage



WASHINGTON, March 28 (Reuters) - Russia's nuclear weapons storage 

facilities are in poor shape and the United States must help secure 

them for its own national security, Howard Baker, co-chair of an 

Energy Department task force, said on Wednesday. 



"It really boggles my mind" that thousands of nuclear weapons are 

poorly stored, Baker said, "and the world isn't in a near state of 

hysteria." 



The collapse of the Soviet Union left more than 40,000 nuclear 

weapons and 1,000 metric tons of nuclear materials without the Cold 

War infrastructure to ensure their security, Baker told a Senate 

Foreign Relations Committee hearing. 



The concern is that the weapons could be stolen, sold to hostile 

groups, and used against Americans, he said. 



"The only thing we can't do is nothing.... If we don't do it no one 

will," he said, adding that Russia does not have the resources to 

address the task by itself. 



The panel concluded that current budget levels for nonproliferation 

programs were inadequate, and proposed funding a program to help 

secure nuclear weapons and material in Russia at up to $3 billion a 

year for the next 10 years. 



President George W. Bush should push others such as the European 

Union, Japan and Canada to share the costs of securing Russia's 

nuclear arsenal, said Baker, a former Republican senator from 

Tennessee who was recently nominated to be U.S. ambassador to Japan. 



Russia and the United States have a "special responsibility" to 

ensure the nuclear arsenal is safe because they invented the nuclear 

age, he said. "We invented it, now we have to see whether we can live 

with it." 



While it was disturbing that Russia had trade with Iran in dual-use 

nuclear technology and missile technology and apparently intended to 

supply new conventional weapons systems to Iran, those concerns 

should not hamper U.S. efforts to help secure Russia's nuclear 

arsenal, Baker said. 



"You still can't let that be the total consideration of the 

relationship between the United States and Russia on this subject," 

he said. 



Baker said he looked forward to his new assignment in Japan and 

declined to comment on Japan's economy. 

- -------------



Smoke on nuclear sub alerts Gibraltar fire brigade

  

GIBRALTAR, March 28 (Reuters) - An alarm set off by a smoking cable 

aboard a British nuclear submarine under repair in Gibraltar on 

Wednesday brought a fire brigade rushing to the scene, the British 

Ministry of Defence said. 



However, fire fighting services were not needed on HMS Tireless as 

the smoking from a cable in one of the generators had already stopped 

by the time they arrived, the ministry said in a statement. 



"There are no nuclear implications and the submarine has returned to 

its normal working routine," it said. 



The decision to repair the Tireless in Gibraltar has caused concern 

among the local Spanish community about possible dangers to the 

environment. 

- -------------



Turbine woe forces Czech nuclear plant to cut output

  

PRAGUE, March 28 (Reuters) - A turbine problem forced the Czech 

Temelin nuclear plant to sharply cut output during testing on 

Wednesday, and officials said they may delay the full launch, 

scheduled June, of the plant that is fiercely opposed by Austria 

because of safety concerns. 



Temelin spokesman Milan Nebesar said the problem had prompted the 

plant, which began testing last autumn, to slash output to 1.8 

percent of the 1,000 megawatt capacity from 55 percent. He did not 

elaborate. 



The CTK news agency quoted Dana Drabova, head of the Czech Nuclear 

Safety Department, as saying the delay casts doubt over the planned 

June launch of the plant, which if true would be a heavy setback for 

owner CEZ. 



"The previously announced June timeframe is now relatively 

unrealistic," she said. 



The plant only reopened 10 days ago following adjustments to its 

valves after a steam supply pipe in the nonnuclear part of the 

station began vibrating and cracked in January. 



The launch last year of the Soviet-designed station has been fiercely 

opposed by Austria on the grounds that it may be unsafe despite 

having a modern U.S. control system considered less dangerous than 

the Russian equivalent. 



Worth $2.5 billion, the station is situated just over 50 km (30 

miles) from the Austrian border. 



In its short history so far the plant has been shut several times 

during the testing due to problems which CEZ officials have called 

normal in the start-up of a plant. 



None of the problems have involved any leaks of radioactive 

materials.



- ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sandy Perle                                     Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100                                     

Director, Technical                             Extension 2306                                  

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service         Fax:(714) 668-3149                                          

ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc.                       E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net                                                      

ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue           E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com                       

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Personal Website: http://sandyfl.nukeworker.net

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com



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