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Czech-Austria nuclear row looms before EU expansion
Index:
Czech-Austria nuclear row looms before EU expansion
Ship loaded with MOX fuel to leave Japan on July 4
Defense chief Ivanov says Russia to continue nuclear tests
==================================
Czech-Austria nuclear row looms before EU expansion
VIENNA, June 28 (Reuters) - Likely new Czech prime minister Vladimir
Spidla on Friday dismissed Austrian hopes he would close a
controversial nuclear power plant, reviving threats by Austria's far-
right to block Czech entry to the EU.
Spidla's comments in Austrian news weekly Format raised the prospect
that Joerg Haider's Freedom Party would object in earnest to the
Czech Republic taking part in the European Union's planned eastward
expansion.
Austrian political parties had been hoping that Spidla, whose Social
Democrats led in June elections and are expected to form a
government, would reverse the previous government's loyalty to the
Temelin power plant, some 60 km (37 miles) from Austria's border.
But in Friday's edition of Format, Spidla -- who in 1998 as deputy
prime minister voted against completing the plant -- said he would
instead stick by safety monitoring agreements reached with Austria
and the EU last year.
"When you look ahead, it is clear that nuclear energy has a future.
Temelin is a good nuclear power plant," Spidla said.
The Freedom Party's parliamentary leader Peter Westenthaler reacted
sharply, renewing veto threats that had subsided last year with the
agreement on independent safety monitoring at Temelin.
"If this is the line of the new Czech government, then it is the
Czech Republic's ticket to being economically isolated," said
Westenthaler. "The Czechs will never belong to the EU."
Temelin, a Soviet-designed plant with U.S. safety controls, has been
a major source of tension between Prague and fervently anti-nuclear
Austria.
Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, whose People's Party forms a centre-
right coalition with the Freedom Party, has rejected past calls for
blocking Czech EU membership over Temelin.
It was unclear how the Freedom Party could block Czech membership if
the EU Commission and member governments agree as planned later this
year which of 12 candidates can join the 15-nation bloc.
That agreement must be ratified by national parliaments of EU member
states, which is where the Freedom Party could best bring its weight
to bear. It has as many seats as the pro-expansion People's Party.
But the enlargement deal is likely to be presented as a package to be
accepted or rejected as a whole, preventing individual parliaments
from picking out single candidates, officials have said.
-----------------
Ship loaded with MOX fuel to leave Japan on July 4
FUKUI, Japan, June 28 (Kyodo) - A ship transporting plutonium-uranium
mixed oxide (MOX) fuel from Japan to Britain will depart next
Thursday morning, sources familiar with the shipment plans said
Friday.
The ship -- the Pacific Pintail -- will transport the MOX fuel,
currently stored at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s nuclear power plant
in Takahama, Fukui Prefecture, to British Nuclear Fuels PLC (BNFL).
The fuel is being returned to Britain under a July 2000 agreement
between the Japanese and British governments stipulating BNFL would
ship the fuel back at its own expense after it was learned the BNFL
falsified manufacturing data for MOX fuel shipped to the electric
power company in 1999.
The Pacific Pintail arrived in Takahama on June 14.
Officials of the electric power company have already finished loading
the rejected MOX fuel into eight containers, the sources said, adding
the containers will be loaded onto the ship next Thursday.
Government authorities have also completed their safety inspection of
the containers, the sources added.
While authorities and Kansai Electric have declined to disclose the
ship's route due to security concerns, several coastal countries,
such as Chile, and environment groups have expressed opposition to
the planned sea transportation.
International environmental group Greenpeace contends that
transporting the fuel by sea is not only an environmental hazard but
could also provoke terrorist attacks.
The Pacific Pintail will be the first ship to transport a shipment of
plutonium since the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States.
Local environmental groups are planning a protest demonstration to
coincide with the ship's departure and Greenpeace members will
monitor the operation from the group's surveillance ship Arctic
Sunrise, the sources said.
The scandal over revelations the British manufacturer counterfeited
data on the MOX fuel stirred public opposition to Japan's stalled
''pluthermal'' -- plutonium thermal -- energy plan.
The project, in which MOX fuel is used in light-water reactors, is
the core of Japan's nuclear fuel recycling programs.
The Japanese government aims to have the pluthermal project launched
at 16-18 reactors by 2010, but plans have so far been foiled
by opposition from local residents in areas where the reactors are
located.
-------------------
Defense chief Ivanov says Russia to continue nuclear tests
MOSCOW, June 28 (Kyodo) - Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov indicated
Thursday Russia will continue conducting subcritical nuclear
tests that do not cause sustained nuclear chain reactions.
Speaking to reporters after visiting a nuclear test site in the
Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya, Ivanov said Russia ''will
continue
experiments that do not involve nuclear explosions.''
Subcritical nuclear tests are different from traditional nuclear
experiments in that they are halted before nuclear materials reach
''criticality,'' in which a nuclear chain reaction is triggered.
Russia and the United States argue that such tests are necessary to
maintain the capability of existing nuclear weapons and do not
infringe on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty on nuclear arms.
But antinuclear groups say such tests can be used to develop new
types of weapons.
***************************************************************
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://sandy-travels.com
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com
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