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Officials to lay N.Korea atom reactor foundations
Index:
Officials to lay N.Korea atom reactor foundations
Hiroshima Remembers Bombing Victims
W Australian Premier slams plans for radioactive waste facility
=================================
Officials to lay N.Korea atom reactor foundations
SOKCHO, South Korea, Aug 6 (Reuters) - A multi-national team from the
agency overseeing a key non-proliferation pact with Pyongyang set
sail for North Korea on Tuesday to launch a landmark nuclear reactor
project.
The concrete-pouring on Wednesday has symbolism well beyond the
remote construction site at Kumho, on North Korea's east coast, where
the internationally funded Korean Peninsula Energy Development
Organisation (KEDO) is building two reactors.
The event is sandwiched between two rounds of talks between the two
Koreas and amid an unexpected flurry of diplomatic activity on the
peninsula, which has been bitterly divided since the 1950-53 Korean
War.
There is the additional factor of uncertain North Korean economic
reforms and the unspoken irony of a U.S.-based organisation building
nuclear reactors in a country U.S. President George W. Bush has
called part of an "axis of evil."
KEDO is a consortium set up to implement a $4.6 billion reactor
project under the Agreed Framework, a 1994 U.S.-North Korea deal
which froze the North's suspected nuclear weapons programme in
exchange for annual supplies of fuel oil and two western-built
nuclear reactors.
The deal was struck under the Clinton administration but Bush has
continued to allow funding despite his reservations about North
Korea's Communist leadership.
KEDO officials met in Seoul on Monday ahead of their trip to the
North to discuss progress on the project, which is several years
behind schedule.
They will travel there and back aboard a South Korean ferry, which
left the port of Sokcho for the overnight passage up the coast of the
Korean peninsula.
Delegates will watch the first pouring of concrete for the
foundations of the main power plant buildings, KEDO said in a
statement. It described the planned event as an important milestone
in the construction of the light-water reactor project.
South Korea, which produces some 40 percent of its electricity using
nuclear reactors, is the source of the reactor technology. Seoul's
state-run Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) is KEDO's prime
contractor.
KEDO's executive board has representatives from the European Union,
Japan, South Korea and the United States.
Board representatives will be on hand at Kumho as well as other
countries contributing to the project.
-----------------
Hiroshima Remembers Bombing Victims
HIROSHIMA, Japan Aug 6 (AP) - As thousands assembled in Hiroshima's
Peace Memorial Park to mark the 57th anniversary of the world's first
atomic bomb attack Tuesday, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
reaffirmed Japan's policy against building or possessing nuclear
weapons.
In May, Koizumi's Cabinet spokesman sparked controversy when he said
that Japan is not legally prohibited from having nuclear arms - an
assertion interpreted by some as a major shift in the country's long-
standing anti-nuclear policy.
Koizumi repeatedly has tried to quell the controversy, and again
stressed Japan's no-nuclear policy Tuesday.
``As the only country in history to have experienced atomic bombings,
I would like to underline Japan's unwavering commitment to its war-
renouncing constitution and its three principles: non-possession, non-
production and non-entry of nuclear weapons,'' Koizumi said.
A lone bell rang to mark the day Hiroshima was flattened by the
world's first atomic bomb attack.
More than 30,000 survivors, residents and dignitaries from around the
world bowed their heads for 60 seconds of silence at 8:15 a.m. - the
moment on Aug. 6, 1945 when the bomb, dropped from a U.S. B-29 plane,
enshrouded the city in a mushroom cloud.
The bomb killed about 140,000 people and sickened hundreds of
thousands more in Hiroshima, 430 miles southwest of Tokyo. Three days
later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki,
killing 70,000 people. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending
World War II.
Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba urged countries to get rid of weapons
of mass destruction, even as nuclear-armed India and Pakistan remain
on war footing in the hotly contested region of Kashmir.
``The probability that nuclear weapons will be used again and the
danger of nuclear war are increasing,'' Akiba said in the annual
peace declaration. ``Today, we vow to do our utmost to create a
century of peace and humanity,''
Akiba criticized what he called the prevailing international
philosophy of '``I'll show you' and 'I'm stronger than you are,'''
and accused the United States of trying to impose ``Pax Americana on
the rest of us.''
He then invited President Bush to visit Hiroshima and ``confirm with
his own eyes what nuclear weapons hold in store.''
Among those paying respects Tuesday was Junichiro Nagai, 71, who was
a middle school student on the outskirts of Hiroshima
when the city was incinerated.
For months afterward, he suffered from radiation sickness, vomiting
and diarrhea fits. He is still haunted by memories of a city
burned to the ground in an instant and images of zombie-like victims
with melted skin.
``My body's fine now,'' Nagai said after praying at the memorial.
``It's what I saw that day that was most disturbing.''
During Tuesday's ceremony, 1,500 white doves were released into the
sky and 500 children sang a song of peace.
The memorial in Hiroshima includes the names of more than 200,000
people who were in the city on the day of the bombing. Every
year, the names of those who have died since the previous year's
anniversary are added to the cenotaph.
This year's total rose by 4,977 people to 226,870 victims, as more of
the older generation succumbed to long-term illnesses caused
by the blast, such as cancer, Hiroshima city spokeswoman Yukiko Ota
said.
Ceremonies are to be held Thursday to mark the atomic bombing of
Nagasaki, on the southernmost main island of Kyushu.
----------------
W Australian Premier slams plans for radioactive waste facility
Aug 6 (Australian Broadcasting Company) The Western Australian
Premier, Geoff Gallop, is warning of political consequences for
the Federal Government if it imposes a radioactive waste facility on
the state.
The Federal Government is considering tenders from scientific
consultants, to locate potential sites on Commonwealth land for such
a facility.
It wants an above ground facility with a lifespan of at least 50
years.
Dr Gallop says WA is out of bounds.
"I'm going to make that point very clearly to the Prime Minister that
that nuclear waste is not acceptable here in Western Australia," he
said.
"From our point of view it would be the thin edge of the wedge, in
terms of WA's position, it would damage our reputation as a clean
and a green state, and as far as we're concerned it's not welcome."
-------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle
Director, Technical
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100 Extension 2306
Fax:(714) 668-3149
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com
Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/
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