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Iran rebukes U.S. on nuclear facility
Index:
Iran rebukes U.S. on nuclear facility
Ukrainians Demand Reopening of Nuke Plant
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Iran rebukes U.S. on nuclear facility
TEHRAN, Dec. 18 (Kyodo) - Iran's President Mohammad Khatami on
Wednesday rejected U.S. allegations that the Iranian government is
building two underground nuclear facilities to develop nuclear
weapons, calling the U.S. claim ''groundless,'' the Iranian state-run
news agency IRNA said.
Khatami said Iran is developing nuclear energy under the supervision
of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and is not
developing nuclear weapons.
Khatami also noted that Iran is a signatory state to the nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty.
The U.S. State Department last Friday accused Iran of trying to
develop nuclear weapons by constructing two underground nuclear
facilities in central Iran.
Iran has said the facilities are for peaceful purposes and that it
has accepted an IAEA request for inspection. The IAEA inspection is
scheduled for February next year.
-----------------
Ukrainians Demand Reopening of Nuke Plant
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Braving freezing weather, thousands of
Ukrainians rallied Tuesday to call for the reopening of the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant and to demand funding promised when the plant
closed two years ago.
Some 8,000 to 10,000 people, including hundreds of pensioners and
children who suffered health damage from the Chernobyl accident, came
to Kiev's central Sofia Square.
Protesters demanded that Ukrainian and Western governments restore
benefits to some 3.3 million people affected by the accident, or that
the plant be partially reopened to provide electricity and jobs.
They waved banners reading ``Give Chernobyl a second life'' and ``No
money, no safety.''
Chernobyl was the site of world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986,
when one of its reactors exploded, sending a radioactive cloud over
much of Europe.
``We want to restore everything that has been taken from these kids'
lives - medicine is not provided, there's no rehabilitation, no food.
Everything has been taken from the children,'' said Nadezhda Matyesh,
director of the Chernobyl Children's Fund for Survival.
After the one-hour protest, demonstrators broke into groups to picket
the embassies of the Group of Seven richest nations, demanding their
governments finance programs to meet Ukraine's energy needs and solve
problems caused by Chernobyl's closure.
A U.S. Embassy representative attended the demonstration and received
a letter of demands. ``We will read it and give it consideration,''
the embassy said.
Ukraine's cash-strapped government has been unable to meet its
generous Soviet-era obligations to provide social protections for
survivors of the accident. Demonstrators also protested cuts in
Chernobyl benefits planned for the 2003 budget.
The Canadian Embassy said the G-7 countries and the European Union
never agreed to provide funds to cover the social effects of
Chernobyl's closure, adding in a statement that they have pledged
$200 million more for technical work than was originally agreed in
1995.
Ukraine shuttered Chernobyl's last reactor in December 2000 and
appealed for Western help in completing the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi
reactors to compensate for the lost electricity capacity.
In April, officials at the Chernobyl plant said gaps in the concrete
and steel shell, or so-called sarcophagus, that covers the damaged
reactor total more than 10,700 square feet.
The Chernobyl Fund, composed of Western governments, the 15-nation EU
and Ukraine, pledged more than $700 million to replace the existing
sarcophagus over the reactor. Ukraine earmarked the remaining $50
million, but as of June only $130 million had been spent.
Work to construct a new covering is not expected to start before 2004
and should be completed by 2008.
Yuriy Andreyev, president of the advocacy group Ukrainian Union of
Chernobyl that organized the demonstration, said one reactor at the
Chernobyl plant could be restarted in two to three weeks ``if the
West refuses to keep its promises.''
-------------------------------------------------
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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