News Items

[JEW1%LRN%DCPP@bangate.pge.com]

Dear Radsafers,

Thought you might have missed the items below in passing. BTW, is there anyone 
out there who still wants a copy of my _Brief Chronology of Radiation and 
Protection_? I have it chunked to be able to send it in five lumps for those 
who cannot receive attachments. Write me directly for it and specify Word 6 
format, ASCII text, or in chunks. You who have copies of it, remember the 
conditions: send me stuff to put in it. Thanks to those who have.

J. Ellsworth Weaver	
Rad. Pro Instructor	Diablo Canyon Power Plant
119/2/247		PO Box 56
Avila Beach, California, USA 93424
Phone: (805) 545-3029	Fax (805) 545-3545
email: JEW1@PGE.COM or DrNucleus@AOL.COM
Public key available on request
<Mandatory disclaimer: This correspondence reflects nothing much of my intent 
and NOTHING of PG&E's.>


REUTER NEWS REPORTS [RN01W] via NewsNet
Thursday November 10, 1994
Update #:   18 Item #:  551


ZHIRINOVSKY SAYS CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT WAS SABOTAGE

    NEW YORK, Nov 10 (Reuter) - Russian nationalist politician
Vladimir Zhirinovsky said on Thursday that he believed the 1986
accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was a result of
sabotage by anti-government forces.
    Zhirinovsky told reporters that it was one of many actions
taken to undermine the former Soviet Union and to make its
technology look inferior.
    ``It was a subversive action. Russian scientists who were
aware of the act and were about to expose it were
extinguished,'' he said through a translator at the Overseas
Press Club in New York.
    In April 1986, a fire at the number four nuclear reactor at
Chernobyl near Kiev in Ukraine, killed or injured hundreds of
people and leaked radiation into parts of the Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe.
    While he did not specify what group was behind the alleged
sabotage at Chernobyl, Zhirinovsky said that the KGB was behind
a campaign to undermine the nation.
    Zhirinovsky, travelling in the United States to improve his
image, also said that a 1988 conflict between Armenians and
Azerbaijanis was also artificially created by subversive acts.
    Zhirinovsky, who has a reputation for being anti-Semitic,
began his U.S. trip in San Francisco on Sunday. He goes to
Washington next but admitted he has yet to arrange any meetings
with key Clinton administration or Congressional officials.
 REUTER

REUTER NEWS REPORTS [RN01W] via NewsNet
Saturday November 12, 1994
Update #:   14 Item #:  243


LEAK OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL REPORTED AT GERMAN PLANT

    WIESBADEN, Germany, Nov 12 (Reuter) - Radioactive waste
leaked from a barrel at a Siemens AG uranium processing plant in
Hanau, Germany but the area was quickly decontaminated, the
Hesse state environment ministry said on Saturday.
    It said the incident, which was classified at the medium
level of a three-point scale in terms of seriousness, occurred
on Friday while the barrel was being moved from one part of the
plant to another in a special vehicle.
    ``Waste sludge containing uranium leaked out of a barrel and
dripped onto the ground,'' the ministry said in a statement.
    The barrel contained an estimated five grammes of uranium
and measurements at the spot where the leak occurred showed
radiation at more than 10 times permitted levels.
    ``Siemens has informed us that the plant area and the
vehicle have already been decontaminated,'' the statement said.
    The ministry added that the public had never been at risk
but it had ordered that use of the vehicle, the only one of its
kind, should be suspended until the cause of the incident had
been established.
 REUTER