Nuke Power

[Michael S Ford <MFORD@pantex.com>]

France sees no German bar to Ukraine reactors  

09:40 a.m. Jun 20, 1999 Eastern 

COLOGNE, Germany, June 20 (Reuters) - Germany will not block Western plans
to fund new reactors in Ukraine despite complaints from Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder's anti-nuclear coalition partners, French President Jacques
Chirac said on Sunday. 

The German Greens, who have ruled with Schroeder's Social Democrats since
last September, want the Group of Seven richest nations to fund instead
gas-fired power stations to replace capacity to be lost as the disaster-hit
Chernobyl plant closes. 

As a result, Schroeder, who chaired this weekend's World Economic Summit in
Cologne, has stalled putting up German money to make good on commitments
made by his predecessor to take part in a $1.2 billion scheme to help the
Ukrainian power industry. 

A final G7 agreement on funding the reactors had been due at the summit,
but the group allowed Schroeder time to make a visit to Kiev on July 7 to
try to persuade Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma to change his mind and
build non-nuclear power stations. 

``Between you and me, my belief is he has absolutely no chance of
persuading President Kuchma,'' Chirac told a news conference after the summit. 

Since Schroeder had accepted that the top priority was to close Chernobyl
-- something Ukraine will not do without ensuring replacement electricity
-- the chancellor would then have to agree to finance the two new reactors,
Chirac said. 

``The priority of priorities is closing Chernobyl and so he will be able to
accept financing the two reactors,'' he said. 

Schroeder, when asked about his visit to Kiev, told a separate news
conference he did not want to prejudge the issue. 

The Greens have committed the new German government to closing down
Germany's own nuclear power industry and argue that it would be
inconsistent and dangerous to finance new plants abroad. 

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

German nuclear firms reject pull-out compromise 

11:17 a.m. Jun 22, 1999 Eastern, By Mark John 

BONN, June 21 (Reuters) - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government and
Germany's top utility firms on Tuesday failed to reach agreement on winding
down the country's nuclear sector, despite a new compromise bid by Bonn. 

To the displeasure of his ecologist Greens coalition allies, Schroeder has
offered to spread the withdrawal over 25 years in a bid to preempt
potentially huge compensation claims from industry over the move. 

But new talks between Schroeder and the country's four main nuclear
providers made no headway on the new deadline, which is far less ambitious
than the near-immediate pullout the Greens and many of Schroeder's own
party want. 

``We are looking for an agreement that is dependent on the operational life
of each plant,'' a spokeswoman for utility giant Veba (VEBG.F) said after
the talks at Schroeder's chancellery in Bonn. 

A government spokeswoman said there had been progress during the talks and
that a new meeting had been scheduled. She did not say for when it was set
and gave no other details of the talks. 

Economics Minister Werner Mueller, a close Schroeder ally and former power
industry executive brought into politics to negotiate the move, last week
proposed a phase-out of the country's 19 reactors that would start in 2003
and be complete by 2024. 

Under the plan, nuclear waste shipments would be allowed to continue until
2004, meaning Germany's nuclear plants would not have to risk reneging on
existing contracts with reprocessing companies in France and Britain. 

In return, the nuclear providers -- including Veba, RWE (RWEG.F), Viag
(VIAG.F) and Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG -- would agree to refrain from
legal action over the closures. 

But the Veba spokeswoman said the nuclear firms were still unhappy on a
number of scores, including how Bonn planned to tax reserves set aside for
plant closures, and about a continued ban on waste shipments following a
safety scare last year. 

A commitment to withdraw from nuclear power, which currently provides
around a third of Germany's requirements, has been a major headache for
Schroeder since taking power last October. 

Not only has it triggered rows with the Greens, who have accused him of
backpedalling on the move, but it has created tensions with Britain and
France over the loss of lucrative private sector contracts to reprocess
German nuclear waste. 

Germany's nuclear providers, who together provide around a third of the
country's power requirements, have so far managed to stall legislation
setting out a timetable for the pullout. 

If it does come at all, they want the withdrawal to reflect as much as
possible the natural running-down time of their reactors, so it will affect
their business little. 

Leading Greens and even members of Schroeder's SPD on Tuesday made it clear
that even if industry accepted a deal based around Mueller's compromise
proposals, they could not. 

``This isn't a withdrawal from nuclear power any more,'' said Greens
environment spokesman Reinhard Loske. ``It's almost as if we are letting it
gradually reach its expiry date.'' 

Other anti-nuclear parliamentarians argued that with the 2024 deadline,
some reactors would have been in operation for 35 years -- longer than any
other reactor in the world. 

Clinton asks Congress to back Canada nuclear pact  

05:24 p.m Jun 24, 1999 Eastern 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton asked Congress Thursday to approve
a 30-year extension of an agreement with Canada on civilian uses of nuclear
energy. 

Clinton asked lawmakers to extend the current agreement, which expires Jan.
1, with automatic extensions in five-year increments after that unless
either party objects. 

``Canada ranks among the closest and most important U.S. partners in civil
nuclear cooperation,'' Clinton said in a message to Congress. 

``Continued close cooperation with Canada in the peaceful uses of nuclear
energy ... will serve important U.S. national security, foreign policy and
commercial interests,'' Clinton said. 
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