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A quarterly newsletter for Sierrans interested in problems posed by the escalating accumulation of nuclear waste. Compiled, condensed, and edited by Ellen Winchester for the Sierra Club National Nuclear Waste Task Force, tel. 850-576-0954.
NRC PROPOSES DROPPING OR REDUCING ITS LOW LEVEL WASTE DISPOSAL PROGRAM. Either would almost certainly result in weakening the effectiveness of radwaste control and ultimate isolation. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's LLW program activities can be an important contribution to nuclear safety in the areas of Agreement State reviews; topical research and reports; technical, policy, and guidance assistance to LLW host states; decisions regarding emergency access; rule making and licensing; response to petitions and to Congressional, EPA, other agency, and public informational requests. In addition NRC has international LLW responsibilities with respect to trans- boundary trade in radioactive materials and wastes that states are not empowered or positioned to assume. NRC staff research capabilities and overall perspectives are not matched by the states. (Dr. Judith Johnsrud, NWTF member) MEDICAL GROUPS PROPOSE TRANSFER TO STATES OF NRC REGULATION OF MEDICAL use of reactor generated radioactive material. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences proposes that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provide guidance to insure the orderly transfer of regulatory authority and that the Council of Radiation Control Program Directors provide guidance on model state regulations. (Society of Nuclear Medicine, Tel. 703-708-9773, PR Newsletter 1/4/96) ENVIRO GROUPS SUE EPA OVER RULE DEVOLVING TO NRC AUTHORITY OVER REACTOR AIR EMISSIONS. The Sierra Club, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), and the Environmental Coalition on Nuclear Power jointly brought the suit on the grounds that NRC standards are much weaker than EPA's. EPA's standards are said to be equivalent to a 1 in 10,000 lifetime risk of fatal cancer while NRC's are equal to 1 in 286 lifetimes. (The Nuclear Monitor, 11/20/95) DOE PROPOSES TO STORE IMPORTED EUROPEAN FUEL RODS IN SOUTH CAROLINA AND IDAHO. A just completed environmental impact statement recommends storing the spent fuel rods at the former Savannah River nuclear weapons plant in South Carolina and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. Between 150 and 300 fuel rod shipments would pass through South Carolina's Charleston Naval Weapons station en route to Savannah River over the next 13 years. 19 tons would go to South Carolina; one ton would enter California through the Concord Naval Weapons Station and travel overland to INEL. A final decision on the storage sites will be made in March. (Greenwire, 2/6/96) SHOSHONE BANNOCK INDIANS AND COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF LINCOLN COUNTY urge 43 Idaho counties to oppose waste transport across their state following Idaho Governor Batt's agreement to accept 11,000 casks of spent fuel from the navy, DOE, and foreign countries within the next 40 years. Governor Batt's agreement was based on promises that the spent fuel would be moved out by 2035. No reportage from Idaho indicates where he was promised it would go. (NUKEWATCH Pathfinder, Winter, 1995-96) MIDWEST COMMISSION VOTES TO CONTROL OHIO SPENDING ON LOW LEVEL WASTE SITE. The Midwest Compact Commission, representing six states that plan to build a LL waste dump in Ohio, has given itself a line item veto over how the Ohio Low-Level Radioactive Waste Development Authority spends the commission's money. The LLW site -- which will serve Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin -- will store waste from nuclear power plants, hospitals, universities and businesses. (Columbus Dispatch, 1/23/96) O'LEARY SAYS ADMINISTRATION OPPOSES INTERIM STORAGE BILLS. At a Senate Energy Committee hearing Energy Secretary O'Leary stopped short of promising a presidential veto but listed several provisions of S. 1271, the Senate counterpart to HR 1020, that the administration opposes. (Action on both bills, which the Nuclear Waste Task Force has opposed since last summer, has been delayed by the budget battle.) Sec. O'Leary said the President is opposed to establishing an "interim" storage site in Nevada, period. And she said that the emphasis, particularly with appropriations, on an "interim" site would interfere with efforts to characterize Yucca Mountain as a possible permanent site. O'Leary also said that cuts in the Energy Appropriations bill mean that Yucca Mt. will not be ready to accept waste before 2015 (if, in fact, the site is found suitable at all). Most importantly (emphasis in original) any legislation "must retain the standards and procedures required to assure public and worker health and safety and environmental protection." This appeared to be aimed at S. 1271 and HR 1020's provisions that would have Congress unilaterally establish a 100 millirems/year radiation "protection" standard for Yucca Mountain, regardless of whether regulatory agencies might want a stiffer standard. (The Nuclear Monitor, a publication of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, 12/25/95) TOWNS AND COUNTIES TAKE STAND AGAINST HR 1020 AND TRANSPORT OF RADWASTE. Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed its opposition resolution unanimously, joining Santa Barbara and Ventura County in California, as have Philadelphia and numerous other jurisdictions in Pennsylvania, at least three Maryland towns, several North Carolina and Massachusetts communities, and Decatur, Georgia. (The Nuclear Monitor, 1/96) NEBRASKA LEGISLATORS GIVE FIRST ROUND APPROVAL TO RADWASTE SPILL INSURANCE BILL. The bill will provide coverage for Nebraska in case of a transportation accident involving high level nuclear waste being transported through the state by rail or truck to proposed storage sites in the West. Federal laws regulate almost all nuclear waste in transit, and the bill would not go into effect unless the spill exceeded federal radiation dose limits. (Greenwire sources) MOST AMERICANS WANT INDEPENDENT COMMISSION, NOT INTERIM STORAGE. A new public opinion poll says that 70% of Americans would like an independent, blue ribbon commission to re-evaluate the nation's radioactive waste program. Only 27% preferred the nuclear industry's current solution of surface "interim" storage near Yucca Mt. and 71% of the public disagreed with the statement that federal funds should be used to develop a new generation of nuclear reactors. The poll was conducted by G.O.P. pollster Vincent Breglio during early December 1995. The Sierra Club has gone on record as supporting the Bryan bill, S.544, which would establish an independent commission to consider the storage of radioactive waste. (The Nuclear Monitor), 1/96; Sierra Club President J. Robert Cox's August 8, 1996 letter to Sen. Murkowski) NORTH CAROLINA LOW LEVEL WASTE SITE NOT READY FOR APPROVAL. In a letter to the NC LL Waste Authority, the state's radiation protection director, Dayne Brown, disputed a recent report by site developer Chem-Nuclear Systems Inc. claiming it is close to gaining approval for the storage site. Brown said additional studies are needed, increasing the time and cost invested in the site well beyond that reflected in the developer's report. Chem-Nuclear insists that the site is safe, despite studies showing "extensive" fractures in the rock and clay beneath the surface. (Raleigh News & Observer, 1/19/96.) AFTER START II THE WORLD WILL STILL HAVE SOME 15,000 NUCLEAR WARHEADS WITH an average yield of 20 Hiroshima bombs each, said Joseph Rotblat in his acceptance of half the 1995 Nobel Peace prize in Oslo. John Holdren (the Sierra Club's first National Energy Committee chair) accepted the half of the prize awarded to the Pugwash Conferences, the Executive Committee of which he is chairman. Both speakers eloquently deplored the argument that a minimum deterrence policy protects against nuclear war. (Disarmament Times, January, 1996) JUNE/SEPTEMBER SUBCRITICAL TESTS AT NEVADA TEST SITE ARE BAD TIMING. June is the target month for finalizing the Comprehensive Test Ban treaty text; September is the tentative date for the signing ceremony. Both are months when provoking suspicions of US underground testing would be contrary to US (and the rest of the world's) interests. DOE spokespeople say that the dates of the experiments, which they state are subcritical and will release no nuclear energy except that from naturally fissile materials, may change since there is no immediate need to conduct them underground. A former Los Alamos weapons scientist says that contained laboratory tests of 100 pounds of explosives are not beyond the labs' technological reach. (The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January/February, 1996) 1990 WORLD TOTAL OF PLUTONIUM WAS ENOUGH TO MAKE 322,117 SMALL ATOM BOMBS. Known military and existing stockpiles, in kilograms (kg), as of 1990 (and they have not grown smaller) was US.: 988,182 kg mil plus 1209 kg civ; Russia: 104,545 to 127,273 kg mil, plus 22,727 kg civ; Britain: 4545 kg mil, plus 43,545 kg civ; France: 5444 kg mil plus 35,364 kg civ; China: 1364 to 2273 kg mil; India 254 kg mil plus 455 kg civ; Israel: 363 to 636 kg mil; Belgium: 618 kg civ; Germany: 855 kg civ; Japan: 2636 kg civ; Pakistan: unknown; North Korea: unknown; Iraq: unknown; Libya: None yet; Iran: None yet. But bombs are not needed to terrorize a population. Just a small chunk of plutonium blown up with dynamite in a city center would do it. (Rachel's Environment and Health Weekly #473) CLUB EXEC. DIRECTOR POPE SENDS PRES. CLINTON LETTER PROTESTING REPROCESSING RESTART. The letter cites still standing arguments that persuaded President Bush to ban military reprocessing in 1992 and Presidents Reagan, Carter, and Ford to ban it for commercial waste. By resuming reprocessing the US will lose its moral authority to resist, for NPT reasons, plans of unstable nations to reprocess their spent fuel. Pressure will increase for US acceptance of spent fuel of US origin irradiated in foreign research reactors with storage problems. Nor have the problems of safeguarding the tons of plutonium resulting from reprocessing and the difficulty of safely isolating the highly radioactive liquids produced by it, six times greater in volume than the spent fuel reprocessed, been solved. (For background information see Matthew Wald's 1/05/96 and 1/07/96 columns in The New York Times) RESEARCHERS CONSIDER NEW VITRIFICATION SCHEME FOR STORING PLUTONIUM. The 50 tons of plutonium metal now in the U.S., left over from cold war nuclear weapons, present a difficult storage problem. Highly toxic, easily corroded in air, yet easy to steal since it does not emit penetrating gamma radiation, Pu ingots also cannot be stacked too closely together or they would form a critical mass, an unstoppable nuclear chain reaction. A new glass formulation, alkali-tin-silicate (ATS), may incorporate up to 10% Pu and can be spiked with highly radioactive cesium to deter terrorists from stealing it. A sample test for 56 days showed no signs of corrosion or Pu migration in the glass. The new research suggests that vitrification could allow safer short term storage of Pu from weapons stockpiles. (Science, 12/15/95) PROBLEMS AT FERNALD RADWASTE PILOT PROJECT MAY CAUSE 17 MONTH DELAY. The Fernald Environmental Restoration and Management Company, hired to clean up the 1,050 acre site by using a new method of removing radioactive waste, could miss EPA mandated cleanup milestones and be forced to pay $675,000. Many of FERMCO's problems center on construction of a smelter intended to superheat the radwaste and encapsulate it in glass-like beads. (Cincinnati Enquirer, ll/27/96 and Greenwire) AMERICAN NUCLEAR SOCIETY SPONSORS "EAGLE ALLIANCE" TO "REVITALIZE" INDUSTRY. Its purposes include achieving pro-nuclear planks in major political parties for the 1996 elections and "to make persuasive contact, via senior nuclear personnel, to every incumbent and candidate for 1996 congressional and gubernatorial offices in the nation." Among the aims of this new ANS gambit is the vaguely threatening intent "to institute methods to make special interest and activist organizations responsible for their actions." Prominent among the founding members are four Directors of Department of Energy National Laboratories. (introductory pamphlet) PENNSYLVANIA RELEASES PLAN PREPARED BY CHEM-NUCLEAR TO LURE HOST FOR DUMP. The benefits package would include $350,000-600,000 in yearly fees, jobs, supply contracts, property tax relief and a guarantee that the entire siting plan be open to negotiation. Other benefits could include funding for economic-development, education and health care projects. Sierra Club's Jeff Schmidt said, "We are going from a grading system for finding the best site in the state to a pass-fail system." Pennsylvania is among the country's four largest generators of radwaste, producing about 108,000 cubic feet a year -- 67% coming from the states' nine nuclear power plants. The dump would also accept waste from the three other states in the Appalachian Compact: Maryland, West Virginia and Delaware. (Greenwire, 11/20/95) ROCKY FLATS: LOCALS FEAR WASTE WILL REMAIN AT SITE PERMANENTLY. A "vision statement" released on 11/9/96 by Colorado and federal agencies says that while removing the low-level waste is not "precluded" the waste will remain in the demolished building after the plant has reached its "final site condition." While local officials and environmentalists would accept on-site storage for the short term, they draw the line at permanent burial. Rocky Flats manager said the waste may remain at Rocky Flats for the foreseeable future because no one else now accepts it, but the issue could be reopened if conditions change. (Rocky Mountain News and Greenwire, 11/10) A MAP AND DATA BASE TITLED "DEADLY NUCLEAR RADIATION HAZARDS USA" INCLUDES reactors, fuel cycle facilities, dump sites, nuclear laundries and incinerators, all known nuclear weapons deployments, irradiators, all known sites of depleted uranium contamination and more. An accompanying booklet includes 1,737 different entities; the full database holds 5,767 entries, including 3,847 abandoned uranium mines and a list of 183 medical institutions which carried out human radiation experiments. The full database is available on disk, and there are hopes to make it available on line. For ordering contact Earth Lodge at 703-222-7570 or e-mail to jsteinbach@igc.apc.org (The Nuclear Monitor, January 1996) WARD VALLEY: CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT REJECTS LAWSUIT TO BLOCK LLW DUMP at Ward Valley in the Mojave Desert. The court refused to review a lower court decision upholding Ward Valley's license, granted by the California Dept. of Health Services in 1993. Construction of the dump, which would take low-level waste from hospitals, biotechnology firms and nuclear power plants has been stalled since last year because Secretary Bruce Babbitt won't turn the site over to California unless the state agrees to meet certain safety standards (Greenwire, San Jose Mercury News, 1/18) RECALCULATION SHOWS DECOMMISSIONING TRUSTS HAVE $25 BILLION SHORTFALL, double original estimates. In addition, because of the high cost of nuclear power and expensive repairs, many utilities will close facilities prematurely, thus allowing less time for the funds to accumulate. The Trust is also supposed to pay for nuclear waste storage and decontaminating surrounding areas. NRC statistics show that as of 1993 the average age of a plant at shutdown is fifteen years. A year ago a federal appeals court announced it would permit the power companies to convert closed nuclear plants into sealed waste sites. (The Nation, Sept. 25, 1995) SIX URANIUM MILL TAILINGS REMEDIAL ACTION (UMTRA) SITES MAY BE LEAKING uranium, nitrates, sulfates and other contaminants into ground water. The aquifer at the Tuba City, Arizona site, serving Navajo and Hopi, has shown increasing levels of these and other contaminants since the disposal cell (clay and rock covered uranium mill tailings) was completed there in 1990. The 1978 Congress passed the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act, saddling DOE with overseeing the cleanup of 25 million tons--now up to 47.5 million tons--of radioactive and chemical-laced uranium tailings. In 1983 DOE began the tailings clean up. Twelve years and $l.5 billion later, the job is unfinished and critics say it's not even meeting its primary objective--to contain the tailings and their poisons for up to 1,000 years with minimal long term maintenance. The problem with the cell design is that burrowing animals and invading plant roots can penetrate the crucial clay barrier, allowing radon to escape and moisture to enter. (The Nation, Oct. 23, 1995) ANONYMOUS LETTER TRIGGERS SAFETY INVESTIGATION OF MAINE YANKEE POWER PLANT. Sent by someone claiming to be an employee, the letter alleges that engineers manipulated computer simulations to hide potentially serious deficiencies in the reactor's emergency-cooling system. True or not the allegations highlight two areas of growing concern among nuclear-safety advocates: a lack of NRC vigilance in checking documents that utilities file to change operating procedures and the willingness of some nuclear utilities to exploit this laxity to save money. (The Christian Science Monitor, 12/12/95) TRACTOR TRAILER CARRYING 40,000 POUNDS OF GUNPOWDER BUCKLES CLOSE TO CAPITOL IN TALLAHASSEE. Its top ripped open by a low-hanging tree limb, the truck's contents could have caused a massive fireball if ignited. Florida's Capitol was evacuated. "There's a general prohibition of that type of load going through a populated area," an official said. He also said the driver would not be cited by the state because he was following the route laid out for him- -or at least, thought he was. He "kept driving on SR 363, thinking he'd see a sign for SR 263 on up the road somewhere." (Tallahassee Democrat, 12/13/95.) Need we say more? UTILITIES SUE GOVERNMENT TO FORCE ACCEPTANCE OF SPENT FUEL BY 12/31/98. GPU Nuclear Corp., Public Service Electric and Gas, and Detroit Edison plus 19 other utilities and 36 states are suing to require Federal acceptance of nuclear waste, if DOE does not have a repository for the waste by that date as stipulated in law. (Virginia Pilot) US CONSIDERS USING CIVILIAN REACTOR TO PRODUCE TRITIUM FOR NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Other options are to build a government reactor or to use another technology called a linear particle accelerator to produce the radioactive gas, which decays 5.5% a year. Current stockpiles are expected to be depleted by 2011. DOE says tritium from dismantled warheads is estimated to meet needs for another 16 years. (AP, Virginia Pilot 9/11/95) ENERGY SECRETARY O`LEARY MOVES WIPP OPENING DECISION FORWARD TO OCTOBER 1997. The change means that waste operations could begin as early as April 1998. (DOE Carlsbad Office) DOE originally expected that WIPP (the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant located near Carlsbad, New Mexico) would by 1988 start receiving for permanent disposal transuranic nuclear waste, such as tools, rags, paper, and other material contaminated with long-lived radioactive elements. GAO reviews of WIPP have found that while compliance with regulations has been key to the delay, DOE has contributed through its early emphasis on construction and then on performing unnecessary tests with transuranic waste. (GAO Reports and Testimony, July 1995) HANFORD PUBLIC INTEREST GROUP NETWORK REPORTS DOE BUDGETED $20 MILLION FOR PR IN 1995. For details about the way the money was spent write Hanford Public Interest Group Network, c/o Heart of America Northwest, 1305 Fourth Avenue, Suite 208, Seattle, WA 98101. SWISS DEBATE LOW LEVEL WASTE STORAGE IN SMALL MOUNTAIN VILLAGE. The village, Wolfenschiessen, in central Switzerland, wants the money ($3.1 million) the National Cooperative for the Storage of Radioactive Waste promises to give it to store the waste. But the rest of the canton is worried about a fall in tourism. A cantonwide vote was 52% no and 48% yes. (The Christian Science Monitor,10/3/95) US/JAPAN VENTURE WOULD BUILD NUCLEAR WASTE TREATMENT PLANT IN RUSSIA TO keep Russians from dumping in the Sea of Japan. Japan will fund the $25 million project as part of a $100 billion agreement to help Russia deal with its accumulating radioactive waste. (ITAR-Tass news agency) MORE ABOUT CUBA'S JURAGUA POWER PLANT: An NRC study of the Soviet designed Juragua plant warned that Cuba "has no cadre of trained personnel and no independent regulator in the safety area." If a disaster were to happen, the General Accounting Office has concluded that "radiation would be spread as far as Texas and Virginia." On the other hand, the Cuban director of Juragua says, "All the experts recognize the accusations are groundless," and Harold Denton, a former NRC official, urges more US participation in helping the Cubans finish the reactor. He says, ". . .the US is playing a high stakes game by not playing a role in what is happening at the reactor. And if the reactor does go on line, the United States may never know how safe it is until it's too late." (The Christian Science Monitor, 11/8/95) RATE OF THYROID CANCER HIGH AMONG CHERNOBYL CHILDREN, UN HEALTH AGENCY SAYS. The rate is 285 times pre-Chernobyl levels in Belarus, where prevailing winds brought the most fallout. Thyroid cancer in children is regarded as the fastest way to measure the impact of radiation exposure. Usually rare in children, the disease develops rapidly in those exposed to radiation. (Tallahassee Democrat, 11/12/95) Peter Hansen, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, says that an international trust fund set up in 1991 to help victims of the Chernobyl accident is out of money, but 375,000 people remain displaced and often homeless. Seepage from the damaged reactor is polluting streams and rivers as far away as the Black Sea, and there has been no systematic effort to track the 800,000 workers and soldiers who were sent to seal the area. In most catastrophes, Mr. Hansen said, officials can sooner or later see an end to suffering and dislocation. "It is not easy to see the end here," he said. "In fact, we don't really know where we are in the process. (New York Times, 11/29/95) RUSSIA MAY BUILD MORE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS: Two in Far East, one in central Russia, one in Urals, site of fifth not announced. The intention is based on serious energy shortages in these regions. (Tallahassee Democrat, 11/10/95) EXPERTS SAY RUSSIAN NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY IS COMPETITIVE WITH WESTERN COUNTRIES. The problem is that the Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom), with an estimated one million employees, may be so eager to sell technology that it is willing to overlook the dangers of spreading it. The US opposes Russian plans to build reactors in Iran out of fear Iran is planning to develop nuclear weapons. An even more controversial sale is a reported negotiation to build a couple of nuclear reactors in India, which would violate an international agreement not to sell to countries that have not adopted the full-scope nuclear safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency. (The Christian Science Monitor, 11/8/95) BUT RUSSIAN NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTATION DOES NOT MEET WESTERN SAFETY STANDARDS. "They have not developed a culture of safety around their plants," says US critic. A US DOE report completed in May,`95 identifies nine Soviet era reactors as the most dangerous. These include the remaining reactors at Chernobyl as well as sites in Lithuania, Russia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Armenia. Realizing that another Chernobyl would finish their nuclear power programs, the world's nuclear states in 1992 decided to upgrade the most risky plants, train new plant operators, and help establish laws and agencies to oversee nuclear energy, but an observer says the $900 million spent so far "is not very much when you look at the magnitude of the problem." (The Christian Science Monitor, 11/8/95) SUNK NUCLEAR SUBS STIR GLOBAL WORRIES ABOUT OCEAN POLLUTION. In November 1995 the European Parliament passed a resolution urging major naval powers to make a full accounting to the UN of all nuclear weapons and reactors lost on the bottom of the ocean, and US congressional panels opened hearings on the question. The Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) found that between 1969 and 1989 there were at least 1,445 mishaps of varying severities involving US nuclear submarines. CTA is still collecting data on the nuclear sub operations of other nations. While the sunken weapons cannot explode, they can leak. Experts worry the problem could worsen as countries, especially Russia, run out of space to store and dispose of accumulating radioactive stockpiles. US concern over nuclear contamination of the ocean has been mounting since 1993, when it was disclosed that the Russian Navy and its Soviet predecessor have been dumping radioactive wastes and reactors from decommissioned submarines in Arctic waters for several decades. The practice stopped in 1991. The US Navy has also dumped low level nuclear wastes in US coastal waters. (The Christian Science Monitor, 12/12/95) RUSSIA'S LARGEST SUBMARINE BASE HOLDS THOUSANDS OF SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL tanks in storage facilities so unsafe that the risk of radioactive pollution far exceeds that of Chernobyl, according to the Bellona Foundation, a Norwegian environmental group. The Foundation called for action to prevent a disaster on a fjord above the arctic circle 28 miles from the Russia-Norway border. JAPAN'S MONJU FAST BREEDER REACTOR LEAKED 2-3 TONS SODIUM FROM COOLING SYSTEM. No one was hurt, and no radioactivity was discharged into the air, but critics of the Government's policy say the accident reflects shoddy construction and poor safety standards. The reactor will be shut for at least six months. The incident has raised fears that bureaucratic interests may end up promoting a dangerous energy technology without enough regard for safety. The Monju reactor does not use uranium, but rather the more lethal element plutonium. (New York Times, 12/17/95) The leak would have been less severe if employees had not become confused by unclear warning alarms and a lack of specific instructions about how to shut down the system. (Virginia Pilot) US LED CONSORTIUM REACHES TENTATIVE AGREEMENT TO PROVIDE NORTH KOREA with modern nuclear reactors in return for the country's abandonment of its nuclear-weapons program. Complicated negotiations are intended to replace North Korea's current nuclear plants with two light-water reactors that produce far less weapons-grade plutonium. (Tallahassee Democrat, 12/13/95) (If any reader knows where North Koreans will store their nuclear waste, please let us know.) SOUTHEAST ASIAN TREATY CREATES WORLD'S LARGEST NUCLEAR FREE ZONE. An idea promoted for two decades by Indonesia, it was put on a fast track for approval at a November ASEAN meeting because of French testing in their back yard and extensive Chinese and North Korean nuclear programs. Both China and the US object to the treaty "citing very specific and technical objections." (Christian Science Monitor, 12/26/95) BRITISH ENERGY'S CANCELLATION OF PLANS FOR TWO NEW NUCLEAR PLANTS BODES poorly for the future of Britain's nuclear power industry, due to be privatized this winter. The relatively high cost of nuclear generated electricity and competition from North Sea oil and gas lies at the root of BE's decision. (Christian Science Monitor, 12/17/95) You can reach both your U.S. senators and representatives through the U.S. Capitol Switchboard 202-224-3121. Up to Top |
