#414 - June 24, 1994

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#414
24/06/1994
Full issue

90,000 people related to Chernobyl died between 1988-1993

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#414
24/06/1994
Article

(June 24 1994) Ukrainian Health Ministry data shows over 90,000 people who were affected by the Chernobyl disaster died between 1988 and 1993, and almost 4,000 workers sent to the area immediately after the accident in April 1986 to clean up, died in the same period, according to Valeriy Kyrkorov, the chairman of the council of Chernobyl town, Kiev city and oblast invalids, who cited information from the Ukrainian Health Ministry.

(414.4107) WISE Amsterdam - Interdepartmental expert councils have concluded that since 1993 805 (60 percent) of clean-up workers' deaths have been linked to the effects of the accident, Kyrkorov told journalists at a joint sitting on 19th May of the council and representatives of Ukraine's health and Chernobyl ministries and Kiev radiation and health bodies.

Source: UNIAN news agency, Kiev 20 May, 1994
Contact: Zeleny Svit, Kontaktova 4, Kiev 70, Ukraine. Tel: + 7 044 416 5218/4170283; Fax: +7 044 4174383. email: eazzelenysvit@gluk.apc.org.
Or: MAMA 86, Michailovskaya Str. 22-A, 502 001 Kiev, Ukraine. Tel & Fax: +7 044 228 3101. email: mama86@gluk.apc.org.

Arrests after HEU theft Moscow

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#414
24/06/1994
Article

(June 24 1994) Russian counter-terrorism agents have arrested three men who were allegedly trying to sell 3 kilogram of highly enriched uranium (90% percent U-235) stolen from a factory outside Moscow, a spokesman for Russia's Federal Counterintelligence Service said on June 7.

(414.4104) WISE Amsterdam - The HEU dioxide is considered weapons-grade and could be used to produce nuclear weapons. The arrests occurred already in March, but the Counterintelligence Service formerly part of the old KGB secret police - only released details of the arrests on June 7.

Agency spokesman Valery Pachkov said the three suspects were Russians between the ages of 25 and 35, and included a butcher and a plumber. The uranium was stolen from an Atomic Energy Ministry enterprise near Moscow and stored in what counterintelligence agents said were hazardous conditions. Agents found nearly a pound (500 g) of uranium dioxide powder in an ordinary glass jar and a metal flask - containers which did not protect the uranium thieves from radiation emitted by the stolen materials.

It came to the attention of the Counterintelligence Service after it received reports that the men had contacted several companies in the St. Petersburg region, asking whether they would be interested in purchasing some uranium and hinting that it could be obtained through relatives. The service s counter-terrorism unit responded "very quickly" to the reports, Pachkov said. He said this was "a sign that Russia's controls over the illicit export of nuclear materials were ef-fective at preventing any uranium or plutonium from slipping out of the country". But added he couldn't vouch for the other ex-Soviet republics. "We can't answer for Kyrgyzstan and other independent countries, but for us it's never happened," and wiped his slate clean.

The Interfax news agency said the uranium could have been sold for $300 a gram, for a total value of just under $1 million. Criminal proceedings had been opened under Article 223 of the Russian penal code, which deals with the theft of radioactive material. If found guilty, the accused men face between three and 10 years in jail.

Source: Greenbase, June 7, 1994
Contact: Greenpeace Russia, POBox 60, 121002 Moscow, Russia. Tel: + 7095 293 3261

Demonstration Taiwan against NPP

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#414
24/06/1994
Article

(June 24 1994) On May 29, an estimated 20,000 anti-nuclear activists marched though Taipei in the island's largest protest against the construction of a fourth nuclear power plant.

(414.4101) WISE Amsterdam - Members of more than 100 environmental groups across Taiwan and representatives from Japanese anti-nuclear organizations took part in the demonstration.

The demonstrators stopped at the American Institute in Taiwan to protest U.S. firms selling nuclear technology to Taiwan, and at the ruling party headquarters to demand a ban on nuclear power generation. The state-run Taiwan Power Company operates three nuclear power plants and plans to build three more. Many islanders are concerned about the plants' safety but Taipower promised they are "200 per cent safe".

Meanwhile the chairman of state-owned utility Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) and his wife slept at a nuclear power plant compound on June 3/4 in a bid to blunt opposition to construction of a new nuclear plant. "I'm in good spirits. I plan to take my wife and children again next week," he said.

President Lee Teng-hui had ordered Taipower executives to sleep at nuclear plant compounds after protests against construction of the new nuclear plant increased.

In a referendum on May 22, residents of Kungliao Village on the outskirts of Taipei voted down construction of the new plant (see WISE NC 413.4097). Work on the new US$6.4 billion plant, located 40 km (25 miles) east of Taipei, was suspended for six years because of environmental protests following the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the former Soviet Union in 1986. The government revived the project in 1992 and construction work has resumed.

Sources:

  • die Tageszeitung (FRG), 30 May, 1994
  • Greenbase, May 29 & June 5, 1994

Contact: Duncan Marsh, The Asian Ecological Society, Box 843, Thungai University, Taichung, Taiwan 40704.
Tel & Fax: +886 4 359 5622

FRG: Smuggling weapons grade PU

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#414
24/06/1994
Article

(June 24 1994) The police found by pure coincidence 60 grams of weapons grade plutonium-239 in a house search in the German town Tengen (near Stuttgart in southern Germany). This discovery shows again the extreme danger caused by the so-called "peaceful use" of nuclear energy.

(414.4105) WISE Amsterdam - Concerning discoveries of the German BND (the secret service), it seems that Germany becomes a hub for nuclear smuggle (see also WISE NC 408; in brief). Within the nuclear fuel cycle criminals and terrorists have various possibilities to get Pu or other radioactive materials: from NPPs by bribery, burglaries, extortion or from interim storages or reprocessing-plants.

At a raid in search of counterfeit money police officers of the Bundes-kriminalamt Baden-Württemberg (Provincial Criminal Investigation Agency) found on May 10 a lead container. The alarmed local fire brigade carried out measurements but could not detect any radiation. After this it took nearly three weeks until the "Landesanstalt für Umweltschutz" (Regional Institution for the Environment) based in Karlsruhe came to the conclusion that contents of the lead container was Pu-239.

Police initiated a preliminary inquiry against the apartment holder - a 52 year old business man - because of unauthorized dealings with nuclear material. The man was already prisoned after a suspicion of dealing with counterfeit money.

The German BKA (Federal Criminal Investigation Agency) originally believed that the material originated from a storage facility in Eastern Europe. But on June 3, the "Europäisches Institut für Transurane" (European Institute for Transurans) at the Nuclear Research Centre at Karlsruhe announced that the plutonium was used for the production of nuclear weapons. This was confirmed by the Minister for the Environment in the land of Baden-Württemberg Harald Schafer.

The sixty grams of plutonium powder consisted of ten percent nearly pure (99%) Pu-239. This plutonium is only used by the production of nuclear weapons. "Sixty grams of Pu expose an immense danger to the public", moaned Schafer and continued that this incident could not be taken serious enough. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) based in Vienna confirmed the highly explosive political issue: "A discovery of such an amount never turned up in our documents", according to IAEA spokesperson Hans-Friedrich Meyer.

On June 1, Minister Schafer was not willing to give further information on the composition of the remaining ninety percent of the Pu. Further detailed examinations continue. The amount of Pu is not sufficient to build a nuclear bomb. Under optimal circumstances one needs at least 500 to 600 grams of pure Pu 239.

In 1993 in FRG police investigated 241 cases connected with illegal smuggling of radioactive material. This was an increase of 50% compared with 1992. However, weapons grade Pu was not yet impounded. Sixty gram of high-enriched Pu is theoretically enough to kill 30 (!) million people.

According to the German Press Agency DPA on June 3, the Pu came to Germany from the Russian capital via Hungary and Switzerland.

Sources:

  • Die Tageszeitung (FRG), May 28, June 3 and 4, 1994
  • Press release BUND, May 30, 1994

Contact:

  • BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany), Dunantstrasse 16, 79110 Freiburg, FRG
  • Information for journalists: same address
    c/o Dr. Georg Loser, scientific coordinator of FoE Germany, tel.: + 49-761-885950

In brief

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#414
24/06/1994
Article

The Belgium nuclear waste authority

(June 24 1994) (ONDRAF Office National des Dechets Radioactifs) announced a preliminary list of 98 sites considered suitable for permanently storing radioactive waste. It now falls to the government to choose a single "winner" from among these candidates. No site near the Belgian capital Brussels appears on the list.
Though the sites were selected according to geological, social and demographic criteria, soil type and geology were key factors. According to ONDRAF Belgium has only two choices for storage: either in clay deposits or above layers of non-permeable schist. The Flanders part of Belgium has an abundance of clay, while schists is found in Wallonia's southern region in the Ardennes hill country. A deep-level subterranean storage experiment in clay deposits at the nuclear center at Mol is partially funded by the European Commission and is testing the long-term effects of heat on clay.
Belgium has approximately 100,000 cubic meters of radioactive waste stored above ground in temporary concrete bunkers at Dessel near Mol. ONDRAF will whittle down the list of sites to a single location using a second set of criteria later this decade. The government, if it can muster the political willpower, should make a decision by 1997/1998, meaning the storage site would be ready early in the next millennium. Power in Europe, 6 may, 1994

Bangkok Peace Seminar
From Friday 22 July to Monday 25 July the Pacific Campaign for Security and Disarmament (PCDS) together with several Thai groups, organize the Bangkok Peace Seminar. This non-government meeting precedes the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the first Asia-Pacific security meeting at a governmental level, which starts at July 25, 1994. The Asia-Pacific region is characterized by residual manifestations of the Cold War as well as new disputes and problems. Among the key elements of the security environment are the presence of nuclear weapons states (US, China, Russia, France), tensions on the Korean Peninsula related to nuclear and reunification issues, increasing militarization in Japan and China and numerous 'hot spots' like Bogainville East Timor and the Spratley Islands.

Purpose of the Bangkok Peace Seminar is to initiate a dialogue on Asia-Pacific regional peace and security from a people's perspective: to find common goals, including cooperative efforts towards nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation (with a focus on 1995, the 50th anniversary of Hiroshima/Nagasaki and the NPT extension conference). It is the intention to pursue the development of on-going regional mechanisms by which these perspectives may be heard by the governments. A resolution will be adopted to present to the ARF. The seminar will create a firm basis for future cooperation among peace movements of the region and of the world.
Source: Pacific News Bulletin, Vol. 9, No. 5 (May 1994)
Contact for further information: Hiro Umebayashi, Internal Coordinator, PCDS, 3-1-3 Minohacho, Konokuku, Yokohama, 223 Japan. Tel: + 8 1-45- 563-5101; Fax: + 81-45-563-9907.

North Korea update

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#414
24/06/1994
Article

(June 24 1994) During the last weeks there have been some new developments on the Korean Peninsula. So following an update on the international quarrel over the inspection of the North Korean Yongbyon reactor (see also WISE NC 413.4092 & 411.4072).

(414.4108) WISE Amsterdam -Yun Ho Jin, the North Korean representative to the IAEA, has said his country would "never" allow inspections of two storage sites for nuclear waste at the Yongbyon nuclear complex. Inspection of these sites had been suggested as an alternative way of verifying that no material has been diverted for the manufacture of nuclear arms. Previously, (WISE NC 413) North Korea had already refused the IAEA supervision of the replacement of spent fuel in the experimental reactor of Yongbyon.

In reaction the IAEA has withdrawn its technical assistance to North Korea worth around US$ 270 000. North Korea, in return, said it would expel the last two UN inspectors present in the country (which has not happened yet - June 17).

On June 13th North Korea has with-drawn its membership of the IAEA. It was the first country ever to do this. It has threatened to also withdraw from the non-proliferation treaty if the US don't stop preparing sanctions against it. It has repeatedly made it known that it will consider sanctions against its nuclear program as a declaration of war.

Ex US-president Jimmy Carter went on an unofficial negotiating mission to both Koreas. Carter is, according to CNN, looking for a compromise: North Korea freezes its nuclear program for high level talks with the US. If such talks begin the US will no longer push the UN for sanctions. According to him, the sanctions are not hurting North Korea, it is the fact that sanctions outlaw the country and its leader and make them criminals. Carter achieved that the two remaining IAEA inspectors and the control equipment are allowed to stay in the country. "The crisis is over", he said, but the US administration is not yet In a draft resolution to the UN the US have proposed an arms embargo and a halt on economic, scientific and technological aid.

By not including oil exports and financial transactions in these 'moderate' sanctions they hope to gain the support of South Korea, Russia, China and Japan, who worry about possible North Korean counter measures. In order to allow more time for negotiations the US have proposed to only let the first stage of the sanctions start after a period of thirty days from the acceptance by the Security Council.

Meanwhile North Korea has warned South Korea for a relentless war if negotiations are not successful. Preparations for war have been going on in both countries for a while. convinced. It is unclear how far his initiative difference from the position of the Clinton administration; it is a private initiative of Carter who was invited personally by North Korea.

Sources:

  • Trouw (NL), 2 to 17 June, 1994
  • CNN, 19 June 1994

Palau: Nuclear-Free charter under threat

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#414
24/06/1994
Article

(June 24 1994) While the United States presses North Korea to stop developing nuclear weapons, it is contradicting these very principles in Palau, where it is trying to get the government to accept a Compact of Free Association that would annul the Pacific nation's nuclear-free charter.

(414.4102) WISE Amsterdam - Fourteen years ago, Palau - a group of islands some 800 kilometers south-east of the Philippines - passed the world's first national constitution out-lawing toxic, chemical, biological and radioactive weapons and material on its soil. Since then, Washington has been pressuring Palau to hold one referendum after another to amend that constitution, which had been approved by 92 percent of the nation's 14,000 people.

"Over the years, as the principle of self-determination has been twisted and deformed into a grotesque travesty of democratic process. The Palauan electorate has moved from elation, pride, hope and empowerment to disillusionment, cynicism and apathy," the International Committee on Palauan Self-Determination said in a pamphlet prepared before the last referendum in November 1993.

In an apparent victory for Washington, Palauan President Kuniwo Nakamura said in May he had agreed with U.S. officials to implement the compact with the United States by October 1. But a group of Palauan women told the United Nations Trustee-ship Council that the November 1993 referendum authorizing him to proceed with the compact was illegal and that there were still environmental matters to be addressed. Palau is the last of the United Nations' original 11 Trust Territories.

Since the passage of its anti-nuclear charter, Palau has suffered political and economic coercion from the United States, activists say. Corruption and violence also became widespread. One president was assassinated and another committed suicide. Isabella Sumang, one of the Palauan women who are legally challenging the 1993 referendum, says: "After the fourth, fifth, sixth (referendum), wouldn't you think that was coercion? That's no longer a free choice."

The tiny Pacific nation has captured world attention in recent years, first for serving as a model of how a country can use its constitution to protect itself from outside nuclear and military threats. Later, it stood out for upholding its right to self determination against relentless pressure imposed, ironically, by the self-proclaimed defender of civil liberties, the United States.

Several Palauan women's groups have joined forces to try to prevent the loss of their lands and waters to U.S. military or nuclear development. Sumang: "In our Palau culture, it is the women who have responsibility for preserving the land for generations still to come. So when the women of Palau realized that our overwhelmingly male elected leadership was not going to stand up to U.S. military ambitions, we took it upon ourselves to take action."

When U.S. and Palauan leaders first negotiated the compact more than a decade ago, the United States was believed to have drawn up plans to move its military bases in the Philippines to Palau. With the U.S. bases in the Philippines now gone and Washington steadily cutting down its military presence in the Pacific, Palauan leaders say the United States no longer has the desire to use Palau for military installations. President Nakamura, who had opposed the compact a few years ago, strongly backed it in November. But if Washington really has no plans to dump toxic waste or build military installations in Palau, why doesn't it amend the compact to make U.S. environmental laws applicable to Palau and ensure it will never be used for such purposes? asked Sumang. She added: "If the United States really does not mean to make Palau its future nuclear waste dump, it can start by giving us the information we have asked for under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act regarding their environmental studies on Palau."

In February 1994, Sumang and three other Palauan women asked a Honolulu (Hawaii) court to ask the U.S. government to stop the implementation of the compact unless it has complied with its own environmental law and completed environmental impact studies, particularly on the military and nuclear clauses of the compact. They also sued their own government for the economic losses suffered by Palauan landowners when it agreed to unlimited U.S. military land acquisition without their consent.

The Honolulu action and another law-suit in Palau's Supreme Court challenging the legality of the November 1993, vote are expected to make it impossible to adopt the compact by October. But Sumang says indications are that the U.S. government is willing to ignore its own laws to implement the compact. Palauan officials are worried that if they are forced to renegotiate the compact because of budget cuts in Washington, the U.S. Congress may be tempted to scale down financial assistance to Palau.

Source: IPS on Greenbase, 5 June, 1994
Contact: Pacific Concerns Resource Centre, Private Mail Bag, Suva, Fiji.
Tel: +679 304 649; Fax: +679 304 755
or Pacific News Bulletin, POBox 489, Petersham NSW 2049, Australia.
Tel: +61 2 552 6022; Fax +61 2 552 4583

Sellafield: BNFL to axe 2,000 jobs

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#414
24/06/1994
Article

(June 24 1994) BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels Ltd.) is to shed 2,200 jobs over the next five years to save £ 500 million operating costs, amid growing speculation that the nuclear industry in the United Kingdom is being slimmed down for privatization.

(414.4103) WISE Amsterdam - Most redundancies will be at the controversial Sellafield reprocessing plant. Social and economic devastation was forecast as employment experts assessed the impact on the fragile west Cumbrian economy of sweeping job cuts by the region's largest employer. One union leader forecast confrontation unless the proposals were withdrawn. Well, labour unions never excelled in long-term policy, but off course we don't want to play down the consequences of unemployment on a personal level and the consequences of high unemployment rates on a community level.

About 2,000 redundancies will cut almost one job in three from the UK Group at Sellafield. The 580 work-force at Chapelcross in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland's first nuclear power station, will be reduced by around 200. The 1,500 workforce at the £ 2.8 billion Thorp reprocessing plant at the Sellafield site will not be affected.

BNFL employs almost 15,000 people on five British sites. It announced 1,500 redundancies - largely at Risley, Cheshire - June 1993 and a further 400 at Sellafield in February 1994.

Grahame Smith, BNFL's UK Group director, told the workforce in the company's weekly newsletter that 20 per cent cuts in annual operating costs, worth £ 100 million a year, would secure around 5,000 full-time jobs at Sellafield and Chapelcross "well into the future".

Alan Clark, chairman of Cumbria council's economic development sub-committee, said the "desperately disappointing" news was a further major blow to the Cumbrian economy. Whitehaven and Workington, the towns nearest to Sellafield, have the highest jobless rates in Cumbria, with between 16 and 20 per cent male unemployment. In Whitehaven there are 21 unemployed people for every advertised vacancy.

The area had recently been down-graded to intermediate development area status, reducing the aid the region could offer to potential inward investors. Tony Cunningham, former leader of Allerdale council, suggested the job losses were to prepare BNFL for privatization.

Source: The Guardian (UK), 26 May, 1994
Contact: CORE (Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment), 98 Church Str., Barrow-in-Fumes, Cumbria, LA14 2HT, UK.

Thailand abandons plan to build NPP

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#414
24/06/1994
Article

(June 24 1994) Our congratulations go out to the 2 environmentalists in Thailand who are likely to succeed in their struggle against the construction of Thailand's first nuclear power plant.

(414.4100) WISE Amsterdam - Wearied by mounting anti-nuclear protest, the lack of a clear government policy and prohibitive investment costs, Thai state energy planners are dropping their controversial plan. 5 The move is apparent in the new power plant development project master plan being revised by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), from which the nuclear option has been deleted along with other problematic schemes.

According to Nophdol Salisdisouk, assistant chief of EGAT's generation system development planning division, the authority does not wish to proceed with the plan, which saw the first two of six 1,000-megawatt nu-clear power units being com-missioned in 2006. Mr Nophdol said on June 1, that EGAT will not seek to undertake the nu-clear project at least in the period 1994-2011, making the possibility of such a project being implemented look remote.

He cited the lack of public acceptance of nuclear power plants as the prime factor behind EGAT's decision to withdraw the plan. But he said that the project may not be abandoned entirely, and EGAT will continue to study various aspects so that "when the time of public acceptance comes" the project can be relaunched. According to Pratin Patanaporn, deputy governor of the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT), the question of safety is upper-most in the minds of the public, and the extremely high investment cost of the nuclear facilities make the project itself financially unviable.

The cost of building a nuclear power plant is some $ 2,000 per kilowatt compared to $ 1,200 for one using imported coal and $ 650 for a combined heat/power plant fuelled by natural gas. (figures Bangkok Post)

Dr Piyasavasti Amranand, deputy secretary general of the National Energy Policy Office, said the Government can postpone a decision on whether to proceed with the nuclear project be-cause there is still insufficient information to make such a decision. "We have 12 years before the planned nuclear power plant is envisaged. We still have a few more years (to decide)," he said.

But Dr Piyasavasti, a key state energy planner, suggested to Business Post that nuclear energy is destined to have a lower priority in the overall near-term energy plan. There are energy alternatives which can be made available to meet the country's fast-growing electricity demand more easily than nuclear, he said. "Why don't we first look into imported coal and LNG (liquefied natural gas)? More natural gas from the Gulf of Thailand will become available for power plant fuels," he said. "Furthermore, there is the potential for increasing power sup-ply to Thailand from hydro-electric projects in Laos, and there is potential for tapping huge hydro-electric resources in Burma," he added.

The World Bank has suggested that Thailand drop its NPP project, which it sees as more expensive than other options. It advises Thailand to turn to natural gas, particularly imported LNG, and insists that nuclear power be considered only as a last option.

Source: Bangkok Post, 2 June, 1994

Tritium reductions in drinking water Ontario

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#414
24/06/1994
Article

(June 24 1994) An independent provincial advisory committee in Canada has recommended that tritium levels allowed in drinking water be drastically cut from the current 40,000 becquerels of tritium per litre (Bq/l) of water to 100 Bq/l, a reduction of 400 times.

(414.4106) WISE Amsterdam - The Advisory Committee on Environmental Standards (ACES) which advises Bud Wildman, Canadian Minister of Environment and Energy, released its recommendations on Friday, May 27. The ACES report breaks new ground in the control of radioactive pollution. The Committee has also recommended that the level be cut to 20 Bq/l within five years. This proposed standard would require a shift to alternative water supplies if exceeded.

Current levels of tritium normally found in the Great Lakes are under 10 Bq/l. Emissions and accidents at nuclear facilities result in tritium levels in local drinking water supplies exceeding 20 Bq/l regularly, and exceeding the 100 Bq/l level at least annually. The August 1992 spill at Pickering resulted in the Toronto, Scarborough, Ajax and Whitby water supply plants all exceeding the 100 Bq/l level. The peak level measured due to that accident was over 1,000 Bq/l at Ajax.

The ACES report makes additional recommendations about the need to include tritium and other persistent and toxic radioactive elements in the province's Priority Pollutant List; about the need for timely public reporting of tritium levels in drinking water; about the need for Ontario Hydro and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) to reduce tritium emissions from their nuclear facilities; and about the need for additional health studies.

The ACES report notes that the proposed standard recommended by the Ministry of Environment and Energy Standards Branch of 7,000 Bq/l (based on the World Health Organization standard of 7,800 Bq/l) could result in 340 fatal cancers per million people exposed for a lifetime. The 100 Bq/l standard could result in 5 fatal cancers per million.

Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen which builds up as an unwanted by-product in CANDU reactors. Like all radioactive substances, tritium is carcinogenic - a cancer causing agent. Tritium is routinely released in huge quantities to the air and water at these facilities. Accidents can result in additional massive increases of tritium over a short period of time in down-stream community drinking water supplies.

In Ontario, communities in the vicinity of the Pickering and Darlington nuclear stations in Durham Region east of Toronto, as well as the Bruce Nuclear Power Development on Lake Huron, and the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories on the Ottawa River all face elevated levels of tritium in their drinking water. Port Elgin, down-stream from the Bruce site, consistently has the highest tritium levels of any community in Ontario, followed by Ajax, downstream of Pickering; and by Pembroke, downstream of Chalk River. Pickering, Darlington and Bruce are operated by Ontario Hydro, while Chalk River is operated by AECL.

For more information, contact Irene Kock, Durham Nuclear Awareness (DNA) P.O. Box 2143 Oshawa, Ontario Canada L1H 7V4 phone /fax: + 1-905-7251565.E-mail: web:nucaware

For a copy of the ACES Report:
Advisory Committee on Environmental Standards (ACES) 40 St. Clair Avenue West, Suite # 401 Toronto, Ontario Canada M4V 1M2
phone + 1-416-314-9265; fax: + 1 416-314-9270

UK technology for Iraqs weapon program

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#414
24/06/1994
Article

(June 24 1994) Britain supplied technology for Iraq's clandestine nuclear-bomb program worth millions of pounds. Evidence of how British industry unknowingly aided Saddam Hussein's nuclear program has been kept secret for more than two years by the British authorities. But an examination of 1,100 pages of detailed inspection reports and other papers compiled by the United Nations exposes the extent to which British equipment was used by Iraq for its US$ 10 billion nuclear weapons project.

(414.4109) WISE Amsterdam - UN documents name 16 companies as manufacturers of British technology found at 10 Iraqi nuclear-bomb factories. America made just as much for Saddam Hussein's nuclear program, the Germans far more. Out of the 16 companies, 12 are British: Bridgeport, Colchester Lathes, FMT, Hadland Photonics, Harrison, Instron, Lumonics, Matrix Churchill, Millitorr, Morgan Rushworth, Renishaw-Probe and Wickman Bennett. The other four - Cincinnati Milacron, Fanuc, Handinge Brothers and Heidenhain - are foreign companies which made the equipment in Britain or received British export licences.

All the manufacturers say they were unaware of how their equipment was being used. They are all confident that no export controls were broken. In some cases technology was supplied to innocent-sounding organizations such as Baghdad University. In other cases companies say they did not know their products were destined for Iraq. The British technology had many applications, as does practically all equipment needed to build the bomb. Millitorr, for example, supplied equipment that it was told would be used to make "electrical components", but in fact it was used indirectly in the magnetic separation of uranium. Separately, two British export companies, Meed International and TDG, which were Iraqi defense procurement agents, are implicated as middlemen in Saddam's purchases of technology for the bomb program.

Ken Timmerman, former US congressional investigator and author of the book The Death Lobby - How the West armed Iraq, said vital evidence on suppliers was still being suppressed in Britain. "The British Government seized three truckloads of documents at the offices of TDG in London in August 1990. Those documents have never been made public. "It's clear that what they got were procurement records. Those documents should show who the Iraqis were doing business with, and what kind of political help they were getting. It's all there in those files and nobody's getting to see it. It's a can of worms that no one wants to open."

Source: Sunday Telegraph (UK), 29 May 1994
Contact: European Proliferation Information Centre, EPIC. 258 Pentonville Road, NI 9 JY London, UK