Plutonium seized in Turkey.
(September 25, 1998) On September 7, 1998, the Turkish police seized 4.5 kilos of uranium and six grams of plutonium, and arrested eight persons who were looking for buyers.
The group, two Kazakhs, an Azerbaijan and five Turks intended to sell it for a million dollars.
The origin of the uranium seems to be Kazakhstan. Where the plutonium comes from is still unknown. One of the two Kazakh suspects was an army colonel. AP, 7 September 1998
Jabiluka: Increase pressure on World Heritage Committee. October 20 has been selected as the next International Jabiluka Action Day. It was felt that a massive international action during the election might be counterproductive. October 20 will also enable International Action Day to be used as a springboard for the World Heritage Committee and Bureau meeting in Kyoto in late November or early December, at which the question of whether Kakadu should be placed on the "World Heritage in danger" list will be considered.
Anti-nuclear, indigenous and environmental NGOs around the world are being asked to fax the World Heritage Committee and Bureau prior to October 4, expressing concern over the fate of Kakadu should another uranium mine be opened there, and asking them to list it as a World Heritage in Danger at their Kyoto meeting.
Address and fax numbers of the World Heritage Committee: Unesco, 7 Place de Fontenoy, Paris, France. Fax: +33-1-456-85570; +33-1-430-66035
Friends of the Earth Sydney, 18 September 1998
nonukes@foesyd.org.au
http://www.peg.apc.org/~foesydney/
Bulgaria announces plan to close Kozloduy by 2012. Bulgaria's cabinet adopted on September 14 a new national energy strategy that would include investment of more than US$946 million during its first stage until 2001, and would also involve the eventual closure of the Soviet-made nuclear plant at Kozloduy, Reuters reported. Under the plan, the plant would be shut down in phases, and would be completely closed by 2012, the report said. Bulgaria has spent tens of millions of dollars to upgrade the plant and has resisted calls by the European Union to shut down.
However, in June 1993, the Bulgarian government signed an agreement with the Nuclear Safety Account for ECU24 million (US$26 million) for short-term safety improvements for units 1-4. The condition was closure of units 1 and 2 by the end of 1997 and units 3 and 4 by the end of 1998. Another part of the deal was the promise of the West to partly finance the building of four hydropower stations, and replacement capacity for the closed units. The NSA agreement led only to limited safety improvements, which are now used by the Bulgarian government to extend the lifetime of the reactors. And that was exactly what the NSA money was not suppose to do. Green Horizon, 18 September 1998 / WISE News Communique 493/4
France: court case against Stop Golfech activists. On October 22, three anti-nuclear activists of Stop Golfech will appear before the court of appeals in Toulouse (France). Stop Golfech activists occupied the cooling towers of the Golfech nuclear power plant several times.
In June 1989, they climbed the tower for the first time to get the attention of the public and the authorities to the dangers of nuclear energy and the necessity to stop it. In May 1986, they once again occupied the tower to denounce the total lack of discussion in France on the nuclear issue after the Chernobyl accident and the worrying increase of incidents as well as serious failures in the French reactors. In January 1998, three activists of Stop Golfech were brought before the court. The tribunal condemned the three militants who immediately went to the court of appeals. The court case will be an opportunity for the anti nuclear movement to explain once again the dangers of nuclear energy and the necessity to have a national and international debate on it. Actions will be held in Toulouse from October 18 to 20. Contact: Stop Golfech. Maison des associations, 108 Boulevard de la Liberte. 47000 Agen France.
Tel & Fax: +33-5-5387 6451
Germany: sabotage at Krümmel site. On August 20, two unidentified persons conducted sabotage on the site of the nuclear power plant Krümmel, near Hamburg. As the court in Lübeck confirmed on September 7, by this attack a chain link of a material lift had been sawed off. If the lift had fallen down, it could have endangered people's lives. According to senior public prosecutor Günter Möller, the act of sabotage could only have been done by personnel of the plant itself.
Hamburg's electricity utility HEW, which as operator of the nuclear plant should have been aware of the sabotage, first claimed to have heard nothing about it. Later, after being confronted with the prosecutor's statements, a HEW spokesperson confirmed this incident could already have been reported to the police in August. They only hadn`t made it public because, as they claim, it could otherwise endanger the investigations.
The German newspaper die Tageszeitung received information about the sabotage attempt through an anonymous telephone call. Die Tageszeitung (TAZ), September 8, 1998
U.S.: Regulators cover up safety problems. In an apparent effort to expedite the privatization of the United States Enrichment Corp. (USEC), federal regulators covered up serious safety problems at the uranium production plants in Paducah, Ky., and Portsmouth, Ohio, just as USEC's stock was offered to the public. Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released documents detailing the incident and called for an immediate investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Documents obtained by Public Citizen's and UCS show that for several months the NRC and USEC knew about many serious safety problems at both facilities. The documents also show that the NRC continues to allow the Paducah facility to operate despite federal safety violations. Public Citizen, 15 September 1998
Save the Magnox reactor plea. British Nuclear Fuels is urging the UK government to extend the life of its eight aging Magnox reactors, claiming that this would help the UK to reach its commitments under the Kyoto agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The operating life of the reactors has already been extended--after a reactor-by-reactor safety study by regulators--and BNFL is now urging the government not to start decommissioning the remaining eight reactors in 2007 as presently planned. The UK's agreement to the new OSPAR discharges restriction, however, means the continued reprocessing of the Magnox fuel must end well before the 2020 deadline for "near zero discharges" unless there is expensive investment in new technology to reduce activity in discharges (see WISE NC 495.4888: 'OSPAR convention: European reprocessing industry given deadline of year 2020'). N-Base briefing, 6 September 1998
Former Czechoslovak premier faces Chernobyl charges. Former Czech Premier Lubomir Strougal may face charges for having withheld information on the danger posed by the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe in 1986, according to an AP report carried in the September 3 edition of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Strougal, now 74, is suspected of having intentionally provided false or incomplete information on radiation levels measured on former Czechoslovak territory shortly after the explosion in Chernobyl, the report said. The Office for Investigation and Documentation of Communist Crimes, which has the power to prosecute, is investigating the case, and may decide within a month whether to press charges, the report said. Strougal has reportedly denied the accusations. Green Horizon, 18 September 1998
UK: 50 leaks from navy bases. The UK Ministry of Defence has admitted that there has been a total of 50 leaks of radioactive waste at UK nuclear navy bases since 1980. The details were given in the House of Commons by Defence Minister John Spellar. Most of the leaks occurred at the Faslane base for Trident submarines on Gare Loch in west Scotland. There were 33 leaks from Faslane since 1980 when radioactive liquid was "unintentionally released" into the sea. There were also seven leaks at the Rosyth naval base on the Firth of Forth on Scotland's east coast--mainly from the Primary Effluent Tanks (PETs) which are used to store contaminated coolant from submarine reactors--and a further 10 leaks at the Devonport dockyard in southwest England. N-Base briefing, 13 September 1998