Subject: headlines NUKE-NET HEADLINE ALERT '95 (June 5) Reuter is reporting that the US and North Korea began a third week of reactor negotiations still at a deadlock. Under the Geneva accord, Pyongyang is committed to freezing and eventually dismantling its nuclear program in return for the light-water reactors and 500,000 tons of oil in the next 10 years. (June 6) Reuter is reporting that international pressure is mounting against the possibility that France will resume nuclear testing. A decision is expected soon. Greenpeace says it will send the Rainbow Warrior II to the testing area in the South Pacific. The controversy has resurfaced almost 10 years after French secret agents blew up the original Rainbow Warrior, which was leading the Greenpeace campaign against testing, in Auckland harbour. (June 6) Reuter is reporting that Romania has for the first time fueled its nuclear plant expected to go online in October. The reactor has cost at least $2.2 billion dollars. (June 7) Reuter is reporting that Romania signed the international convention on safety at nuclear facilties at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. (June 7) Reuter is reporting that the US is urging France to not resume nuclear testing. France wants to perfect its latest warhead. (June 8) Reuter is reporting that China has completed 76 percent of the concrete work at a nuclear power plant it is building in Pakistan. (June 10) Reuter is reporting that US officials have arrested three Greeks for attempting to ship nuclear grade zirconium to Iraq from New York. The material is used as cladding for nuclear fuel rods. Iraq says the US fabricated the story to continue sanctions against Iraq. (June 10) Reuter is reporting that US and North Korean officials have reached tentative agreements on nuclear reactors. (June 11) Reuter is reporting that the Gaullist president of French Polynesia's elected Territorial Assembly withdrew his long-time backing for nuclear tests and said he now opposes testing at the Mururoa atoll site. (June 12) Reuter is reporting that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is seeking world backing to boost the powers of its inspectors who police the spread of nuclear weapons. The four key elements to the first stage of the IAEA's efforts to strengthen agency safeguards are: 1. obtain greater access to information about nuclear activities in member nations, 2. obtain greater access to nuclear sites in member nations, 3. shorten the notice time for inspections by, in part, removing visa requirements for inspectors, which can tip off a country that an inspection is forthcoming, 4. begin environmental monitoring, including taking samples of soil, water and air, in order to search for signs of nuclear activity. The second stage involves a series of measures that will form the basis for an extended mandate for IAEA inspectors. (June 13) Reuter is reporting that France will resume nuclear weapons testing in September and hold eight tests at its South Pacific site ending next May in time to sign a comprehensive test ban treaty. The former French Prime Minister called the decision a "slap in the face" to all 177 nations which recently signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. (June 14) Reuter is reporting that France has exploded about 190 nuclear devices in Mururoa and at the neighbouring atoll of Fangataufa since 1966, 46 of them in the air and the rest in boreholes drilled either under the coral atoll or under the lagoon. French troops and Tahitian workers have bored repeatedly through the reef and deep into the basalt rock of the volcano below to create explosion chambers for testing France's diverse array of nuclear warheads. The tallest structure on Mururoa is a slender 200-foot tower painted red and white which looks like an amusement park slide but is actually a device for lowering metal cylinders containing nuclear warheads into the explosion chambers. (June 14) Reuter is reporting that the Chilean government is making an urgent call to the French government to reconsider its decision to resume nuclear testing saying canceling the tests would benefit the protection of human life and the environment. (June 14) Reuter is reporting that the Netherlands is urging France to cancel nuclear testing plans. (June 14) Reuter is reporting that France's Prime Minister Juppe justified more nuclear testing by saying his country should not be impressed by advice from countries that have carried out 10 times more tests than we and have nuclear stockpiles vastly exceeding France's. France will allow international inspectors to monitor the tests to prove that there is no environmental impact. Jacques Cousteau countered that Paris has given in to out-dated arguments. (June 14) Reuter is reporting that information about a explosion at the Dounreay nuclear research facility in 1977 is deliberately being withheld from a Scottish team of government appointed nuclear experts who are studying the radioactivity at local beaches. The health department's Committee on the Medical Aspects of Radiation and the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee had been jointly investigating both the pollution and evidence of clusters of leukemia cases around Dounreay. Since 1984, there has a continual release of radioactive particles onto the beach at Dounreay. According to the committee's report the explosion spread reactor fuel over the beach when sodium and potassium reacted with water in a deep waste disposal shaft. The shaft was capped with concrete but the waste started leaking soon afterwards. (June 14) Reuter is reporting that Germany is not critical of France but did say Germany is a strong supporter of a complete test ban treaty. (June 14) Reuter is reporting that Canada says France should reverse its decision so that there is no spinoff or encouragement of other nations to test or assemble nuclear armaments. The Foreign Minister said that expanding the number of nuclear powers would be a calamity. (June 14) Reuter is reporting that Russia is upset over the US reactor deal with North Korea since it means losing a $4.5 billion nuclear deal of its own with North Korea. Tass quoted Mikhailov as saying Washington had first backed international sanctions against Pyongyang and was now trying to cash in on North Korea's nuclear market. Relations between Russia and Washington have been strained following Moscow's decision to go ahead with plans to construct a $1 billion nuclear plant in Iran. (June 14) Reuter is reporting that there is only little opposition by French citizens to the decision to resume testing. France has no major anti-nuclear movement, but a Greenpeace spokeswoman said that could soon change because of France's growing nuclear waste problem. (June 14) Reuter is reporting that Norway strongly regrets France's decision to resume nuclear testing. (June 14) Reuter is reporting that Austria says France's decision to resume nuclear tests endangers future negotiations of a comprehensive test ban treaty. (June 14) Reuter is reporting that Russia is requesting France to not test nuclear weapons saying that it will have negative effects on future talks on disarmament and halting production of fissile material. (June 14) Reuter is reporting that Australia's Defense Association condemns France's decision as a political ploy and not a military necessity. They called it a result of Gaullist bureaucratic arrogance. France has already conducted 200 tests and has sufficient data that can be fed into computer simulation models. One official said, "The old Cold War argument that a nuclear deterrent needs to be displayed periodically to be effective is misguided," and cited Israel, India and Pakistan, which neither confirm nor deny the existence of nuclear weapons. (June 14) Reuter is reporting that French nuclear scientist admitted in 1992 that the Mururoa atoll can no longer support nuclear testing. Large parts of the single-track road around Mururoa are now under water as the porous atoll has crumbled following repeated nuclear explosions in the metallic basalt rock 2,300 feet underground. The atoll is sinking. end