Subject: HEADLINES 12-13 December 1995

For some reason, this didn't post properly a few days ago.  Here it is a bit
late...


      13 Dec 1995 (Reuter) - France attacked its European
Union partners who voted for a U.N. resolution urging an
immediate end to nuclear tests and said it had no legal
impact. The U.N. General Assembly voted 85-18 on Tuesday to
approve a resolution which "strongly deplores" nuclear testing
and "strongly urges" an end to all tests. It did not name any
states, but France and China are the only two still testing.

      13 Dec 1995 (Reuter) - The US top arms control official
dismissed concerns that Japan's ambitious, plutonium-centred
nuclear power programme posed the threat that Tokyo would some
day opt to build nuclear weapons. Japan's plutonium policy
came under the spotlight last week when Monju, Japan's
fast-breeder reactor, was shut down because of a coolant leak.
Nuclear officials said that there was never any danger of
radioactivity from the leak.

      13 Dec 1995 (Reuter) - Detailed investigations into the
cause of a recent accident at Japan's prototype fast-breeder
reactor will start within one month, the state Power Reactor
and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp (PNC) said. "We need to
clear up the leaked sodium and specify the point where the
leakage occured before starting investigations into the cause
of the accident," a PNC spokesman said. Last week, up to three
tonnes of liquid sodium leaked from a cooling system in the
experimental reactor, which is on the Sea of Japan coast,
forcing a manual shutdown.

      13 Dec 1995 (Reuter) - Using doses of radiation strong
enough to kill 250 people, Japanese scientists say they can
make bad wine taste good and cheap whisky smooth. And they
predict this kind of food irradiation could be legalised
worldwide in as little as five years.

      13 Dec 1995 (Reuter) - North Korea and an international
consortium have reached tentative agreement on details
covering the supply of nuclear technology to the communist
state, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said. The
Korean Peninsula Development Energy Organisation (KEDO), whose
main members are the United States, Japan and South Korea, is
expected to sign the deal with Pyongyang representatives in
New York over the weekend after the latest round of
negotiations.

      13 Dec 1995 (Reuter) - The U.N. General Assembly has
called for an immediate end to nuclear tests in a resolution
aimed at France and China. But the vote of 85 to 18 with 43
abstentions on Tuesday was less than expected, particularly in
comparison to a preliminary vote last month of 95 to 12 with
45 abstentions.

      12 Dec 1995 (Reuter) - Two decades of drilling in the
North Sea have created a gas surplus so big that it has
seriously threatened nuclear power as the energy source of the
future in Britain, analysts said. Gas' pre-eminence over
nuclear power became clear on Monday when British Energy, the
firm scheduled for privatisation next summer, announced a
decision to abandon plans to build two new nuclear power
stations, blaming uncertain energy prices.

      12 Dec 1995 (Reuter) - Firemen put out a fire in the
compressor and cooling plant of Slovakia's Jaslovske Bohunice
nuclear power plant, but a plant statement said there was no
danger of radioactive leakage. The fire broke out during the
repair of a switch in the V-1 first block nuclear power
complex, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Bratislava.

      12 Dec 1995 (Reuter) - Southeast Asian nations will
review and probably withdraw some provisions in a planned
anti-nuclear treaty as a concession to nuclear powers led by
the US, an ASEAN minister said. As it stands the treaty due to
be signed on Friday bans the possession, manufacture and
acquisition of nuclear weapons in the region and their use.
But aspects of it have drawn strong objections from the United
States and China.

      12 Dec 1995 (Reuter) - Faulty welding may have caused
the recent accident at Japan's prototype fast-breeder reactor,
the state's Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp
(PNC) said. "There is a strong possibility sodium leaked from
a section around a thermometer welded into the pipe," a PNC
spokesman said. Another possibility is that the sodium leaked
from a part of the pipe which had been repaired in 1991 to
improve heat resistance, the PNC official said.