Subject: headlines March 19, 1996
 
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 21:39:40 -0500
 
     March 19, 1996 (Reuter) - U.S. Secretary of State Warren
Christopher offered additional aid for victims of the 1986
Chernobyl nuclear disaster and pledged to help prevent a
repetition of "one of the most cruel legacies of communism."
Christopher said $10 million in new aid would be provided for
the 10th anniversary of the disaster next month, including a
mobile laboratory to monitor radiation.


     March 19, 1996 (Reuter) - The International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), U.N.'s nuclear safeguards agency, said it was
co-sponsoring a conference in Vienna next month on the effects
on health and the environment 10 years after the Chernobyl
nuclear disaster in Ukraine. The conference will be attended
by 700 delegates including representatives of the three 
countries most affected by the 1986 accident, Belarus, Ukraine
and Russia.  


     March 19, 1996 (Reuter) - Slovenian environmentalists
began collecting signatures on Tuesday to try and force the
government to hold a referendum on closing down Krsko, the
country's only nuclear power plant. Slovenia's Ecological
Movement need at least 40,000 people to sign a petition by May
17 to call for a referendum on shutting the Krsko power plant
within 10 years.


     March 19, 1996 (Reuter) - U.N. Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali appealed to negotiators from 38 countries to
complete a global treaty banning all nuclear explosions by
June 30. Diplomats said his speech to the Conference on
Disarmament was aimed at pushing China and Russia towards
joining the three declared Western nuclear powers in endorsing
a pact to prohibit any release of nuclear energy.


     March 19, 1996 (UPI) - Officials at the Chernobyl nuclear
power plant denied charges they tried to cover up an accident
that occurred last November when a worker was contaminated by
fuel escaping from one of the station's two working reactors.
The recent incident has again raised concerns about the safety
of the ill-fated plant