Subject: headlines March 21
 
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 10:11:49 -0500
 
     March 21, 1996 (Reuter) - A decade after the Chernobyl
disaster and a month before a Moscow summit on atomic issues,
French and German safety officials warned of a real risk of
nuclear accidents in Eastern Europe. At the heart of the
problem in eastern Europe are plants designed before the
breakup of the Soviet Union. The French and German officials
said the risks at these plants did not mean that Western aid
programmes had failed.

     March 21, 1996 (Reuter) - Strong disagreements among
major powers in East and West could jeopardise completion of a
total nuclear test ban treaty (CTBT) by the June 30 target,
negotiators said. Key issues, including the scope of the
accord, when it should enter into force and whether it should
be linked to a set time-frame for reaching a pact on overall
nuclear disarmament, are still far from solution.

     March 21, 1996 (Reuter) - More than 30 million people
could be contaminated by radioactivity sweeping down rivers
from the Chernobyl nuclear power station. The New Scientist
magazine reported the findings of a team of 59 scientists from
eight countries. Reservoirs downstream from the damaged
reactor provide drinking water for nine million Ukrainians as
well as irrigation and fish for another 23 million.

     March 21, 1996 (Reuter) - German President Roman Herzog
urged Bulgaria to close down Soviet-made nuclear reactors at
Kozloduy, which could not be modernised. The EU urged Bulgaria
to close the oldest Soviet-made reactor, number one, at the
Kozloduy plant after its restart last September triggered an
international outcry amid doubts over the safety of its metal
structure.  

     March 21, 1996 (Reuter) - The French navy has returned
the MV Greenpeace, the last of five Greenpeace ships seized
last year during anti-nuclear protests in the South Pacific,
the environmental group said on Thursday.

     March 21, 1996 (Reuter) - Uranium miners began lobbying
the 10-day-old conservative Australian government for new
mines in an environmentally sensitive park. Executives from
Energy Resources of Australia Ltd (ERA) lobbied Resources
Minister Warwick Parer and government officials for approval
for ERA's planned Jabiluka mine in Kakadu. French-owned Cogema
Australia Pty Ltd was also negotiating with the government and
aboriginal landowners to develop its Koongarra deposit also in
Kakadu.

     March 21, 1996 (UPI) - Pakistan welcomes the U.S.
decision to release previously embargoed military equipment, a
Foreign Office spokesman said at the regular weekly briefing
in Islamabad. Pakistan had already paid for the military
equipment but delivery was banned as a result of U.S. passage
of the so-called Pressler amendment, which bans the United
States from selling any military equipment to Pakistan because
of its nuclear program.