Date: Fri, 7 Jun 1996 08:54:07 -0400 6 June 1996 (Reuter) - France and Russia will sign an accord in Paris on Friday on civilian nuclear cooperation which is expected to allow Russian scientists to work in France in exchange for a supply of enriched uranium, officials said. --- -- - 6 June 1996 (Reuter) - China announced on Thursday it would give up its demand for the right to conduct "peaceful nuclear explosions" if other countries agreed to re-examine the issue in the future. U.S. ambassador Ledogar told Reuters: "The fact is that none of the other four nuclear powers have any enthusiasm for peaceful nuclear explosions. The concept has zero support." More importantly, China and the United States appear deadlocked over the treaty's provisions for on-site inspections in the event of suspected blasts occurring in signatory states. The United States wants "national technical means" including information from reconnaissance satellites and news reports, to also be valid to trigger a request for an on-site inspection. --- -- - 6 June 1996 (Reuter) - More than half the people living on Java oppose proposals to build Indonesia's first nuclear power plant on the crowded island, according to a survey released on Thursday. The Kompas newspaper survey said 52 percent of the 1,496 respondents on Java were against plans to build the estimated $2.1 billion-power plant. The respondents had a high school or higher education. The Indonesian Environmental Forum said in a survey in February that 88 percent of 1,000 respondents on Java were against nuclear power stations being built in Indonesia. --- -- - 6 June 1996 (Reuter) - China's acting ambassador to Japan signalled on Thursday that Beijing would conduct a nuclear test soon, Kyodo news agency reported. "The schedule may perhaps be delayed, but a nuclear test will be held in the near future," Wu Dawei, charge d'affaires at China's Tokyo embassy, said. "We ask that Japan respond calmly." Kanju Sato, secretary general of the Social Democratic Party told the envoy that further testing was "completely unacceptable," Kyodo reported. Last week Japanese Foreign Ministry officials were quoted as saying Tokyo would not halt its low-interest yen loans to China even if Beijing went ahead with expected nuclear tests. --- -- - 6 June 1996 (Reuter) - Greenpeace members picketed the Chinese embassy in Manila on Thursday, rejecting Beijing's call to abandon a planned "peace voyage" to Shanghai in protest against Chinese nuclear testing. The environmental campaigners arrived in Manila on Wednesday on board the Greenpeace anti-nuclear ship on the last leg of their trip to Shanghai. "We will do anything we can to enter Shanghai," Greenpeace spokesman Xavier Pastor had earlier told a news conference aboard the ship. But he said they would use only peaceful means. --- -- - 6 june 1996 Ukrainian president Kostenko said Ukraine wanted $840 million now to complete construction of two new reactors at the Khmelnytsky and Rivne power stations to replace power lost if Chernobyl closed. The G7 had promised money for next year, but Kostenko said Kiev would not receive the cash before 1998. He said parliament would review nuclear energy issues this month and might decide to reverse Ukraine's earlier promise to shut Chernobyl. Kostenko also said Ukraine could re-activate the second reactor, closed after a fire in 1991. The G7 promised $2.3 billion in grants and aid in a memorandum last December to help Ukraine close Chernobyl by the year 2000. --- -- - 6 June 1996 (Reuter) - Taiwan's cabinet said on Thurdsay it would appeal parliament's cancellation of funds for a fourth nuclear plant, heralding a new showdown between the Nationalist government and the politically-divided legislature. Dismissing safety concerns and citing the island's ever-increasing power demands, cabinet officials said the project, already half-built, was vital to Taiwan's future. --- -- - 6 june 1996 (Reuter) The 38-member Disarmament Conference, which aims to conclude negotiations on a comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT) by June 28, is also discussing a halt to production of fissile material. Ledogar, in an interview distributed by the U.S. diplomatic mission in Geneva, also said the CTBT negotiations had reached a "delicate and dangerous take-it-or-leave-it stage." Ledogar said Washington supported the South African initiative, which he said would allow expansion to proceed as long as each new member pledges as a sovereign state that it will never act individually to obstruct any Conference decision. It was not clear if all 23 states would accept this condition. --- -- - 6 June 1996 (Reuter) - Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Thursday urged China to scrap its nuclear weapons testing programme, saying Australia was ready to lodge a strong protest if the tests continued. "If China decides to proceed with further nuclear tests, the Australian government will protest strongly against such tests," he said. U.S. Undersecretary of Defence Walter Slocombe said last month that China, the only declared nuclear power not to announce a moratorium on testing, was preparing a new underground test at its Lop Nor test site in the Xinjiang region of northwestern China. --- -- - 6 June 1996 (UPI) -- Greenpeace environmental activists urged Beijing Thursday to stop conducting nuclear tests that could weaken ongoing negotiations in Geneva for a comprehensive test ban treaty. Xavier Pastor, head of a "peace mission" to Shanghai, said the M/V Greenpeace is set to sail Saturday to the eastern port for a four-day campaign to persuade Beijing to end nuclear tests. "We will do everything to convince the Chinese government that this is a peaceful trip, and we will try by all means to go in a quiet and peaceful way," Pastor said. He promised Beijing the 32 crewmen and activists onboard Greenpeace would not hold any surprise demonstrations during the visit.