Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 13:46:17 
 
X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.0 -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN
Status: R

     Aug 23, 1996 (Reuter) - Australia said Friday it was
determined not to let India's veto kill a worldwide nuclear
test ban treaty and vowed to lead a push for a United Nations
resolution to keep the dream of a global pact alive. The
61-nation Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, which needed a
unanimous stance to allow it to approve a draft text,  
Thursday decided it could not even agree to report its failure 
to the General Assembly. Diplomats have said there is little
time left for the 51st General Assembly to open the pact for
signature at a ceremony in late September. 

     Aug 23, 1996 (Reuter) - North Korea thrust itself into
the U.S. presidential campaign Friday, warning it was ready to
resume its nuclear program and refuse to participate in peace
talks if there was no support for the issues in Washington.
The warnings, in a Foreign Ministry statement carried by the
official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) monitored in Tokyo, 
were clearly aimed at Republican Party challenger Bob Dole who 
has said it is time to stop coddling Stalinist North Korea. 

     Aug 23, 1996 (Reuter) - Romania's first (700-MW) nuclear
reactor at Cernavoda will be fully operational by the fourth
quarter of 1996 and will switch to local fuel sources next
year, an electricity authority official said on Friday. ``We
will have final tests, with the reactor working at 100 percent
capacity, late in September. After those tests, the   reactor
will start commercial operation,'' Teodor Chirica, of <Renel
RA> told Reuters. 

     Aug 23, 1996(Reuter) - Japan's Ministry of International
Trade and Industry (MITI) said on Friday it would increase  
subsidies to local governments which host nuclear power plants
in a bid to promote construction of more such plants. ``In
recent years it has become increasingly difficult to obtain
land to build nuclear power plants,'' a MITI official   said. 

     Aug 23, 1996 (Reuter) - Australia, disappointed at the
failure of talks to forge a nuclear test ban treaty, said on  
Friday it would push for world-wide agreement on a test ban  
through the United Nations General Assembly. Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer said Canberra would sponsor a resolution
seeking action from the United Nations after the Conference on
Disarmament failed in Geneva to agree on a treaty text in the
face of opposition from India. 

     Aug 25, 1996 (Reuter) - Russia may have to close its
nuclear power stations if cash shortages mean the safety of
the network can no longer be guaranteed, Interfax news agency
on Sunday quoted nuclear power generator Rosenergoatom as
saying. ``We are getting to the stage where it will not be
possible to guarantee the safety of nuclear power stations and
therefore we will have to withdraw them from use,'' Russia,
with nine nuclear power plants running 29 reactors, is
struggling to maintain ageing Soviet nuclear power plants and  
fund a planned expansion of the network. Consumers pay  
unrealistically low prices for energy and energy distributors  
are unable to pay for fuel or wages for their workers.