Date: Mon, 9 Sep 1996 10:16:18 
 
X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.0 -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN
Status: R

6 Sept 1996 (Reuter) - Eighteen aging nuclear missiles based
in   silos on the Plateau d'Albionin in southern France and
ordered scrapped by President  Jacques Chirac are to be
deactivated on Sept. 16, the air force  announced Friday.  
After the missiles' deactivation, France will rely on four  
new missile-firing submarines and on aircraft for any future 
nuclear attack.   Chirac also announced the  closure of
France's only facility producing plutonium and  weapons-grade
enriched uranium.        

6 Sept 1996 (Reuter) - After two decades of decline,   uranium
production and exploration have come back into fashion  since
prices began a sharp recovery last year, a Uranium  Institute
conference heard on Friday. World uranium prices have almost
doubled in the last two   years to $16 per pound, but new
production still only represents  about 55 percent of demand -
almost half of today's 61,400  tonnes annual demand is met by
the world's huge stockpiles,  accumulated largely as a result
of the 1970s arms race - but  these are at last diminshing.
There were already firm plans for new production in  
Austalia, Canada and the United States, but producers said
only  higher prices would create sufficient incentive to meet
demand.


6 Sept 1996 (Reuter) - Illinois Power Co. shut down its
nuclear   power plant in Clinton, Ill., Friday following
discovery a leak  in a cooling water pump, a spokesman said.  
Company spokesman John Dewey said the incident ``presented  
no danger to workers or the public,'' adding ``there's been no 
radiation release from the plant.''   Dewey said the company
began reducing output at the plant   Friday morning after the
leak was discovered in a pump that  circulates cooling water
within the nuclear reactor.   He added that the water which
leaked may have been slightly   radioactive, but it was
contained in a way that was not a danger  to employees or the
public.


6 Sept 1996 (UPI) -- Japan will proceed with plans to build a  
nuclear reactor in a small coastal town despite a local
referendum  rejecting the project, Trade Minister Shumpei
Tsukahara said Friday.  ``As one of the options, giving up the
project is very unlikely,''   Tsukahara told reporters after a
Cabinet meeting.  Residents of Maki, a small town 150 miles
(250 kilometers) northwest   of Tokyo, rejected the plant in
August in the nation's first referendum  on nuclear power. The
town can effectively block the nuclear plant, because it owns  
some of the land needed for the reactor. 


6 Sept 1996 (Reuter) - Faced with a ballooning world  
population and growing concerns about global warming, the 
nuclear power industry is selling its environmental benefits
to  snatch a slice of a predicted huge growth in electricity
demand. If nuclear does have a continuing large part to play
in the   world's energy future, a crucial factor will be
finding the cash  to do it, experts say. Only in Asia, where
government support for nuclear power is   strongest, are
private companies actively investing new plant.

5 Sept 1996 (Reuter) - The environmental group Greenpeace  
said Thursday a planned nuclear waste dump in Texas near the 
border with Mexico is unsafe and poses a health hazard to 
residents on both sides of the frontier. Mexico's northern
states of Coahuila and Chihuahua oppose the dump, arguing it
violates the 1983 La Paz agreement that  committed both
nations to avoid threatening the environment or  health of
communities within 60 miles of the border.   Local residents
have accused U.S. officials of using the   mostly Hispanic
area as a dumping ground for toxic waste because  the
impoverished residents have little political clout to oppose 
the sites.   ``It's environmental racism,'' said Richard
Boren, an   environmental campaigner in the area.