Date: Tue X-pmrqc: 1 X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v2.52) X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.0 -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO X-Status: RAROTONGA Sept 15 1997 (AFP) - The 16-nation South Pacific Forum starting coming Wednesday has a new issue: the shipments of vitrified high-level nuclear waste from France to Japan through the exclusive economic zones. In 1985 the Treaty of Rarotonga declared the South Pacific a nuclear free zone but apparently doesn't cover the shipments of nuclear wastes. New Zealand will appeal for more transparency on the shipments. Australia a nuclear exporter and the Marshall Islands who wants to import and store nuclear waste on one of the former US nuclear test-site islands will oppose any disapproval of nuclear wastes. NEW DELHI Sept 16 1997 (AFP) - India's two nuclear reactors designed built and run by the Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) will be opened in November for inspection by international experts of the World Association of Nuclear Reactors (WANO). Critics have been accusing NPC to operate reactors of unsafe design. MOSCOW Sept 16 1997 (AFP) - Since May the 20 000 staff at the Sarov nuclear research centre have not received their wages. A protest meeting was held Tuesday at the facility once a secret Soviet facility. The Snezhinsk nuclear research centre (former Chelyabinsk-70) in the Urals is concerned with the same problems and wrote to Prime Minister Chernomyrdin about their discontent and also plans protest actions. The Russian government is facing a nationwide non-payments crisis. Israeli intelligence quoted by the Washington Times newspaper last week said that Russian military specialists in shortage of money are collaborating with countries such as Iran which are blacklisted for Western high-tech weapons exports. MANILA Sept 16 1997 (AFP) - An agreement has been signed between the Philippines National Power Corporation (NPC) and Siemens Power Corporation about the sale of unused uranium fuel from the mothballed Bataan nuclear reactor. Siemens will pay the 25.165 million dollar once the whole transport has been completed. In 1984 Manila payed 90 million dollars for the fuel. The NPC hopes to compensate the losses through sell-offs of the nuclear power plant assets which amounts to 640 million dollars. It is still not known where the fuel will be shipped to. CHICAGO Sept. 16 1997 (UPI) -- In February this year the Zion Nuclear POwer Station was shut down due to an operating error. Operator Commonwealth Edison wants to reopen the reactor on Dec 17. However the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is still not sure the plant will be ready by then. To try to convince them the Commonwealth Edison who admit that not all problems have been resolved will hold a weeks-long demonstration in October. TOKYO Sept 16 1997 (AFP) - Hitachi Ltd and its subsidiary Hitachi Engineering Services Co. Ltd. are ordered by the international Trade and Industry Minister to inspect the safety of 18 nuclear facilities they built. It apears false records were kept of post-weld heat treatment on pipes. At the same time the two companies as well as sub-contractor Shinko KK will be investigated by a ministry affiliated agency on these false records. TASHKENT Sept 16 1997 (AFP) - During an international conference on nuclear non- proliferation Armenia was accused by Azerbaijan of receiving deliveries of nuclear warheads and developing a nuclear weapons program. Armenia is not attending the conference. The two former Soviet republics have a very tense relationship due to the political situation in the region of Nagorno- Karabakh which is a separatist Azeri region. The main population there is Armenian. PARIS Sept 16 1997 (AFP) - According to the French Minister of Environment Voynet the Cog'ma made an error during descaling operations at the La Hague plant instructed by the nuclear safety authority. Unless safety measures will be taken to prevent release of improper materials the Minister will not authorize any further cleaning operation. SAN FRANCISCO Sept. 17 1997 (BCN) The Cassini spacecraft with 72 pounds of plutonium aboard is a threat to people on Earth according to anti-nuclear activist Claire Greensfelder of Plutonium Free Future. Cassini an international project of NASA the European Space Agency the Italian Space Agency and several industrial contributors is scheduled to be launched on Oct. 6. Many opponents are seeking to stop the launch. There is a call for a congressional hearing on the issue. MARION Ohio Sept. 16 1997 (UPI) -- A statistically high leukemia rate among Marion's River Valley High School's alumni since 1967 was the reason to start a search for radioactive materials in the area. A dime-sized radium pallet was found just beneath the surface of the school's campus. The radioactive material will be taken to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for testing. MUNICH Germany Sept 17 1997 (AFP) - The spent fuel that initially had to be shipped on Wednesday from the German nuclear power plant Grafenrheinfeld to the reprocessing factory at La Hague has been delayed indefinitely. The reason of delay given by the German operator Bayernwerk and the German police was that there was a railway strike in France. However no strike was reported. The day before the police broke up an antinuclear protest at Grafenrheinfeld. French ecologist groups had also the intention to block the transport. LA HAGUE France Sept 17 1997 (AFP) - According to Greenpeace the levels of radioactivity around the French reprocessing plant at La Hague are hundred times higher than in June before the Cog'ma started cleaning works. Descaling operations of a wastepipe started in July. The high radiation levels were found around the pipe. HARTFORD Conn. Sept 16 1997 (Reuter) - In Dec. 1996 the 30-year old Connecticut Yankee plant was permanently closed after the owner Northeast Utilities (NU) considered it no longer economically viable to keep it running. The plant is being dismantled now. Connecticut Attorney General Blumenthal said in a release that the extend of radiological contamination at the plant was still unknown and the need for testing was immediate. In a testimony to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) which was part of a case to stop NU using taxpayers money for decommissioning he accused NU of "gross mismanagement" and creating an "unanalyzed undocumented nuclear waste dump site in the state". He also said that the cleanup costs is the responsibility of the creator of the contaminations. Northeast Utilities denies every allegation and says there is no reason to be alarmed over contamination. The company already recovered about half of the $427million decommissioning costs from the ratepayers. They hope to finish dismantling in 2004. The FERC is expected to make a decision in 1998. WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 16 1997-- Negotiations have been completed between the Department of Energy and the University of California for the management and operation of three Department of Energy laboratories: Los Alamos National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. The contracts include a.o. key reforms for financial accountability and the improvement of environment health and safetystandards.