(December 4, 1994) Russian archives seized by the Estonian government show that over a two-year period, 1.700 kilograms of uranium, enriched on average to 2%, from the Sillamae metal and chemical production plant are unaccounted for.

(423.4194) WISE Amsterdam - According to a senior counselor in the ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mark Sinisoo: "We're hunting for it. There's a big question about what happened to it". He says that everything from weapons-grade uranium to very-low enriched uranium was handled at the plant. According to the archives, analysis showed actual loss to be well below acceptable levels, but in the book-keeping records, the maximum acceptable losses were recorded. The discrepancy amounts to 1.700 kilos of average 2% enriched uranium over two years. Material that might have been lost in electrostatic filters during processing should have been recovered, so that would not account for any of the missing uranium.

Archives show that fuel processing was done at Sillamae for about five years. Because it was one of the smallest of 16 fuel processing plants in the former Soviet Union, it was used as a testing ground for new technology since it was easier to retool than a larger plant.

Radioactive waste from the plant is stored in a lake; with consequences for the Baltic Sea (see WISE-NC 391.3812).

Source: Nucleonics Week, 3 November 1994 (page 17)
Contact: Estonian Green Movement, Box 3207, 2000090 Talinn Estonia.

(December 4, 1994) On Friday 11 November, 35-40 Greenpeace protesters and Turkish activists were arrested in the capital of Turkey Ankara, when they attempted to block the entrance of the state-owned Turkish electricity authority (TEK) head-quarters in Ankara.

(423.4190) WISE Amsterdam - The protesters, dressed in black radiation suits and wearing skeleton masks attempted to staged a mass die-off in front of the building. The reaction from the Turkish Security Police was swift and violent. As 6 activists chained themselves across the entrance, the police broke down the glass doors and forcibly arrested all present.

The action was in protest at government plans to construct the first nuclear power station in Akkuyu, southern Turkey. The Sixth Turkish National Energy Congress, held in Izmir in October, confirmed government plans to proceed along the nuclear path. The meeting, ostensibly designed as a platform for politicians, experts and decision makers to debate the future of energy policy in Turkey, turned out to be little more than a marketing exercise for nuclear power.

"Greenpeace is asking the Turkish government to make a real assessment of their energy needs and invest in a sustainable future for Turkey, instead of being hoodwinked into investing in an economically disastrous, outdated and dangerous technology". Instead of looking for sustainable and clean energy alternatives, the government is pursuing a dangerous energy path. As is apparent from their actions against the protest, opposition and concern is being met with aggression and blindness.

Greenpeace is calling for investment in clean renewable sources of energy. The wind power station at Tarila (Spain) is the largest in the Mediterranean. It provides energy for 25,000 homes. In Israel, two out of three homes are equipped with solar water heaters. Solar energy provides about three per cent of Israel's primary energy, replacing around 300,000 tonnes of oil every year and avoiding the release of a million tonnes of C02. "Alternatives do exist," said Greenpeace campaigner Anne Dingwall. "The Mediterranean could become the world's leading region in renewable energy use -- benefiting the environment, energy security and the creation of new industries, all with great long-term cost efficiency". "How much more proof does the Turkish government need before it comes to its senses?"

Source: Environet (Greenpeace BBS), 14 November 1994
Contact: Anti Nuclear Platform of Turkey, Melda Keskin. Hüsren Gerede Cad. 77/7 80200, Tesvikiye-Istanbul, Turkey

(December 4, 1994) Handling radioactive waste requires normally carefulness and responsibility but obviously not everybody thinks so. Recently radioactive waste was found in a well in the city of Harbin in Northern China.

(423.4193) WISE Amsterdam - The authorities who are responsible for the environment removed 240 MetricTonnes of waste. It is very likely that there was danger for the population of the city, but no further information was published.

Careless handling of radioactive waste is a serious problem in China, although there is a law which regulates the waste disposal. But the authorities do not control this, the factories assure that they have no money to build special storage sites and the ecology movement is very weak and powerless in China.

A gold mine, for example, dumps for years radioactive Thorium, which is also found in the mine, outdoor on a large heap -- they refuse even to build up a wall round the dump site. The authorities intervene not very often; and if they intervene, the culprits have to pay only small fines, or they can rely on the protection of political or economical powerful people. In the face of this the environmental authorities are not able to enforce the law.

Above all a lot of radioactive waste from the (armaments) industry is 'stored' in Tibet and in the north-west of China. An international safeguarding of this is not allowed by China. So the chinese people will go on suffering from the radiation: In February 1993 farmers found often waste in a small village-well. It was radioactive Cobalt which was 'stored' there. When authorities removed the radioactive waste, 3 people already died and more than 90 got seriously ill due to the radiation.

Source: Die Tageszeitung (FRG), 18 November 1994
Contact: No Nukes Asia Forum, Anti Nuclear Information Service: Hi Taek B/D 501, 178 Pyung-Dong, Chongro-ku, Seoul Korea.
Tel: + 82-2- 732-6801; Fax: +82-2-732-6802

(December 4, 1994) As more Finnish spent nuclear fuel is prepared for shipment to Russia during November, a petition signed by 3,370 inhabitants of the south Ural Chelyabinsk region against the waste was presented to the Finnish government on October 26, by a local activist.

(423.4186) WISE Amsterdam - Natalya Mironova of the Russian anti-nuclear group Movement for Nuclear Safety presented the Finnish minister for the environment with the petition and held a press conference at the Finnish Parliament the Green League of Finland, and Greenpeace.

More than 12 000 signatures have been gathered in the Chelyabinsk region this year in protest against the waste shipments. Some 4300 signatures have already been submitted to the State Duma of Russia and 920 signatures to the Chelyabinsk regional Duma. The Movement continues to gather signatures.

The Chelyabinsk group and Greenpeace have demanded that the Finnish government stop supporting the secret and closed military reprocessing facility Mayak.

"Finland is helping to turn Russia into an international radioactive waste dump", said Mrs Mironova. "There is no reason why we in Chelyabinsk have to pay with the lives of our children for light and heat in Finland."

Mrs. Mironova's visit comes on the eve of yet another shipment of spent nuclear fuel from the nuclear power plant in Loviisa to the Mayak reprocessing plant in Chelyabinsk. The train from Mayak arrived in Loviisa on Tuesday morning, and will be loaded in the next two weeks. This time the Finnish IVO company will be transporting 26 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel.

The Finnish government stated last December that Finland should take responsibility for its own nuclear waste in future. "The fact that Finland is still sending spent fuel to Russia proves that the nuclear industry is in trouble with their deadly wastes," says Iida Simes from Greenpeace Finland. "II waste management was as easy as the industry is trying to convince us, the spent fuel from the Loviisa reactors would not be going to Russia now." The Mayak facility is still a threat to the environment and causes on-going contamination.

Source: Environet (Greenpeace BBS), 31 October 1994
Contact: Nuclear Safety Movement Chelyabinsk,
E-Mail: chel@glas.apc.org
or contact WISE Helsinki, c/o EVY, Mecbelinikatu 36, 00260 Helsinki, Finland, Tel + 358 0 406 889, Fax +358 0 446 668

(December 4, 1994) On Monday, 21 November a court in Lüneburg stopped the planned transport of radioactive waste in a castor container to the interim storage site in Gorleben (see WISE-NC 422.4181). They forbid the transport to and the storage in the interim storage facility.

(423.4187) WISE Amsterdam - The judges say there were too many faults and improvisations during pack-ing spent fuel rods into the castor in the NPP Phillipsburg in July. Due to the judges it is not clear who would be responsible to approve the deviation from the regulations of the loading process. In the courts opinion the authorities should have refused the approval when there are so many safety faults. The Lower Saxony environmental Minister Monika Griefahn only agreed to the transport because the former Federal environmental Minister Töpfer instructed her to agree. Griefahn would not agree by herself. Therefore the court doubts if it is correct that the Federal environmental Minister can instruct a lower environmental ministry to approve something against their own conviction, which is based on those safety problems.

The court stopped the transport because there is a legal action from the year 1983 against the license of the interim storage site. This case is still not decided on and the judges claim that it is not allowed to store waste in the interim storage site before there is a decision on the legal case. The new Federal environmental Minister Angela Merkel (successor after the Federal elections of Klaus Töpfer) already submitted contradiction to the court, but nobody knows when the court will decide about it. And it is questionable if the court will decide on it at all, because the Federal environmental ministry will put in front a new, extended license for the interim storage site in the first quarter of 1995. In this case there is no need any more to decide about the old approval. The packed castor in Phillipsburg will be unpacked again or it will be send perhaps to a reprocessing unit in France or England.

In any case the local anti nuclear movement, the Bürgerinitiative Lüchow-Dannenberg and all the anti-nuclear activists can be satisfied at the moment. It is also their merit that the castor transport again did not come. In the area around the storage site the right to demonstrate was abolished on 18 November. All actions were for-bidden until the transport should has reached the storage site. It was not allowed to assemble in the public with more than two people (this would be a demonstration). Nevertheless, on Saturday, 19 November, there was a huge demonstration. Over 2.000 people went for a walk on the railroad where (perhaps) the castor will come one day to Gorleben. They build blockades on the rails and on streets nearby, where over 60 tractors with trailers accompanied the demonstrators.

The demonstrators were present the whole weekend up to Monday, when the judgement was pronounced. Afterwards that decision there were a lot of happy people in Gorleben. The strategy of pushing up the political and financial price of the transport has so far paid off.

Meanwhile the Lower Saxony prime Minister Gerhard Schröder announced that he will continue the energy consensus discussions which he started last autumn. But this time he will discuss the future energy topics only with energy production companies and environmentalists and not with the Federal government after they tried to force the castor-transport. In Schröders opinion there first must be a consensus about future use of nuclear energy and about the handling of radioactive waste before a interim storage site can be put in operation. Within the consensus discussion there will be also negotiations about the closure of all nuclear facilities.

Source: Die Tageszeitung (FRG), 21 and 23 November 1994
Contact: Bürgerinitiative Lüchow-Dannenberg, Drawehner Str. 3, 29439 Lüchow, Germany,
Tel + 49-5841-4684, Fax +49-5841-3197 (Mon, Wed, Fri 9.00 - 12.00, Tue, Thu 15.00-18.30)

The Finnish state-utility IVO has acquired a reactor pressure vessel and steam generator from the now-defunct Polish Zarnowiec nuclear plant. (December 4, 1994) These components will be used by the Loviisa N-plant for spare parts and for research purposes. The pressure vessel purchased by IVO is of the VVER-440 type, similar to the one used at the Loviisa reactor.
The Zarnowiec nuclear plant was terminated a few years ago when geological studies proved the site unsafe. After the demise of the Soviet Union and due to lengthly delays in the project schedule made it impossible to find financing. Power In Europe, 21 October 1994 (page 13)

Nuclear Electric (UK) recently signed major new contracts with Russia for uranium and enrichment services worth about 80 million pounds (US$130 million). John Rowland, NE's uranium and enrichment services manager, said: "They (the Russians) give us greatly increased flexibility, and the prices we can buy the material for are very favorable" NE would like to buy more from uranium from Russia but was prevented from doing so by the Euratom Supply Agency, which set a limit of 15% - 20% on its purchases in a bid to protect European producers. "Their policy could cost NE 10-million pounds a year", according to Rowland. Nuclear Fuel, 24 October 1994 (page 15)

Ukraine asked Germany to supply nuclear fuel production and processing technology in an effort to emancipate its nuclear fuel cycle from Russia. Minister of Environment Yuri Kostenko said that, because Ukraine has virtually no advanced capabilities for producing and enriching fuel, it is at the mercy of Russian industry. 'This situation is extremely disadvantageous for Ukraine", according to Kostenko, "Uranium and Zirconium processing in Ukraine have been extremely energy intensive and environmentally destructive".
On Ukraine territory there is mainly the raw material processing component of the nuclear fuel cycle and also auxiliary capabilities in heavy water, neutron absorber materials, and zirconium concentrate production.
A project to construct a nuclear fuel assembly plant in Ukraine is "urgent" and would be justified by "allowing us to substiantially increase the economic performance of Ukraine's nuclear power industry and ensure diversity of fresh fuel supply", according to Kostenko. Nuclear Fuel, 7 November 1994 (page 12)

(December 4, 1994) The Japanese government invited the member countries of the South Pacific Forum (SPF) to a 'study tour' early October 1994. This tour included visits to nuclear power facilities, lectures on Japan's nuclear policy and its safety, etc.

(423.4185) WISE Amsterdam - In fact, it was a repetition of the strategy of persuasion used when Japan was planning to dump nuclear waste in the Pacific, and invited Pacific heads of states to visit Japan and tour nuclear power plants. The total number of participants was 20; those who are in charge of Energy, environment or Foreign Affairs. All expenses (US$400,000) were covered by the Japanese government and the Japanese Atomic Energy Promotion Foundation.

It was explained that this tour reflected the promise made by Japan, when it attended the SPF meeting in 1992 as an observer where it faced opposition to its plutonium shipment, that it would keep in-forming the SPF members of the situation/progress with regards to the plutonium policy. However, the method Japan has taken seems to be far from fair or neutral; it is merely an attempt to force Pacific nations to believe that "Japanese technology is supreme", "safety systems in Japan's nuclear policy is perfect and absolute", which many Japanese citizens, including specialized scientists, do not believe. An official of the Japanese Science and Technology Agency was quoting in a newspaper article as saying "the lack of understanding of atomic energy has led to hostile campaigns"; "since no nuclear-related facility exists in the South Pacific, the basic knowledge of nuclear power is insufficient": "we organized this tour from a neutral stance to help them deepen their understanding of nuclear power". Several Japanese citizen groups and individuals reacted to this report and made an urgent statement to the government blaming its clear intention to silence opposition to the planned ocean transport of high level nuclear waste as Well as plutonium. They claimed "it is clear that the real motivation behind this extremely warm welcome is an attempt to crush and silence opposition; it is literally a case of letting money speak". The statement also asked for a wider forum so that the SPF delegates could get balanced information, including the dangers of nuclear energy. This statement was neglected and delegates were given only the government side of the story.

However, several participants including cabinet-level high officials responded, under the condition of anonymity, and said "the lectures did not give us enough time for questions and our anxiety about nuclear transports was not solved at all"; "when I tried to raise a question it was dodged as 'no specialist to answer is available' or 'let us move to the next section'"; "what Tokyo called edification on Japan's nuclear power program was actually little more than self-justification.

It the will of the Pacific People is 'No Nuke', the Japanese government should understand that 'No Means No'. Instead, Japan seems to be trying to have the voice of the Pacific shut up by exercising its money power.

Source: Pacific News Bulletin, November 1994
Contact: Citizens' Nuclear Information Center. 302 Daini Take Bldg., 1- 59-14 Higashi-nakano, Nakano-Ku, Tokyo 164.
Tel: + 8 1-3-5330.9520; Fax: + 81-3-5330.9530
Pacific Concerns Resource Centre. 83 Amy Street, Toorak, Private Mail Bag, Suva, Fiji. Tel: + 679-304-649; Fax: + 679-304-755

(December 4, 1994) Several environmental organizations in Britain started a new campaign against the proposed nuclear radioactive waste dump at Sellafield. Giant posters have gone up on prime bill. board sites in four Cumbrian towns warning that Nirex's dump won't be safe and that dumped radioactive waste could come back to haunt future generations.

(423.4191) WISE Amsterdam - The poster campaign was launched on 23 November, one week after the Royal Society Study Group recommended that high-level waste (HLW) should be disposed of at Sellafield. The Study Group also recommended that Nirex's proposed underground rock laboratory (known as the RCF) should now be built. This recommendation contradicts advice to Government from its Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Group (RWMAC) that the RCF should not be built until groundwater movements in rock underneath Sellafield are understood.

The posters show a gothic graveyard scene with the headline: "BURY RADIOACTIVE WASTE AND IT WILL COME BACK TO HAUNT US ALL" and demands that a wide-ranging Public Inquiry is held into Nirex's RCF.

The poster is signed by a network of Cumbrian environmental groups including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, CORE (Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment) and Gosforth and District Action Group. The network urges Cumbrians to speak out against using Cumbria as a dumping ground for nuclear waste and to write to the Secretary of State for the Environment, the Rt Hon John Gunner MP, and Cumbria County Council to demand a Public Inquiry into Nirex's RCF.

Source: Pressrelease, Friends Of The Earth, 23 November 1994
Contact: Jill Perry, Friends Of The Earth Cockemmouth. Tel: + 44-900.814391.
Or: CORE, 98 Church Str., Barrow-in-Fumes, Cumbria, LA14 2HT, UK. Tel: + 44-229- 833.851; Fax: +44-229-812239

(December 4, 1994) While many anti-nuclear groups around the world are trying to get a handle on what to do with high-level nuclear waste, the anti-nuclear movement in Saskatchewan is trying to do its part by working against the source of that waste, namely, uranium mining.

(423.4188) Phillip Penna - This has been proven to be no easy task. But things have begun to change. These changes are small, but as we all know, the problems are long-term and require long-term resistance. The following is a brief history and update of the uranium mining situation in Saskatchewan.

Since the early 1950s, Saskatchewan has been a major supplier of uranium. The U.S. Department of Defense helped finance the opening of a number of uranium mines around the far northern town of Uranium City. From 1953-65, 100% of uranium exported from Saskatchewan went to supply the American and British nuclear weapons programs. In the 1970s, Canada be-came the world's greatest producer and exporter of uranium.

In the early 1980s, there was a second wave or uranium mining in the prov-ince. In 1980, the Cluff Lake mine opened in the northwest. This was followed by the Key Lake operation in the north-central region and then the new Rabbit Lake mines in the northeast opened in 1985. The Rabbit Lake mines are connected to Wollaston Lake, the largest waterbody wholly within the province. Thirty km across the lake from the mines is the Dene and Cree community of Wollaston Post.

This expansion made Saskatchewan the largest uranium producer in the western world, and it also set the stage for a massive exploration pro-gram. The beginning of this decade saw the province poised for an even larger expansion of six projects equaling 12 mines in total. Nine of these mines are within a 30 km radius of Wollaston Lake.

In 1991, the federal and provincial governments set up a joint environmental assessment review panel to review five of these projects. The other project, the Rabbit Lake Extension, had already received provincial approval so only the federal government was prepared to sponsor a public review of this project. Thus, another panel was appointed by the federal government to do that review. (To keep things simple the federal/provincial panel is referred to as "Panel A" and the other panel as "Panel B")

The review of three projects by Panel A ended in 1993. These projects were the Dominique-Janine Extension at duff Lake, The McClean Project (a five-mine project), and the Midwest Joint Venture. As well, Panel B com-pleted its review of the Rabbit Lake Extension. The report of Panel A's recommendations were a shock to the public, government and industry. The panel recommended approval of the Dominique-Janine Extension with 16 modifications, a five year delay for the McClean Lake Project again with 16 modifications, and a complete rejection of the Midwest Joint Venture. The day after this report was released, the local paper had a cover story with the title "Report Death Knell for Industry?" If these recommendations had have been implemented, the industry would most certainly have been on its knees. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case.

The Federal and Provincial governments responded to the recommendations of the panel by rejecting the five year delay for the McClean Project approving both it and the Dominique-Janine Extension. To their credit they rejected the Midwest Joint Venture, but the approval of McClean Lake was a serious blow to the anti-nuclear movement and the credibility of the environmental assessment review process.

There was a similar experience with the recommendations of Panel B. The Rabbit Lake Extension includes an underground uranium mine called Eagle Point, and two open pit mines called Collins Bay A and D Zones. Eagle Point is underneath Wollaston Lake and the open pits are actually in the lake itself. The company plans to set up dykes and mine the ore from the lake bed.

To everyone's surprise, Panel B recommended Eagle Point proceed but that Coffins A and D Zones should undergo further study before it be approved. If the government accepted these recommendations, the company would most likely not have proceeded as it would not have been cost effective to only mine the ore at Eagle Point. But once again, the federal government ignored the panel's concerns and gave its approval to mine all three ore bodies.

In summary, despite an exhaustive, intense two year public review concluding that eight of ten mines not be allowed to proceed, the governments have permitted nine mines to proceed. In January 1995, Panel A will begin its review, expected to take about one year, of the proposal to mine uranium at Cigar Lake. After this, Panel A will review the proposed McArthur River uranium mine.

These new mines are the world's uranium motherlode. The main companies involved are Uranerz from Germany, Cogema which is owned by the French government, and Cameco of Canada. The question is "why is there such a massive expansion in a glutted market?" The answer is simple. The mining companies want to control access to this resource. It is nothing less than neo-colonialism rearing its ugly head complete with government officials and community leaders, native and non-native, acting as willingly participants. Community based initiatives are repeatedly rejected, under-funded, and ignored in order to fulfill the international nuclear agenda.
But the struggle continues.

Despite the losses, the anti-nuclear movement has seen an important shift take place. This was articulated very well by Canadian anti-nuclear elder Ed Burt who in 1993 came from Ontario to witness at the public hearings. He said "I am glad I came out here, because I see that it's getting harder for them (the industry) and easier for us, and that feels good!"

So rather than being dismayed, we look forward to the upcoming reviews to continue to build opposition to the death-dealers and KEEP URANIUM IN THE GROUND!

Source and Contact: Inter-Church Uranium Committee, BOX 7724, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Canada S7K 4R4.
Tel: + 1-306-934-3030; Fax: + 1- 306-652-8277

(December 4, 1994) A week after the authorization to increase the capacity of the French plutonium burner (late fast breeder reactor), Superphénix has stopped again due to an incident: steam escaped from one of the four steam generators. The plant has been stopped at 7 % of the capacity just at the moment it started to produce electricity.

(423.4189) WISE Amsterdam - On 21 October, the French minister of environment Mr. M. Barnier submitted in Parliament that it will be very difficult to modify the fast breeder into a "sous-generateur" (a plutonium burner). One of the deputies Madam Ségolène Royale stated in parliament that prime minister M. Balladur refused to set up a parliamentary commission to investigate Superphénix because this would have proved that the Superphénix is not only a threat for the environment (because of the production and the transport of plutonium) but also that it has no industrial future and it is a financial failure.

The restart of the Superphénix costs between a 600 and 700 millions French Francs a year (US$ 112-130 million). Concerning financial aspects there are new problems rising. Foreign investors have serious doubts about continuation of their participation. In Venice (Italy) the European partners of the NERSA, the owner of the Superphénix, had a reunion on October 7. The SBK company, which is a consortium of German, Dutch, Belgian and British electricity utilities, and which has a share of some 16 % of the Superphénix, sent out a statement. Ulrich Mutscher, manager of the SBK envisages to decrease the financial participation, even to retire completely, after having heard the announcement about the transformation of the status of Superphénix.

The Italian company (ENEL: owner of 33 % of the reactor) has got the same problems. Italy stopped its nuclear program after Chernobyl in 1986 and the participation in the French nuclear program is contested a lot. The action group "Europeans against Superphénix" calculates that in case the NERSA dissolves, SBK and ENEL can possibly ask for repayment of some FFr 18 billion (US$ 5.3 billion). After all France decided about the change of status on its own.

In the mean time the actions against the 'laboratory Superphénix' and against the arrests of the spokesman of ContrAtom (and two others) continues. Thousands of charges are laid against the plant (see WISE-NC 421.4175) and this action is not yet ended.

The Swiss television documentary "Superphénix, stupid story of a monster" realized by B.Mermod, has been awarded as the best journalistic contribution of 1994 at the German Environmental film.

Sources:

• Silence (Fr), November 1994
• La Gazette Nucleaire (Fr), November 1994

Contact: Les Européens contre Superphénix, 4 rue Bodin, F-69001 Lyon France.
Tel: + 33-78.282.922; Fax: + 33-72.077.004

(December 4, 1994) On 18 november the United Nations General Assembly challenged the nuclear states' continuing policies of deterrence by adopting a resolution in the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) to request the International Court of Justice to state whether or not the use and threat to use nuclear weapons violates international law.

(423.4195) WISE Amsterdam - This resolution is expected to be confirmed by the General Assembly in early December. Indonesian Ambassador Witjaksana Soegarda, speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement which introduced the resolution, noted that "...mankind throughout history has used every weapon invented including nuclear arsenals," and that "... the safety, security and survivability of nations must be assured by banning the use of nuclear weapons."