(June 25, 1992) On 6-8 July the G-7 summit - the self-declared "World Economic Summit" of the seven richest industrial nations - will be held in Munich, Germany. [G-7, or the "Group of Seven" nations, include the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.]
(374/5.3667) WISE Amsterdam - At that meeting, G-7 leaders are expected to endorse a multibillion-dollar plan for improving the safety of nuclear reactors in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe. According to one source (Nucleonics Week), they will be asked for a minimum of 4 billion DM (US$2.5 billion) and possibly as much as 15 to 20 billion DM (US $9.4-12.5 billion) for the financing of upgrades and completion of nuclear plants in Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS. According to another source (Paul Lewis of the New York Times Service), the US has informed the IAEA that the cost of such a program will be even higher, from between US$11 billion to $20 billion.
The 4 billion DM figure was proposed by the German firm Siemens as the minimum necessary for a crash upgrade program for the first and second generation VVER 440's as well as the VVER 1000 PWR units operating or under construction. The Siemens memorandum on this also says that the RBMK reactors "should be shut on a successive basis" and did not include any funding for their upgrade because they are considered more dangerous than the VVERs.
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G-7 COUNTER SUMMITS AND PROTESTS PLANNED German organizations are planning two counter summits in Munich, both of which will cover a wide range of issues including nuclear 'aid'. BUND (the German chapter of Friend's of the Earth) is organizing the "EnviroSummit and The Other Economic Summit (TOES)" for 5-8 July. This event will begin with a press conference in which Central and East European energy experts will explain why 'nuclear aid' from the west is neither desired nor helpful. One of the speakers, Jakub Patocka from Czechoslovakia, said recently that "This 'aid' is simply an excuse for the western governments to give money to their own multinational corporations who have been stopped by public protest from building more nuclear plants in their own countries. There are cheaper, safer, faster and cleaner solutions to the region's energy problems, using both conventional and renewable technologies. If the West really wishes to help us solve these problems, further investment in nuclear power would not even be considered." The other summit will be held from 3-5 July and is being organized by more radical groups. Their problem at the moment is that they have lost the location which was promised to them (the Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität in MUnchen), most likely due to political pressure on the president of the university. They have begun a court process against him to get the hail back. The summit will be followed by action days from 6-8 July. A public demonstration against the G-7 meeting will take place on Saturday, 4 July, in Munich. Fifteen thousand police have been mobilized to greet an unknown number of demonstrators (10,000 are expected). Bavarian law permits the police to detain individuals suspected of having 'criminal intentions' (we have heard that they can hold people for up to two weeks with no charge), so arrests are expected. Nevertheless, activists in the area have pledged that these police tactics will not deter them from expressing their sentiments. Contacts: For TOES, contact ESG München, TOES, Brienner Str. Ma, 8000 München, Germany; tel: + 49-89-52 4444; fax: + 49-89-52 9047. TOES will take place in the "City Kino", Sonnenstr. 12, 8000 MUnchen 2 (near Stachus subway station). It is not yet clear whether the press conference will be held at that location or at the LOwenwirtshaus, Am Platzl 8, MUnchen. For more on this call the WISE office in Amsterdam (+ 31-20-6126368) and we'll have latest information. Information on the more radical counter summit can be obtained from either Dirk Joussen or Michael Köhler, tel: +49-89-2180-2171, fax: + 49-89-3819-6133. The 4 July demonstration will start at 1:00 pm at Marienplatz. For information on this or the action days, contact Anti-WWG-Koordination, Holzstr. 2, 8000 MUnchen 5, tel + 49-89-260 8550, fax +49-89-260 3513. Transportation to the 4 July demonstration from the Netherlands is being coordinated by EYFA (European Youth Forest Action) and they can be contacted at + 3146-513045 or by e-mail gn:eyfa. |
Both Siemens and the Bundes-ministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit (the German Ministry for Environment, Nature Protection and Reactor Safety) would prefer to complete the 17 VVER 1000 under construction and use the power to close the RBMK units as quickly as possible. It should be noted that the minimal plan proposed by Siemens still requires an additional investment by eastern Europe which would cost up to 8.6 billion DM (US$5.2 billion), beyond the western 4 billion DM.
The plan proposes to find funding over several years from a number of sources, including direct government grants, guaranteed government loans and loans from institutions such as the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Community's European Investment Bank (EIB). According to Morris Rosen, assistant deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it looks "90 percent certain the Munich summit will back the program." The IAEA has been acting in an advisory capacity in developing the plan.
To date, the World Bank has maintained a policy of avoiding nuclear investment in developing countries, but now is being pressured by western governments to change this policy in Central and Eastern Europe. In a recent letter to EcoGlasnost in Bulgaria, a World Bank official said that they were not considering any investment in repairs of the Kozluduy nuclear plant (which is a VVER 440 design). EIB said the same thing.
Siemens estimates between one half and two thirds of the money for these upgrades could go to Central and Eastern European or CIS nuclear firms. A G-7 diplomatic source was quoted as saying that the proposals designed by the working group "will make sure the money spent by G-7 governments will flow back to their vendors who are doing work on the reactors."
According to Lewis, IAEA officials admit that a program such as that which will be presented in Munich would also be attractive for US and European nuclear companies "which are starved for new orders because of environmental opposition to nuclear power and the fact that the low price of oil and gas makes nuclear-generated electricity relatively expensive." France, which he points out has invested more heavily in nuclear power than other industrialized countries, is especially eager for contracts to upgrade the reactors.
France and Germany are leading the drive for such a campaign, warning that another nuclear disaster such as the one at Chernobyl would deal a devastating blow to public confidence in nuclear power and further cripple the West's nuclear industry. Germany's Environmental Minister Töpfer said (when addressing Japan's Atomic Industrial Forum in April), "We must protect Western nuclear investment by making sure there is no catastrophic accident in the East."
Sources:
- Nucleonics Week (US), 14 May 1992, p.3
- New York Times Service (US), June 1991
Contacts: See box above.