rgy (WISE) and the Nuclear Information
& Resource Service (NIRS), incorporating the former WISE News Communique
IN THIS ISSUE:
European Union offers help to build another Chernobyl
1
LES delays license application
2
Serious incident vindicates Belgian nuclear phaseout
4
Mexican nuclear nightmare
5
Update on TEPCO scandal
6
South Africa PBMR recommendation imminent
8
International consortium to build Chernobyl shield
9
Book review
10
In Brief
10
World Information Service on Energy
founded in 1978
EUROPEAN UNION OFFERS HELP
TO BUILD ANOTHER CHERNOBYL
The European Commission is in discussions with Russia to provide financial help for the completion
of a nuclear reactor of the same type that caused the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
(582.5483) Friends of the Earth
Europe This was revealed in a
document obtained by Friends of the
Earth Europe (1). The unfinished
Kursk-5 reactor, situated 300km
south of Moscow, has been listed for
possible funding under the Euratom
Loans scheme, which the European
Commission is proposing to
significantly expand (2).
Kursk-5 is a 1000-megawatt RMBK
type reactor, one of the first
generation of Soviet-designed
stations. Construction began in
December 1985 - just five months
before the worlds worst nuclear
accident at Chernobyl in neighboring
Ukraine but work was later
suspended due to a lack of funds.
Kursk-5 is the only RMBK plant
anywhere in the world still to be
completed.
The Euratom Loans scheme,
introduced in 1977 to further
promote nuclear power in line with
the Euratom Treaty, allows the
European Commission to facilitate
loans for the development of nuclear
projects, subject to Member States
agreeing an overall limit. In
November last year, the Commission
proposed increasing this ceiling for
Euratom loans from 4000 to 6000
million Euros (US$4.3 to 6.4 billion),
although they did not specify
publicly what projects the additional
funds would be spent on.
FOE Europes Nuclear Campaigner,
Mark Johnston said: EU support for
building dangerous reactors is wrong
and should stop. It is crazy to
increase the risk of another disaster
by aiding a new power plant that is
the same type as Chernobyl.
This scandal casts grave doubt over
the credibility of the Commissions
claim to be acting in the interests of
atomic safety. It is becoming clear
that the real motive is more sinister,
to save a dying nuclear industry at
any cost. The Commission cannot be
trusted with nuclear safety when it
also retains a duty to promote
nuclear.
Euratom loans and the Euratom
Treaty itself are out of date, biased
and undemocratic. They should both
be scrapped. Friends of the Earth is
calling the European Convention to
support abolition of Euratom under
the new EU constitution.
Vladimir Slivyak from WISE Russia
commented: The EC plan to fund
Kursk-5 is very dangerous. Since the
RBMK explosion in Chernobyl in
1986, no such reactors were funded
anywhere in the world. Its just
totally unacceptable that another
Chernobyl will be built in Russia.
Its one of two: idiotism or
environmental genocide (3).
Notes:
1. Friends of the Earth Europe press
release, 23 January 2003. The document
is a so-called Non-paper that was
distributed by the Commission to
Member States following questioning at
a meeting on the 10 December 2002
regarding the proposal to increase the
Euratom ceiling from 4000 to 6000
million Euros. The document is available
at www.eu-energy.com/pdfs/
euratomloanscomm-nonpaper.doc. The
decision on increasing the loans ceiling WISE/NIRS Nuclear Monitor 582, 31 January 2003
2
is due to be considered by the Council of
Ministers (ECOFIN) in the near future.
2. As well as Kursk-5, the document
mentions five other reactors, all VVER
(Russian equivalent of the PWR): Kalinin-
3 and -4, Balokovo-5 and -6 and Rostov-2.
In the World Nuclear Industry
Handboook 2000, only two of these
reactors (Kalinin-3 and Balokovo-5) are
listed, together with Kursk-5, as under
construction. Kalinin-4 is listed as
suspended or indefinitely deferred,
Balokovo-6 as proposed and Rostov-2 as
reasonably firmly planned.
3. Email from Vladimir Slivyak, 24
January 2003
Contact: Mark Johnston, FOE Europe
Nuclear Campaigner, London
Tel: +4479 7331 9249
Web www.foeeurope.org
WISE Amsterdam/NIRS
ISSN: 0889-3411
Reproduction of this material is
encouraged. Please give credit when
reprinting.
Editorial team: Stuart Field, Robert
Jan van den Berg (WISE Amsterdam),
Michael Mariotte (NIRS). With
contributions from Citizens Nuclear
Information Center (Japan), Friends of
the Earth Europe, Watercourse cc
(South Africa) and WISE Ukraine.
The next issue (583) will be mailed
out on 21 February 2003.
LES DELAYS LICENSE APPLICATION
Louisiana Energy Services (LES) announced on 29 January that it will delay submission of a license
application for its proposed uranium enrichment plant for six to eight weeks. The LES
annoouncement comes amid new controversies over waste and proliferation.
(582.5484) NIRS - The move follows
the tabling by the Trousdale County
Commissioners on 27 January of a
critical vote on rezoning land that
would allow LES to build its plant in
central Tennessee. The LES
announcement brought immediate
suspicion that the company is trying
to avoid providing details about the
project until after it has obtained
local approval for the plant. Said Will
Calloway of the Tennessee
Environmental Council, It appears
LES does not want all the
information in the application made
available to the public.
The Trousdale County Commis-
sioners first voted to create a new
zoning category that would
accommodate such a facility, but
decided not to take a vote on the
actual zoning. The vote now is
expected to take place on 25 March;
under county law, two votes must be
taken at two different meetings, so it
appears it would be at least April
before a final vote could take place.
While LES spokeswoman Nan
Kilkeary tried to put a positive spin
on the countys action, describing it
as a real step forward, it appeared
to indicate a broadening of the
opposition to the plant. Several
months ago, many observers believed
Trousdale Countys approval of the
project was basically a done deal.
The plant would be located primarily
in Trousdale County, on land
formerly owned by the Tennessee
Valley Authority, which it had used
for its abandoned Hartsville nuclear
power complex.
But the land itself is owned by the
Four Lake Regional Industrial
Development Authority, which is
made up of five different counties:
Trousdale, Smith, Sumner, Wilson
and Macon. While Trousdale has the
biggest influence, it is not clear that
the county could accept the plant
over the opposition of its neighbors.
Already Smith County has voted 22-0
against the plant, and 24-0 in favor of
a public referendum on the issue. A
straw vote (unofficial poll) of county
commissioners in Macon County was
11-0 against the project. Three towns
in the area, Cookeville, Lebanon, and
Wilson have taken votes against the
plant, and a public meeting is
scheduled for Sumner County
February 24. A meeting in Lebanon
brought more than 250 people
together in mid-January, most against
the plant.
LES is a consortium dominated by
the European firm Urenco. Other
members include Westinghouse (now
owned by Urenco partner British
Nuclear Fuels Ltd.), the Canadian
uranium mining company Cameco,
and U.S. nuclear utilities Exelon,
Duke Power and Entergy Nuclear.
Urenco and nuclear proliferation
Although considerable concern
already had been raised about
Urencos record on nuclear
proliferation, including in the
recently-released documentary movie
Stealing the Fire, an article in the 21
January issue of Time Magazine
shook many Tennessee politicians.
Titled Nukes: To Pyongyang from
Nashville? the article quoted senior
Bush appointees as having
misgivings about allowing Urenco to
operate in the U.S.
The article noted that Urenco has
been linked to leaks of enrichment
technology to, yes, Iran, Iraq, and
North Koreaas well as to Pakistan.
Some of these links have been well
known and arose when LES first
tried, unsuccessfully, to obtain a
license to build a uranium
enrichment plant in the U.S., in the
early 1990s in Homer, Louisiana.
Pakistans nuclear programwhich
has resulted in testing of atomic
weaponsblossomed when a Urenco
employee stole blueprints for the
companys centrifuge design and
brought them home to Pakistan. It is
believed that the technology then
migrated to Iran, and more recently
to North Korea.
The episode is very well documented
and even has had a book (in Dutch) 31 January 2003, WISE/NIRS Nuclear Monitor 582 3
25 YEARS AGO
NIRS and WISE both celebrate their 25th anniversaries this year. This is the second article in a series, 25 Years Ago,
comparing anti-nuclear news then and now, to mark our first quarter-century of anti-nuclear campaigning.
Then
In issue 1 of WISE Bulletin we wrote about one of the biggest anti-nuclear demonstrations in The Netherlands, against the
Urenco uranium enrichment plant at Almelo. The demonstration was against the enlargement of the facility and planned
export of uranium to Brazil: Nation-wide mobilisation in the Netherlands, in cooperation with several groups in Federal
Germany, lead up to a demonstration of 50,000 people, on March 4, at Almelo. The aim was to express popular resistance
to the proposed