Nexus - 0109 - New Times Magazine-pages

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Unclear Age In neither scenario could developing countries meet capital or running costs. UNDERWATER CHAO Ss U.S e NOTES Keepin and Kats consider the best alter- native to be energy efficiency, made partly possible by technological advances; for in- FREEDOM OF INFORMATION HAS | THE UNITED STATES HAS CON- stance, today a compact 18 watt fluorescent LED TO EXTRAORDINARY REVELA- TAMINATED STRUCTURE ranging from light produces higher quality light and lasts TIONS concerning nuclear accidents on the smal] waste dumps to huge buildings at about 10 times longer than a standard 75 watt world’s oceans. 80 places in 27 states. All of these need vast incandescent bulb; new building techniques According to a report compiled by amounts of money spent on their safe dis- have reduced energy demands by up to 75% Greenpeace in the US calledNavalAccidents posal, an example being a single story-build- (Japan has also announced it will derive 20% 1945-88, more than 50 nuclear weapons ing in Ohio that cost $US] million and 5 of its energy from solar power by 2001). and nine reactors lie on the bottom of the months to build in 1960 that the Department They argue that there has been a 12% seas as a result of shipping accidents. ofEnergy will finish pulling down in 1997 at decline in energy consumption since the The report, written by US academics a cost of $US57 million. 1973 OPEC oil embargo, and this “has been Joshua Handler and William Arkin of the Because of the secrecy that surrounded established in the absence of vigorous efforts Institute of Policy Smdies in Washington, nuclear weapons plants in the decades after to promote increased efficiency in most na- also reveals that more than 1,000 major and 1945 no independent review of these plants tions, and only gives a hint of what could be minor accidents have occurred since nuclear was done until after the Chemoby] accident possible in the event of a concerted effort weapons and reactors were placed on the in 1986. The legacy of these decades of world-wide.” superpowers’ ships and submarines. About secrecy, that protected weapons facilities One more fact can be considered here. 300 have occurred in the Pacific and have from the standards imposed on civilian The US has not opened one new nuclear possibly polluted Australian waters with plants, is now being revealed. It includes: plant in the more than ten years since the plutonium; around 200 of these incidents are nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. denied by the superpowers. * Hanford, Washington, where 8 reactors Some data also obtained from The ECONOMIST and the country's largest nuclear power y station are deactivated for safety reasons. This is the plant that produced the B RISBANE RapD = plutonium for the Nagasaki bomb and there is evidence that it has seriously W A S TE contaminated the local population. A RADIOACTIVE WASTE DUMP IN * At Savannah River, South Carolina, 3 THE BRISBANE SUBURB OF RED- tritium reactors are closed and cracks have BANK has been the site of ongoing protests been found in the cooling system. An and dozens of arrests for trespassing, includ- investigation into the 8 month delay in ing five NSW aldermen. reporting the cracks is underway. These “There has been no environmental im- reactors are needed for the maintenance of “LIFE AFTER pact study - this has all been hushed up,” US nuclear stockpiles; without tritium all shouted Mr Nick Origlass, 81-year-old for- the warheads will decay in a few years. C H E RN O B Y L mer Mayor of Leichardt in Sydney, as police , escorted him away. Aldermen from Canter- * The Fernald, Ohio, uranium reprocessing bury, Kiama and Blue Mountains councils centre closed for safety and environmental IN THE SOVIET REPUBLIC OF BELO- were also charged with trespass after they reasons. RUSSIA, TO THE NORTH OF THE climbed onto the site over a locked gate while CLOSED CHERNOBYL REACTOR in Brisbane for an annual meeting of the Aus- * At Rocky Flats, Colorado, a plutonium SITE, more than 300,000 people need con- tralian Nuclear Free Zone Secretariat. plant was closed following toxic waste and stant health checks because of their exposure radioactive leaks. The Department of to radioactivity released when the nuclear Energy lists this as the worst of its power plant exploded, spreading radioactive PRO LIFERATIO N environmental messes, with the public casium and other elements around the Earth.” water supply for the city of Denver A map published in the Soviet press contaminated (1 million people 25km showed two zones near the reactor from A West GERMAN FRONT COM- | away). which all inhabitants have been evacuated, PANY has supplied components for a plant and which have been termed ‘scientific ob- to purify tritium to Pakistan. Tritium is a gas * At Carlsbad, New Mexico, a pilot waste servation zones’. The 300,000 people from used in nuclear bombs, although it also has disposal plant was put on hold. 120,000 the 1,000 towns and villages in these areas industrial uses. Because of its military appli- drums of radioactive waste stored in Idaho require permanent and regular health checks, cations exports of tritium and the equipment were meant to be disposed of there, but particularly children because of fears about to produce it are tightly controlled. A parlia- fears of contamination of underground the effects of doses of radioactivity. The mentary committee investigating the Paki- water arose, halting the project. Soviets have admitted that plants of the same stani-deal was told that civilian use of the AFR & NY Times design as Chernobyl would not pass Western plant, which was shipped and assembled safety standards. between 1985 and 1987, was not plausible. | Gerard & R.A. BRISBANE RAD- WASTE CHERNOBYL ’ 3 E NEXUS New Times Nine - 1989 35 UNDERWATER CHAOS U.S. NOTES PROLIFERATION Gerard & R.A.