IN FOCUS
India continued to play hard to get at the just concluded Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva. Its stance that the comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT) does not impress upon the nuclear powers to work firmly towards nuclear disarmament and at the same time seeks the rest of the world's …
HONG KONG
As if the controversial Daya Bay nuclear plant was not enough, another nuclear power plant is coming up within 60 km of Hong Kong's coast amid concerns over marine contamination. For the construction of the twin reactor nuclear power plant in Lingao
No to nukes
nuclear power in Japan received a crushing blow
ARGENTINA
In a bid to salvage its run-down nuclear industry, the government is planning to put up its nuclear plants for sale. A debate is raging on in the country about a bill which seeks to privatise two working power stations and one unfinished plant
Floating nightmare
the world's first floating nuclear power plant, already under construction in Russia, will start operating by the year 2001. While Russian engineers are eagerly calculating its export potential, the project has sent alarming signals among environmentalists. They argue that the threat of ecological catastrophe from accidents caused by oil tankers …
In Focus
The cat is out of the bag, finally. The suspicions that had lurked all these years about the safety standards of India's nuclear power plants, have been substantiated by the atomic energy regulatory board (AERB). All is not well with our nuclear installations according to A Gopalakrishnan, whose three-year tenure …
Missing the target
exposing the double-talk of the five nuclear states, especially the us, requires little doing; the recently concluded Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (ctbt) in Geneva offered a remarkable instance. The five nuclear powers
Chernobyl impasse solved...
AFTER seven years of protracted negotiations Ukraine has signed an agreement in Ottawa with the G-7 countries (Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and Canada) and the European Commission on the closure of the Chernobyl nuclear power station. The agreement was signed in Ottawa by the Ukrainian economics minister …
Breeding danger
A prototype fast-breeder nuclear reactor in Japan had to be shut down due to sodium leakage last December. This accident has recently raised fundamental questions about Japan's nuclear power policy, as the government-run Atomic Energy Commission has begun reviewing the country's fast-breeder development plan. The fast-breeder reactor 'Monju', named after …
Fading prospects
THE future of nuclear pow~r worldwide appearS to be hanging in balance. Its prospects looked rosy 20 years ago when steep rise in oil prices compelled the Western nations to face the dreadful possibility of a serious and lasting energy shortage. Yet at that time, nuclear energy was not being …
In doldrums
THE country's nuclear ambitions have turned to ashes. Faced with a severe cash crunch, the Nuclear Power Corporation is unable to carry on the construction of new atomic power plants. A parliamentary committee reviewing the country's nuclear energy programme, has pulled up the government for ignoring atomic power. Reportedly, India …
Nuke gets the Red nod
TO MEET the rising demands of electricity, the Chinese government plans to augment its nuclear facilities by constructing 12 more nuclear plants apart from the present two. Nuclear power is projected to rise from the current one per cent usage to six per cent in AD 2020. Being cash-strapped, however, …
Nuclear day dreaming
INDIA's nuclear power dream on the proposed Kudangularn project is floating again in the corridors of the Nuclear Power Corporation, as was recently disclosed by R Chidambaram, chairperson, Atomic Energy Commission, in the founder's day address at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay, that negotiations with the Russian government to …
`Dome`d to death
A NUCLEAR reactor in your vicinity could be the best way to contract breast cancer, as the latest Greenpeace report reveals. The report titled, "Nuclear Power, Human Health and the Environment: The Breast Cancer Warning in the Great Lakes Basin", endorsed by 13 us cancer experts, indicates that toxic chemicals …
IN FOCUS
Fifty years after Hiroshima, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is now hearing arguments on whether there can be a circumstance in which any country can legitimately be allowed to use a nuclear weapon against another. The arguments have been polarised between the nuclear haves and have-nots. And as with …
Cursor
Crash H - bomb The French government's move to carry out nuclear tests in spite of protests from many countries and environmentalists lends a great amount of curiosity to Richard Rhode's book, Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. In this riveting book, he tells the H-bomb. He reveals …
Nuclear resurrection
WITH energy in perpetual short supply, the Armenian government has decided to restart the Metsamor nuclear reactor which was closed down in 1988 following a devastating earthquake. Reviving the 407 MW reactor is a desperate measure for the state which is facing ruin due to the seven-year-old undeclared war with …
IN FOCUS
France is in a frenzy to be friends again with the rest of the world. Especially with the countries in the South Pacific, which have been smouldering with indignation ever since the Chirac government decided to resume underground nuclear tests in French Polynesia. It has joined hands with Britain and …
A reminder of responsibility
EXACTLY after a decade, the Nobel Peace Prize has found a recepienty campaigning directly against atomic weapons. In1985,it had been awarded to the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. The crusade of this year's awardees, Joseph Rotblat and the Conference on Science and World Affairs - drily called …
Radiation sensors
THE detection of accidental radiation leaks from nuclear power plants may just become easier, thanks to orchids. Researchers from Mangalore University (Karnataka) have zeroed in on an epiphytic orchid called Cyrnbidium aloifo which can be used for monitoring radiation levels in the vicinity of atomic power plants. The orchid was …