From: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com (abolition-usa-digest) To: abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: abolition-usa-digest V1 #44 Reply-To: abolition-usa-digest Sender: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk abolition-usa-digest Tuesday, December 1 1998 Volume 01 : Number 044 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 21:44:42 +1100 From: hcaldic Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: Subject: Sample letter to Reynolds Dear Good People, I write with a sense of impending urgency. The World Heritage Committee this minute is considering whether to allow the Australian Government to continue to sanction a company called Energy Resources of Australia to dig up an aboriginal sacred area in a most beautiful wilderness site in the north of Australia to mine uranium, which almost certainly will, in the future, be the source of nuclear weapons and massive quantities of nuclear waste. I therefore ask, indeed implore you to copy the letter below, to sign it, and to fax it to the US representative on the committee - John Reynolds. The fax number is in Kyoto Japan, the site of the meeting. It is 81757051100. Yours very Sincerely Helen Caldicott > > 10834 Oak Tree Rd > Fort Wayne, IN 46825 > USA > cdoran@wilderness.org.au > > TO JOHN REYNOLDS > FAX: 81 75 705 1100 > > United States Rep on World Heritage Bureau and Committee > > REG: KAKADU WORLD HERITAGE IN DANGER LISTING > > Dear Mr Reynolds, > > I urge you to recommend Kakadu National Park be placed on the World > Heritage in Danger List, and that you recommend to the Australian > government in the strongest possible language that construction stop > immediately on the Jabiluka uranium mine. > > I ask that you agree to the findings of the World Heritage Committee Review > Mission to Kakadu, in particular the recommendation for "Application of the > Precautionary Principle" and that inter alia "the proposal to mine and mill > uranium at Jabiluka should not proceed." Please note also that both IUCN > and ICIMOS have formally endorsed the findings of the Mission and agreed > that construction at Jabiluka should stop. > > Allowing another six months of construction will further damage Kakadu and > denigrate both the natural and cultural values for which it has been > listed. Construction is continuing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. > > I also urge you to reinforce the high standards of conservation that the > World Heritage Convention represents, and its subsequent international > prestige. The credibility of the Convention is at stake > > The Jabiluka mine is bitterly opposed by the legally recognised Traditional > Owners, the Mirrar people. It will leave 20 million tonnes of radioactive > waste within 500 metres of a Ramsar listed wetlands and in close proximity > to rock art sites and the oldest archeological evidence of human > habitation of the Australian continent. > > The evidence is now overwhelming that both the cultural and natural values > of Kakadu will be damaged by Jabiluka. > > As a US citizen, I expect you to provide a written and detailed explanation > if you support any proposal other than World Heritage in Danger Listing for > Kakadu when the full Committee discusses this issue on Monday the 30th of > November. > > Regards, > > Chris Doran > > Those - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1998 07:06:46 -0500 From: Peace through Reason Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews: IAEA vs. UNSCOM 11/29/98 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-11/29/125l-112998-idx.html Iraq's Inspector Games By Paul Leventhal and Steven Dolley Sunday, November 29, 1998; Page C01 Little noticed in the current war of nerves with Saddam Hussein is Iraq's preference for United Nations inspectors who search for nuclear weapons over U.N. inspectors who look for other weapons of mass destruction. On Oct. 31, before U.N. inspectors were withdrawn in anticipation of U.S. military strikes, Iraq's government announced that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could continue its monitoring activities but that the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) would no longer be permitted to monitor suspected missile, chemical and biological weapons sites. When inspectors returned in mid-November, Iraq resumed its open defiance of UNSCOM and its cooperation with the IAEA. Why? The answer has to do with sharp differences in how the two agencies do their work. UNSCOM is more confrontational, refusing to accept Iraqi obfuscations and demanding evidence of destroyed weapons--what former UNSCOM chief Rolf Ekeus once called "the arms-control equivalent of war." The IAEA is more accommodating, giving Iraqi nuclear officials the benefit of the doubt when they fail to provide evidence that all nuclear weapons components have been destroyed and all prohibited activities terminated. Ekeus has acknowledged "a certain culture problem" resulting from UNSCOM's "more aggressive approach, and the IAEA's more cooperative approach." As a result, there is a widespread and dangerous perception that Iraq's nuclear threat is history, thanks to the IAEA's official judgment that Iraq's nuclear weapons program has been "destroyed, removed or rendered harmless." Meanwhile, Iraq is generally perceived to be concealing other weapons of mass destruction--because UNSCOM refuses to accept unverified claims of their elimination. Iraq's willing acceptance of IAEA inspectors reinforces the IAEA's findings and helps France, China and Russia argue in the U.N. Security Council for "closing the nuclear file" on Iraq. There is an eerie familiarity to all this. Before the Persian Gulf War, Saddam Hussein used his chemical and biological threat to deflect attention away from a hidden nuclear threat. "I swear to God," he proclaimed in March 1990, "we will let our fire eat half of Israel if it tries to wage anything against Iraq. We don't need an atomic bomb, because we have binary chemicals." Iraq learned early on that it could conceal a nuclear weapons program by cooperating with the IAEA. Khidhir Hamza, a senior Iraqi scientist who defected to the United States in 1994, wrote in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists earlier this year that Saddam Hussein approved the deception-by-cooperation scheme in 1974. "Iraq was careful to avoid raising IAEA suspicions; an elaborate strategy was gradually developed to deceive and manipulate the agency," Hamza said. The strategy worked. Iraq, as a signer of the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, was subject to IAEA inspections on all nuclear facilities. But the agency's inspectors failed to detect any sign of the Iraqi-style "Manhattan Project" discovered after the Gulf War by IAEA teams at sites identified by UNSCOM. The IAEA's track record of missing evidence of Iraq's nuclear weapons program predates the Gulf War. In 1981, Israeli airstrikes destroyed Iraq's nearly complete Osirak research reactor because Tel Aviv feared Iraq's plutonium-production capacity if the plant were allowed to start up. After the attack, IAEA inspector Roger Richter resigned from the agency to defend Israel's action. He had helped negotiate the IAEA's "safeguards" arrangement for the reactor and later told Congress that the agency had failed to win sufficient access to detect plutonium production for weapons. Agency officials privately hinted that Richter was spying for Israel and, at Iraq's behest, suspended Israel's IAEA credentials. In August 1990, only weeks after Iraq invaded Kuwait, IAEA safeguards director Jon Jennekens praised Iraqi cooperation with the IAEA as "exemplary," and said Iraq's nuclear experts "have made every effort to demonstrate that Iraq is a solid citizen" under the nonproliferation treaty. In 1991, after the Gulf War, the U.N. awarded the nuclear-inspection portfolio in Iraq to the IAEA rather than UNSCOM, following a concerted lobbying campaign by the IAEA, supported by the United States and France. The principal argument was political: With only a few years remaining before the Non-Proliferation Treaty had to be extended, it would be extremely damaging for the treaty's survival if the agency were downgraded in any way. Its turf battle won, the IAEA continued to see things Iraq's way. In September 1992, after destruction of the nuclear-weapons plants found in the war's aftermath, Mauricio Zifferero, head of the IAEA's "Action Team" in Iraq, declared Iraq's nuclear program to be "at zero now. . . totally dormant." Zifferero explained that the Iraqis "have stated many times to us that they have decided at the higher political levels to stop these activities. This we have verified." But it eventually became clear that Iraq had concealed evidence of its continuing nuclear bomb program. In 1995, Saddam Hussein's son-in-law, Gen. Hussein Kamel, fled to Jordan and revealed that he had led a "crash program" just before the Gulf War to build a crude nuclear weapon out of IAEA-safeguarded, civilian nuclear fuel, as well as a program after the war to refine the design of nuclear warheads to fit Scud missiles. Iraqi officials insisted that Kamel's work was unauthorized and led IAEA officials to a large cache of documents at Kamel's farm that, they said, proved Kamel had directed the projects without their knowledge. But the Kamel revelations refuted an IAEA claim, made by then-Director General Hans Blix in 1993, that "the Iraqis never touched the nuclear highly enriched uranium which was under our safeguards." In fact, they had cut the ends off of some fuel rods and were preparing to remove the material from French- and Russian-supplied research reactors for use in weapons when the allied bombing campaign interrupted the project. The IAEA accepted a technically flawed claim by Iraqi officials that the bomb project would have been delayed by the need to further enrich the bomb-grade fuel for use in weapons, but defector Hamza later made clear that Iraq could have made direct use of the material in a bomb within a few months. Although there is evidence that Iraq manufactured and tested nuclear weapon components, including the high-explosive "lenses" needed to trigger a nuclear explosion, none of these components or evidence of their destruction have been surrendered to IAEA inspectors. Iraq also has refused IAEA requests for its bomb design and scale model, as well as for details of its overseas nuclear procurement and cooperation activities. Meanwhile, Iraq's nuclear team of more than 200 PhDs remains on hand. The IAEA acknowledged to the U.N. Security Council that these scientists are not closely monitored and are increasingly difficult to track as they are supposedly being transferred back to the "private sector." The ominous implications of missing components and surplus scientists were exposed by Scott Ritter, who resigned in August as head of UNSCOM's Concealment Investigation Unit. Ritter said, in testimony to Congress, that UNSCOM "had received sensitive information of some credibility, which indicated that Iraq had the components to assemble three implosion-type [nuclear] devices, minus the fissile material." If Iraq procured a small amount of plutonium or highly enriched uranium, he testified, it could have operable nuclear weapons in a matter of "days or weeks." Ritter later said this intelligence was provided by a "northern European" government based on information from three Iraqi defectors, one of whom was privy to high-level discussions at Saddam Hussein's "Special Security Organization"--his elite bodyguard unit whose role had been secretly expanded to protect his weapons of mass destruction. Ritter considered the information solid because it corresponded with details--which he had obtained from other sources--of how this unit was trucking missile and other weapon components from one depot to another. Ritter was able to use aerial photographs to pinpoint the locations of five of seven buildings from rough outlines of the structures drawn by a defector. The IAEA promptly disputed the validity of Ritter's information. IAEA Director General Mohammed ElBaradei reported to the U.N. Security Council on Oct. 13 that "all available, credible information. . . provides no indication that Iraq has assembled nuclear weapons with or without fissile cores," adding that "Iraq's known nuclear weapons related assets have been destroyed, removed or rendered harmless." State Department and White House officials--as well as Richard Butler, who succeeded Ekeus as Ritter's boss--joined the IAEA in denying ever receiving any information from Ritter about Iraqi concealment of nuclear-weapon components. U.S. officials were already furious with Ritter for accusing Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright of pulling the rug out from under UNSCOM's plan to confront Iraq with surprise inspections of certain facilities, including the suspected weapons depots. They belatedly acknowledged having received the information from Ritter, deeming it plausible but uncorroborated. Butler, who personally admired Ritter, nonetheless could not acknowledge that UNSCOM had withheld much of Ritter's information from the IAEA out of concern that it might be leaked to the Iraqis. And Butler also felt the need to protect the lives of UNSCOM's intelligence sources. Given Ritter's reputation as a hard-nosed intelligence analyst who does not stretch the truth, his information about Iraqi concealment of nuclear-weapons components should be taken seriously by the IAEA. The threat of an Iraqi nuclear breakout remains real. The prudent assumption for the IAEA should be that Iraq's nuclear program continues, and that the Iraqis may now lack only the fissile material. Even the possibility that Iraq has already procured this material cannot be ruled out because of serious nuclear-security lapses in the former Soviet Union and the abundance of such material in inadequately safeguarded civilian nuclear programs worldwide. There is also a nagging worry that Iraq is concealing a small centrifuge plant for enriching uranium. The Security Council should ask the IAEA for a complete inventory of all nuclear-bomb components, designs and models for which there is documentation or intelligence but which the agency cannot account for. This has been UNSCOM's approach, but the IAEA seems to place an almost naive confidence in an absence of evidence contradicting unsubstantiated Iraqi claims. The burden of proof should be on Iraq, not on the inspectors. ElBaradei should retract his Oct. 13 findings, including his remarkable suggestion that although unanswered questions remain, none are significant enough to preclude closing the nuclear file and shifting from investigative inspections to less intrusive monitoring and verification. Unless the IAEA is prepared to admit its limitations and redouble its efforts to locate nuclear-bomb components and other evidence of nuclear weapons activities, it should be taken off the nuclear case. Finding bombs is more important than protecting turf. UNSCOM should be given the job if the IAEA cannot do it. Paul Leventhal is president of the Nuclear Control Institute, a Washington-based non-proliferation research and advocacy center. Steven Dolley is the institute's research director. _______________________________________________________________________ * NucNews - subscribe: prop1@prop1.org - http://prop1.org ("Nuclear") * _______________________________________________________________________ - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1998 12:14:32 -0000 From: "Sally Light" Subject: (abolition-usa) Pol's fast - correct fax number in Belgium Dear Friends, After an unsuccessful attempt to fax Erik Derycke, Belgium's Minister of Foreign Affairs, at the number Pol gave us, I called the Ministry and was given the following fax number which worked: +32-2-514.30.67. As Pol is starting his 11th day of fasting, which is only 4 days away from the final vote in the UN General Assembly, let us once again deluge Mr. Derycke with messages in support of our courageous friend. In peace ... Sally Light Nuclear Program Analyst Tri-Valley CAREs - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 15:15:50 -0500 From: ike Subject: (abolition-usa) Thanks Ellen Dear Ellen, Again, thank you very much for reporting the news. Recently three of your stories have been especially helpful for me. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-11/27/079l-112798-idx.html Russian Nuclear Security Called Lax Easy Access to Fuel, Failure to Pay Wages Alarm U.S. Experts By David Hoffman Washington Post Foreign Service http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/ND98/nukes.html [The MoJo Wire] Mother Jones, November-December, 1998 Security Meltdown Who is watching the people who are watching our nukes? by Ken Silverstein http://www.smh.com.au/news/9811/26/text/pageone5.html Keating on eliminating nuclear weapons Sydney Morning Herald, Date: 26/11/98 With best wishes, Ike - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 16:44:29 -0800 (PST) From: Sue Broidy Subject: (abolition-usa) Abolition 2000 December Newsletter ABOLITION 2000 INTERNATIONAL GRASSROOTS NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 1998 PLEASE GIVE US SOME FEEDBACK Please check our website which is now at www.abolition2000.org and let me know what features you would like to see added. We have a site search engine, we have news, articles, a Citizen Action Guide, and campaign activist documents for you to download, copy, and distribute as widely as possible! In addition, for those of you who are interested in having our new posters and leaflet, we can send you the Pagemaker files by email! PETITION COUNT We remind you that we need you to count up the petitions sitting in your offices and let us know the totals. We welcome the following: Another 6 signatures from Costa Rica, 11 from Greece, 65 from Mt Diablo Peace Center, Walnut Creek CA, 120 signatures from Southern California Federation of Scientists, 13 from Great Neck NY, a grand total reported from Santa Cruz of 3,561 and 662 postcards to Clinton. We also got a call from Claire Nason in Berkeley, pledging 1000 signatures by the end of the year . BUT THIS IS NOT ENOUGH if we are to achieve anything like 2 million by the end of the year 2000. So please visit our website, download the petition form at http://www.napf.org/intpetition.html, copy it and distribute it as widely as possible. This is more than just a petition - it is public education and also great political strategy because when copied and included with your letters, it is another way of impressing our Congressional Representatives that we mean business! Items of Interest 1. Welcome to our new Latin America Coordinator. 2. Peace Walk for A2000 in 1999 3. Protesters held at N-Base 4. Local action in Santa Cruz CA 5. Nuclear Free Norwich CT 6. Other Municipal Resolution Action 7. Churches and Abolition 2000 8. Nuclear Reactor in Cambridge, Mass. 9. Municipal Action in Canada 10. New Organizations in Abolition 2000 11. Recent Polls 12. Letter from India 13. Video Available WELCOME RUBEN ARVIZU We welcome Ruben Arvizu who has been appointed the International Coordinator of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation for A2000 activities in Latin America. Ruben has arranged for the publication of several articles on nuclear weapons abolition in Spanish including OXIDO magazine and a website containing information and translations of Abolition 2000 material. The petition is available in Spanish and we hope for a new interest from Spanish organizations wishing to join the A2000 network. The website is http://www.ciudadfutura.com/oxido. PEACE WALK FOR ABOLITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS Between May 16 and May 26 1999 the international For Mother Earth network is convening a major end-of-the-millennium Peace Walk for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons. For Mother Earth wants to mobilize 2000 walkers linking the UN World Court (ICJ) in The Hague (Netherlands) to NATO headquarters in Brussels (Belgium). The event will end with a four days international peace camp in Brussels on May 30th 1999. Pol D'Huyvetter, campaigner at For Mother Earth, and initiator of the walk stated : "Our dream is for the peace walk to count 2,000 participants walking for the immediate start of multilateral negotiations for a Treaty Banning All Nuclear Weapons by the year 2000. We demand the NATO member states to abide by their international treaty obligations as confirmed by the ICJ in July 1996. NATO's nuclear policy is hypocritical and criminal. It is time for the world to realize that NATO is the main obstacle for negotiating a treaty banning nuclear weapons. With this walk we will take international law to the ones breaking the law in Brussels." Pol d'Huyvetter is at present taking a dramatic and heroic action - he is fasting in protest of the Belgian government's lack of support for the New Agenda Coalition. The network is responding to a call to send letters and faxes to the Belgian Foreign Minister in support of Pol's dramatic and courageous act. Send faxes to: MR ERIK DERYCKE, MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, BELGIUM, 0011+32-2-514.30.67. PROTESTERS HELD AT N-BASE On 19 November, nine anti-nuclear demonstrators were arrested at the shipyard where Britain's fourth and final Trident submarine is nearing completion. Security officers at the former VSEL yard in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, found them in a car park and handed them over to police. The demonstrators were three Britons, five Swedes, and an American. SANTA CRUZ ABOLITION 2000 HOLDS A PUBLIC FORUM About seventy-five people attended the Santa Cruz Abolition 2000 Committee's first public forum on Sunday, November 8th, at Veterans Memorial Hall. Marion Vittitow was the skilled facilitator who introduced the speakers: Jackie Cabasso and John Burroughs, of Western States Legal Foundation, original founders of Abolition 2000, and Joann Fuller, of Peace Action '98. A video was shown on the medical effects of nuclear war, "The Last Epidemic," and there were questions and comments from the audience. Mayor Celia Scott presented Abolition 2000 with a Mayor's Proclamation declaring that the City of Santa Cruz has designated November 8, l998, as "Abolition 2000 Day," and thanking them for their work in educating people about the dangers of nuclear war and proliferation. The hall was brightly decorated with masses of sunflowers, two large sunflower oil paintings by Lynn Zachreson, and a number of bright textile hangings, as various members of Abolition 2000, including Nadine Winslow of WILPF and Susy Sherman of Peace Action, explained what members of this community can do to aid in the goal of a complete worldwide abolition of nuclear weapons. The Committee is already at work on its next projects, a teach-in at UCSC, and a speaker's bureau. Anyone who is interested may contact Jan Harwood at jahn@cruzio.com NUCLEAR FREE NORWICH CT We are pleased to report that Norwich City Council in Connecticut endorsed the Abolition 2000 Municipal Resolution unanimously on Monday November 9th. Nancy Neiman Hoffman has been working on this project with the Hartford AFSC and reports that at first they were concerned that it would not pass because Norwich is in a heavy defense industry area. However, by patient lobbying, meeting individually with Council members and sending them material, a unanimous vote of 11 was achieved. They also got townspeople to write to the Council and make phone calls. "It was a very satisfying experience" Nancy said, " and before the vote was taken, five of the Council members actually spoke enthusiastically in support of Abolition 2000." A key element in their success was the involvement with a local High School. A 16 year-old student made a statement at the Council meeting and presented 447 signatures on petitions from the Norwich Free Academy. This is the way to go! Congratulations Nancy and colleagues. Let us hope for more similar action throughout the nation - and we will be waiting for word from West Hartford City Council who will be presented with the Abolition 2000 resolution on November 24th. OTHER MUNICIPAL RESOLUTION ACTION On Monday evening, November 2, the City Council of Portland, Maine unanimously passed the Nuclear Abolition Resolution presented to the City Council by the Maine Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Portland is the largest city in Maine and the first to pass a Nuclear Abolition Resolution. Abolition 2000 is working in Vermont in 62 towns to put the Municipal Resolution on the March Town Meeting ballot. They hope for 200 towns by the end of the year 2000 - great work! The Vermont initiative is working through a coalition of The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, American Friends Service Committee, Unitarian-Universalist Church and others. Look for a photo of Vermont activists marching for abolition on our website www.abolition2000.org CHURCHES AND ABOLITION 2000 Recently Christ Episcopal Church Vestry, in Pasadena, CA signed on to Abolition 2000. In addition, the resolution was voted affirmatively by the Episcopal Diocese (the CA state organization) at their convention on November 14, 1998. The resolution included an educational resolve "that each parish plan an educational program to help its parishioners understand the present dangers of nuclear war and the concept that nuclear proliferation is a crime against God and humanity." Also in Santa Barbara, the congregation of the Unitarian Society recently endorsed the Abolition 2000 Resolution. This is significant action from churches and should encourage more abolitionists to take the Resolution to their own congregations. CAMBRIDGE MA VOTES TO MOVE MIT NUCLEAR REACTOR OUT OF RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOOD By a vote of 5791 to 2889, a ratio of more than 2 to 1, voters in Cambridge, Massachusetts voted to move the MIT Nuclear Reactor out of the city. Seeking to ignore this referendum vote, MIT plans to double the capacity of its Nuclear Reactor, and to maintain the reactor in this thickly settled residential neighborhood. "Most Cambridge residents are unaware there is a Nuclear Reactor in Cambridge, on Albany Street near Mass. Ave, in the middle of Greater Boston," says attorney David A. Hoicka. "There was no public discussion or locationing decision open to residents of Cambridge, when the Reactor was built. "We put the Nuclear Reactor on the ballot so the public policy of having such a facility in residential Cambridge may be publicly reviewed," says Attorney Hoicka. "The first chance Cambridge Voters got to review the Nuclear Reactor, they firmly rejected it. "Cambridge Voters have decided that a Nuclear Reactor does not belong among homes, schools, small businesses, playing fields, parks with features for small children, basketball and tennis courts," says Hoicka. "This is a decision that should have been made in the first place by Cambridge residents and voters, not by technocrats and bureaucrats who live elsewhere." "Of course, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claims its Nuclear Reactor is perfectly safe," says Hoicka. "MIT has not in the past disclosed the details of classified research. The public policy question, regardless of MIT's claim of complete nuclear safety, is whether a Nuclear Reactor properly belongs in a residential neighborhood, or should be moved to a safer and less densely populated area." This Cambridge "Move the Nuke Ballot Initiative" is the only referendum question this year relating to Nuclear Reactors in Massachusetts or anywhere in the United States. Through this Ballot Initiative, 5,791 Cambridge residents voted directly to show the State House that moving the Nuclear Reactor out of Cambridge is critical to health and well-being. By contrast, if a Harris poll of only a few hundred people is statistically significant, a vote of 5,800 Cambridge Voters, should carry weight in the state legislature and even have national impact. We will be watching this issue as it develops - a very interesting example of democracy at risk. Our congratulations to those involved! MUNICIPAL ACTION IN CANADA On Nov.2, both Kitchener and Waterloo Councils voted unanimously to support the Resolution of the Kitchener-Waterloo Roundtable on Nuclear Weapons. The group supported by PGS Waterloo and Project Ploughshares presented the following resolution: "that the City calls upon the Government of Canada to take a leadership role in abolishing nuclear weapons by calling on nuclear-weapons states to commit themselves unequivocally to the elimination of their nuclear arsenals and to agree to start work immediately on the practical steps and negotiations required to achieve this goal. (An example of such leadership would see Canada's joining with the recently-formed New Agenda Coalition of eight middle power states-Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Slovenia, South Africa, and Sweden. This coalition of like-minded countries is actively working towards the goal of nuclear weapons elimination.); and THAT our Cities invite all the members of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to pass similar motions and by so doing support our Country's efforts to make the World a more secure place for its citizens." Bill Robinson and Grant Birks did a great job presenting to the Councils. Both mayors introduced the resolutions. There was support voiced from councilors who had participated in the Roundtables and finally, with little debate the resolution passed unanimously at both meetings. It does show that indeed, the tide has turned. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is meeting in two days to consider this request. CHILLING THOUGHT The Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported in October more than 300 positive tests for cocaine abuse by nuclear workers in 1996-1997. ORGANIZATIONS SIGNING ON IN NOVEMBER: Welcome to two groups from Greece, Women for Security and the Association of Women in the Mediterranean Region. Welcome also to the Friend's Society Monthly Meeting from Rutherford Place, New York. The 50 groups from Egypt, Middle East and Africa were welcomed in a separate posting - it is good to be getting feedback from some of them already. We also welcome Abolition 2000 -Bergen County Chapter (Bergen County, New Jersey), the Youth Leadership Support Network/USA, two new groups from India, the Open University of Alternative Medicine in Calcutta and the National Women's Welfare Center in Kerala, and also the United Youths Association from Sri Lanka. Two organizations based in London also signed on -- the Sudanese Committee against the Violation of Human Rights and the Sudanese Womens Union. We now have a total of 1197 - three more will give us 2000! RECENT POLLS A joint Russo-Japan opinion poll was conducted recently and asked the following questions related to nuclear weapons. Do you feel threats from Russian military forces? (to Japanese) Yes 52 % No 39 % Others or no answer. 9 %. Do you feel threats from Japan-US military alliance? (to Russians) Yes 42% No 38% Others or no answer. 20 %. Do you think that all the nuclear weapon states should eliminate such weapons in their possession whatever rationale they may have? Or, do you think it is permissible that some states possess nuclear weapons for their own defense purposes? Japan: They should eliminate nuclear weapons. 78 % It is permissible 18 %; Others. 4 %. Russia: They should eliminate nuclear weapons. 61 %; It is permissible 31% Others 8 %. The Australian Peace Committee (South Australian Branch) and the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign commissioned a poll recently throughout every state and territory of Australia on the question of nuclear weapons. The survey was carried out on the 11th and 12th of November, and the results of the survey were faxed to the Australian Government before the vote on Resolution L.48 was taken at the United Nations on November 13th. 87% of people agreed that all nuclear weapons should be destroyed. 92% of people think that Australia should help negotiate a global treaty to ban and destroy all nuclear weapons. 80% of people agreed that Australia should keep its military alliance with the United States even though the United States is the biggest nuclear power in the world. Irene Gale of the APC commented, "Although Australians wish to maintain an alliance with the United States, they overwhelmingly desire that alliance to be nuclear weapons free. They also overwhelmingly desire the Australian Government to work earnestly to remove nuclear weapons from the world, and to help negotiate a global treaty to achieve this end. This attitude of the Australian people is reflected by the fact that 144 Local Authorities and many thousands of individuals have endorsed the Abolition 2000 campaign by calling upon the Australian Government to work to remove nuclear weapons from the world. It clearly follows that the Australian Government must vote in favor of resolution L.48 when it is voted upon in the UN General Assembly in December." LETTER FROM INDIA, from Dr. Balkrishna Kurvey, Regional Contact "After attending the International conference of Peace Museums in Osaka, Kyoto and Okinawa, I returned to India safely on November 19, 1998. I read my paper "Nuclear tests by India and Pakistan and its effects on Regional Security" and presented my posters for peace in India. I have decided to establish the Peace Museum in Nagpur. In India, we do not have peace museums. Our peace museum will initially be based on the theme of "No more Hiroshima: No more Nagasaki, Peace Museum" the beginning will be on a modest scale." VIDEO AVAILABLE We strongly recommend a video produced by the CDI called "Can We Learn to Live Without Nuclear Weapons?" The video features Jonathan Schell, Alan Cranston, Admiral Stansfield Turner and Admiral Noel Gayler. An excellent resource for town and campus meetings, it can be ordered from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation for $18.00 including postage. Visit the website http://www.wagingpeace.org/store/ to order online. Sincerely, Sue Broidy Coordinator, Abolition 2000 Nuclear Age Peace Foundation 1187 Coast Village Road Santa Barbara CA 93108 Phone (805) 965 3443 FAX(805) 568 0466 Email: A2000@silcom.com Website http://www.abolition2000.org To subscribe to the abolition-usa listerve, send a message (no subject) to abolition-usa-request@lists.xmission.com To post to the list, mail to: abolition-usa@lists.xmission.com To subscribe to the international abolition-caucus, send a message (no subject) to majordomo@igc.org To post to the list, mail to: abolition-caucus@igc.apc.org - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 21:24:19 EST From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) (NYC area) // Teach In On Iraq on December 15 Friends in the NYC area, A somewhat loose coalition of New York area groups is having a Teach In on the Iraq Crisis on December 15, 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. at the Park Ave. Christian Church, 1010 Park Ave. (at 85th Street). Phyllis Bennis is one of the confirmed speakers, we hope one of those just back from Iraq will speak, and there are several other top notch speakers being contacted but I don't feel free to list them. I'm rushing this note because the real credit for organizing this goes to Nick (whose last name I don't have in front of me) and Clayton Ramey at FOR, and Vince Romano, and Chris Ney on the staff at WRL. I am worried that if we wait until we have more info (and I have Nick's last name) that it will be New Year's. The loose coalition has had at least two vigils and leafletings. The groups involved or that have attended the meetings at 339 Lafayette, include: War Resisters League, Metro Peace Action, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Pax Christi, Socialist Party, Committees of Correspondence, International Action Center, Catholic Worker, and several others (as I said, if I wait it may sooth bruised feelings of those who merited mentioning - but it won't build the Teach In). The group doesn't have an official name, but it is meeting before the Teach In, and will be leafleting - if you want info on this for the moment the easiest thing is to phone, or email either Chis Ney or Vince Romano at the War Resisters League, 212 / 228.0450, and the email is: wrl@igc.apc.org A better more defined post will be out in a day or two. But in the meantime, hold the date, December 15. This is an important - even an urgent - response to continued pressure for war. PLEASE - this IS urgent - can you relay this post to your own lists or contacts in the NYC area? And get in touch with Chris or Vince to find out how you can help. Peace, David McReynolds - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 07:59:16 -0500 From: Peace through Reason Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews: 12/1/98 DOE; Supreme Court 1. http://deseretnews.com/wir/0a192t19.htm Shortage spurs U.S. to consider making tritium 2. http://www.usatoday.com/news/court/nscot915.htm Energy's nuclear waste case rebuffed - --------------------------------- 1. http://deseretnews.com/wir/0a192t19.htm Shortage spurs U.S. to consider making tritium Last updated 11/29/1998, 12:01 a.m. MT New York Times News Service WASHINGTON - A potential shortage of tritium, a crucial ingredient of every nuclear weapon, has prompted the Department of Energy to consider whether to recommend starting one of the department's rare public-works-style projects to manufacture more of the radioactive gas. With the department's decision due within three weeks, the issue has set off intense lobbying by congressional delegations from Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina and Washington state, which are hoping for a share of what could be a $9 billion project. Energy Secretary William Richardson is juggling issues of cost, risk and image. The two solutions that may be easiest and least expensive are those creating the biggest image problem: using a civilian reactor to make tritium - and breaking a 50-year taboo on mixing civilian and military atomic projects - or buying the material from Russia or France. More expensive and difficult would be restarting a research reactor that runs on plutonium, which presents safety questions, or building a linear accelerator 100 times more powerful than any yet built in this country. "I think we have dallied long enough on this decision," Richardson said last week. Deciding which course to take is especially difficult because of pending international weapons agreements. - --------------------------------- 2. http://www.usatoday.com/news/court/nscot915.htm 11/30/98- USA Today Energy's nuclear waste case rebuffed WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court Monday dodged a dispute over the nuclear industry's most perplexing problem - how and where to store thousands of tons of highly radioactive waste permanently and safely. The justices, without comment, let stand a ruling that sparked appeals by nuclear reactor operators and many states on one side and the federal government on the other. The nuclear reactor issue has widespread interest. More than 40,000 tons of used reactor fuel have piled up at 72 civilian nuclear power plants in 34 states, with the amount continuing to grow, until the federal Department of Energy provides a permanent burial site. But the Energy Department has not yet approved such a site. In a 1982 federal law, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, Congress said the government would find a place to safely store all such waste by Feb. 1, 1998. But that deadline has long passed, and the Department of Energy still is studying the feasibility of building a nuclear fuel burial site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, about 90 miles north of Las Vegas. That evaluation is expected to be completed in 2001, government lawyers told the court. If Yucca Mountain is found suitable, presidential approval would be required before construction could start. The site would not be ready to receive any nuclear waste until 2010, the justices were told. The nuclear industry has paid the government about $15 billion toward building the storage facility, and continues to pay about $1 billion a year in fees. When it became obvious that the 1998 deadline would not be met, Department of Energy officials interpreted the 1982 law to mean that no government collection of nuclear waste need begin until a storage facility is completed. That 1993 interpretation was challenged in a federal appeals court by states, state utility commissions and reactor operators. The petitions asked the appeals court to order the government to start collecting nuclear waste and to escrow all fee payments due after the 1998 deadline. After several rounds of litigation, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled last year that the government need not begin collecting nuclear waste until it comes up with somewhere to put it. But the appeals court said the Department of Energy can be sued for monetary damages by those entities who had relied on the 1998 deadline. By early this autumn, 11 utility companies had filed lawsuits in the Court of Federal Claims seeking damages ranging from $70 million to $1.5 billion. In the Supreme Court appeal filed on behalf of the states, state agencies and nuclear plant operators, lawyers in the Michigan attorney general's office argued that the Department of Energy's ''continued failure'' to live up to the 1982 law and related contract has resulted in a dangerous situation. The result is ''nuclear waste sites at 72 different locations throughout the nation next to lakes, rivers and streams, which were never chosen, evaluated or qualified for long-term storage, or permanent disposal,'' the appeal said. But the Department of Energy's appeal to the nation's highest court argued that the appeals court wrongly rejected an ''unavoidable delays'' argument and never should have authorized the possibility of monetary awards. The cases are Michigan vs. Department of Energy, 98-225, and U.S. vs. Northern States Power Co., 98-384. _______________________________________________________________________ * NucNews - subscribe: prop1@prop1.org - http://prop1.org ("Nuclear") * _______________________________________________________________________ - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ End of abolition-usa-digest V1 #44 ********************************** - To unsubscribe to $LIST, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe $LIST" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.