In the news: September 1995
Modern Hiroshima Described
(August 7, 1995) (Knight-Ridder Newspapers) “This was supposed to have become a dead city, a toxic landscape so contaminated by radiation that nothing green would grow for generations. A nuclear desert – that’s what even some scientists saw in Hiroshima’s future. Instead, today’s Hiroshima is a thriving, flower-planted, ultramodern metropolis of 1-million people, three times the size of the city devastated by an atomic bomb 50 years ago.”
Three Nuclear Utilities Top Analyst’s Recommendations
(July 24, 1995 Wall St. Journal) Thomas E. Hamlin at Wheat First Butcher Singer mentioned Duke Power, Southern Co. and FPL Group as electric companies that should outperform their contemporaries in a competitive market. All three companies own at least four nuclear power plants that are recognized as low cost electricity producers.
Oldest Indian Nuclear Plant Will Reopen
(July 28, 1995) Shut down in April after leaking 1.5 liters of water, India’s 320-megawatt reactor at Tarapur will reopen shortly, the head of the country’s nuclear research agency said. “We have completed the review of safety procedures in the plant,” A.N. Prasad, director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) told journalists on Friday. “We are in the process of securing permission to reopen the plant.”
Though leak was extremely small, its announcement sparked fears the village’ water supply was contaminated. Some villagers linked the deaths of some of their cattle to the leak.
Ukraine Demands Payments For Chernobyl
(August 8, 1995) Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma signalled growing impatience with the West’s failure to pay for the closure of Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The country claims the right to keep the plant in operation if the requested $4 billion is not paid.
Visarion Kim, a top nuclear industry official, said his authority had drawn up the plan to keep Chernobyl operating for another 16 years, including restarting a unit that is currently shut down, before Kuchma pledged last April to close the entire station by the year 2000.
Officials say the $4 billion is required to pay for a replacement thermal plant and to make provisions for the 6,000 workers currently employed at Chernobyl.
Russia Proceeding With Cuban Nuclear Reactor
(August 8, 1995) Gigorii Kaurov, a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Nuclear Energy, announced plans to proceed with the construction of a nuclear power plant in Cuba. In June, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to reduce aid to Russia by $15 billion if the nuclear project moves forward. Kaurov rebuffed American criticism of the project, since “. . . the U.S. always expresses dissatisfaction whenever Russia begins such a project in any country whatsoever.” The Russian spokesman went on to say that Russia would welcome U.S. participation in the project
Russia Announces Mars Probe
(August 10,1995) Russian space officials announced plans for an unmanned mission to Mars that would probe beneath the planet’s surface for signs of life. The Mars-96 probe will be carried into space by a four-stage Proton rocket blasting off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The mission is scheduled to achieve Mars orbit in November of 1996. Four small modules will be released to land on the planet’s surface.
