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abolition-usa-digest     Tuesday, December 1 1998     Volume 01 : Number 044




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Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 21:44:42 +1100
From: hcaldic <[e-mail]>
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
> [e-mail]
>
> TO JOHN REYNOLDS
> FAX: [phone]
>
> 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



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------------------------------

Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1998 07:06:46 -0500
From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
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: [e-mail] - http://prop1.org ("Nuclear") *
_______________________________________________________________________

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------------------------------

Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1998 12:14:32 -0000
From: "Sally Light" <[e-mail]>
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

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 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
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------------------------------

Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 15:15:50 -0500
From: ike <[e-mail]>
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

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------------------------------

Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 16:44:29 -0800 (PST)
From: Sue Broidy <[e-mail]>
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 [e-mail]


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 [phone]  FAX[phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Website http://www.abolition2000.org

To subscribe to the abolition-usa listerve, send a message (no subject) to
[e-mail]
To post to the list, mail to: [e-mail]

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------------------------------

Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 21:24:19 EST
From: [e-mail]
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: [e-mail]

 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

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------------------------------

Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 07:59:16 -0500
From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
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: [e-mail] - http://prop1.org ("Nuclear") *
_______________________________________________________________________

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