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Austria lodged complaints with Slovakia and the European Commission to protest Slovakia's plans for restarting a reactor at the Bohunice nuclear power plant, Austrian Environment Minister Nikolaus Berlakovich said Monday. Austria would also stress its position in a meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels on Monday that Slovakia's actions are "unacceptable," Berlakovich said, according to Austrian news agency APA. The reactor had been closed on December 31 in line with the agreement that allowed Slovakia to join the European Union. Prompted by the Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute that has left Slovakia with dwindling energy reserves, the government in Bratislava decided Saturday to restart the mothballed reactor.

The much-heralded renaissance of nuclear power will fail unless the public can be convinced that all plants, worldwide, are safe FILMS do not often cause diplomatic incidents. But in November last year the Czech Republic's ambassador to Austria protested against "The First Day", a fictional account of the aftermath of a nuclear accident at Dukovany, a real-life Czech plant near Austria's border. Austria voted in 1978 to ban nuclear power, and its public-service broadcaster showed the film to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the referendum. Not only is the Czech plant portrayed as a menace to Austrians, but the Czech authorities withhold vital information from their neighbours after the accident.

"Belarus seems to be finding it increasingly hard to sell its nuclear energy plans to European nations, both near and far. This time, Minsk's desire to build a nuclear power plant (NPP) close to the Lithuanian border was thwarted by vigorous objections from Austria: representatives of Austrian NGOs and federal authorities expressed a strong disapproval of Belarus's intent at a hearing in Vienna in mid-May. Hearings similar to the one that took place in Vienna have previously been held in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius and Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. Ever since it first brought up the subject of building a nuclear power plant to a controversial Russian project, Belarus has been finding itself more and more hard-pressed to convince its neighbours that they have nothing to fear from the future site. For its location, Belarus has settled on the town of Ostrovets, in Grodno Region, just 23 kilometres off the Lithuanian border, and Lithuania has already made its position known, both as a matter of public opinion and on a state level: No, thank you, Minsk."

There has been a plutonium leak at a site run by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Austria. UN nuclear monitors said pressure had built up and plutonium had contaminated a storage-room at the Seibersdorf laboratory, south of Vienna.

Arab nations accused Israel on Monday of blasting Gaza with ammunition containing depleted uranium and urged the International Atomic Energy Agency to investigate reports that traces of it had been found in victims of the shelling. In a letter on behalf of Arab ambassadors accredited in Austria, Prince Mansour Al-Saoud, the Saudi Ambassador, expressed "our deep concern regarding the information ... that traces of depleted uranium have been found in Palestinian victims." A final draft of the letter was made available to The Associated Press on Monday. It urgently requested IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei to "carry out a radiological and physical assessment in order to verify the presence of depleted uranium in the weaponry used by Israel ... in the Gaza Strip."

Representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) participated this week in the third Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) Infrastructure Development Working Group (IDWG), underscoring the Department's commitment to ensuring that global expansion of civilian nuclear power is done safely and securely, while reducing the risk of nuclear proliferation and responsibly managing waste. The IDWG, held December 8th and 9th in Vienna, Austria, includes over 70 participants from 22 countries working to support the sharing of educational resources, the promotion of technical educational opportunities and the establishment of new programs by which nuclear energy issues can be properly supported by trained, educated, and qualified personnel.

Nuclear energy is undergoing a worldwide renaissance, but poor nations yearning to develop need to realize that it is no panacea to profound poverty, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday. After the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, many governments questioned the value of nuclear power. Some European countries, like Austria and Germany, decided to wean themselves off nuclear energy.

A new international effort to prevent nuclear materials from falling into terrorists' hands has been launched in Austria, officials say. The World Institute for Nuclear Security will work alongside the International Atomic Energy Agency in seeking to improve world nuclear security and preventing nuclear terrorism, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.

The IAEA´s 52nd General Conference of Member States concluded today in Vienna. More than 130 IAEA Member States and over 1400 delegates attended the five-day event held at the Austria Center, Vienna from 29 September - 4 October. At its concluding session, the General Conference adopted resolutions backing the IAEA´s work and setting future directions in key areas. These included nuclear safety, nuclear applications, technology transfer and safeguards implementation. The full texts of adopted resolutions will be posted on the IAEA.org website as they become available.

LUXEMBOURG: Slovenia on Thursday blamed a faulty valve for a water leak at a nuclear plant, seeking to play down the incident as European Union ministers from Austria and other nations questioned the safety of nuclear reactors. The Slovenian authorities shut down the plant in Krsko, near the Slovene-Croatian border, after the leak Wednesday evening. The leak was confined to the plant building and caused no damage, the plant authorities said.

On April 26, 1986, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station reactor number 4 exploded at 1:24 a.m. "Tons of radioactive dust was" unleashed "into the air…transported by winds, [and] it contaminated both hemispheres of our planet, settling wherever it rained. The emissions of radioactivity lasted [short-term] for 10 days."(1) On 29 April, "fatal levels of radioactivity were recorded…in Poland, Austria, Romania, Finland, and Sweden."(2) The day after (30 April), it hit Switzerland and Italy. By 2 May, it reached France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Great Britain, and Greece. The next day, Israel, Kuwait, and Turkey were contaminated. Then, over the next few days, "radioactive substances" were recorded in Japan (3 May), China (4 May), India (5 May), and the US and Canada (6 May). The radioactive spew from this explosion was "200 times greater than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima."(3) Not one person was safe from this catastrophic nuclear explosion; and "65-million people were contaminated...more than 400,000 people were forced to evacuate the area [around Chernobyl], losing their homes, possessions and jobs, as well as their economic, social, and family ties."(4) The long-term and hidden costs of radioactive contamination have never been adequately reported by mainstream news. According to the authors (including the distinguished Dr. Rosalie Bertell) of a new book, "Chernobyl: The Hidden Legacy" "[i]t will take millennia to recover…[before an area] as large as Italy, will return to normal radioactive levels in about 100,000 years time."(5)

"More than 60 countries are examining how to include nuclear power into their energy plans. During a meeting of approximately 100 representatives from 47 countries opening today in Vienna, Austria, some of the 60 countries will explain just how they plan to accomplish this. The workshop includes representatives from almost 35 Member States which are considering or already launching a nuclear power programme. Six of the major vendor countries - Canada, France, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the USA - are also in attendance. Participants are also set to discuss ways to integrate security and safeguards considerations into the design and planning for nuclear power."

"An association based in Switzerland is helping its European neighbours in their search for a good place to dump nuclear waste. Ten nations have enlisted the aid of Baden-based Arius, or Association for Regional and International Underground Storage. They hope to consolidate their radioactive waste within a single location. The countries in question include Austria, Ireland, Italy and seven others - but not Switzerland. In 2006, the federal government enacted a ten-year moratorium on the export of nuclear waste - the storage of which is the producers' responsibility."

Key member states plan in the coming weeks to elect a new leader of the U.N. agency charged with probing Iran's nuclear program, pressing Syria to reveal its atomic secrets and thwarting terrorists from getting the bomb. The two men vying for the post of director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency are a study in contrasts. One, a low-key Japanese career diplomat, would be expected to depoliticize the agency. The other, a South African former anti-apartheid activist, promises a more hands-on approach to mediating nuclear crises. The vote by the IAEA's 35-nation board will therefore have significant repercussions for how the agency deals with the nuclear weapons and safety challenges confronting the world. Whether the winner is Japan's Yukiya Amano or South Africa's Abdul Samad Minty there is consensus that he will have large shoes to fill.

Thank you, Madame President. Congratulations on your election as President of this Conference. I would also like to congratulate Ambassador Amano on his appointment as Director General. I pledge my government's full support as Ambassador Amano assumes this critical role. I would also like to thank Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei for his quarter century of distinguished service to the IAEA and 12 years as Director General. Dr. ElBaradei's leadership earned him and the IAEA a Nobel Peace Prize and our enduring gratitude. It is a great honor to represent the United States at this conference, and I want to share a personal message from President Barack Obama: