Group items tagged

Prime Minister John Key will use his first speech to the United Nations to underscore his Government's commitment to a nuclear-free New Zealand. In the first speech by a National prime minister to the UN General Assembly in nearly 15 years, Key will reaffirm New Zealand's anti-nuclear credentials and emphasise its determination to keep an independent foreign policy. It is significant that he is making the speech while on his first official visit to the United States, which has been a fault line in foreign policy between Labour and National for most of the past two decades. The issue flared again when Labour opposed the Iraq war while National was still in Opposition. But Key drew a line in the sand before the last election by promising his commitment to a nuclear-free New Zealand and an independent foreign policy. He will use his speech to the General Assembly on Saturday to stress the new bipartisan approach.

A radioactive device stuck down an oil bore off the Taranaki coast had to be sealed under 60 metres of concrete to stop radiation leaking out. The incident, in March, was one of four potentially hazardous situations last year requiring emergency responses by the Health Ministry's National Radiation Laboratory. Manager Jim Turnbull said none caused harm to humans. There were two accidents involving nuclear density meters, which use a radioactive isotope source to measure soil density and moisture content.

"Two of the world's leading nuclear states - the United States and China - are set to clash at a closed-door meeting in Christchurch this week. About 200 technical and diplomatic officials from 46 nations that make up the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) are at the Convention Centre for a week-long meeting, which started yesterday. China is expected to be questioned about controversial plans to export two nuclear power-generating reactors to Pakistan. If a row develops, Beijing may claim Washington has double standards because the United States sold nuclear technology to non-member India in 2008 after pushing through an exemption with the help of other major powers. Asked yesterday about a possible deal between China and Pakistan, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said it was premature to comment. "

Nearly 35 years after France thumbed its nose at world opinion and held a series of nuclear tests on Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific, David Barber's view has not changed. It was a fundamentally wrong thing for France to do and nothing since had altered that opinion, Barber said.

Uranium Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ: URRE) (URI) announced today that it has terminated the agreement for the acquisition of certain assets in New Mexico from NZ Uranium, LLC because of the existence of title issues that were not resolved. The Company had previously announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire the properties subject to the satisfaction of closing conditions, including a title review. The properties were believed to contain about 35 million pounds of uranium mineralized material. Paul K. Willmott, Chairman of the Board, commented, "It is unfortunate that this is the result, but we determined that it would be imprudent to proceed any further." About Uranium Resources, Inc. Uranium Resources Inc. explores for, develops and mines uranium. Since its incorporation in 1977, URI has produced over 8 million pounds of uranium by in-situ recovery (ISR) methods in the state of Texas where the Company currently has ISR mining projects. URI has 183,000 acres of uranium mineral holdings, 101.4 million pounds of in-place mineralized uranium material in New Mexico and an NRC license to produce up to 3 million pounds of uranium. The Company acquired these properties over the past 20 years along with an extensive information database of historic mining logs and analysis.

If New Zealand signed up to a ban on depleted uranium, it could scuttle any sale of the moth-balled Skyhawk jets. Former British Royal Navy commander Robert Green, who emigrated to New Zealand in 1999, urged Parliament's foreign affairs, defence and trade select committee today to encourage the Government to ban using depleted uranium. He said Belgium had taken a precautionary approach and he recommended New Zealand follow its lead until all the evidence was in.

The Government was accused today of seeking to "snuff out" compensation claims of up to £100 million for veterans contaminated during nuclear and atomic tests in the 1950s. It has resisted the claims "with the utmost determination and all the colossal resources - legal, financial and scientific at its command," Benjamin Browne, QC, representing more than 1,000 veterans, said. Yet even though the Government accepted scientific evidence "of the highest repute" demonstrating a link between the veterans' exposure to radiation and cancer, lawyers "seek to rubbish that report at every turn". Mr Browne told Mr Justice Foskett in the High Court in London that "time and again", governments had told veterans that they had to await compensation until there was scientific proof of the link.

Nearly 1,000 veterans made ill after British nuclear bomb testing are going to the High Court to claim the MoD knowingly exposed them to the affects of radiation. The 970 British, New Zealand and Fijian claimants say that they have suffered illnesses - including cancers, skin defects and fertility problems - after testing in the South Pacific in the 1950s. The claimants say it has only been due to new technology that the link between the tests are their illnesses has been established They are claiming millions of pounds of compensation from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and say the Government knew it was exposing them to contamination.

The first court hearing is due to start in London later today in a multi-million dollar compensation case brought by veterans of British nuclear weapons tests, including those in the Pacific. The case includes hundreds of British, New Zealand and Fiji veterans who took part in the tests on Malden and Christmas Island in Kiribati in 1957 and 1958. Ben Lowings reports from London. "It's being billed as the veterans' day in court - and one former serviceman is flying in from Fiji for the occasion. Pita Rokovada and the other veterans are suing the British defence ministry for millions in compensation. The veterans believe they were used as guinea pigs to study the effects of radiation."

Veterans from New Zealand, Britain, Australia and Fiji, are locked in a court battle in London, claiming they were used as guinea pigs during Britain's nuclear bomb tests in the Indian and Pacific oceans in the 1950s. All have suffered a variety of illnesses since they were told to face the bomb without their masks as part of a study to see the effects of radiation fallout. The 800 veterans want compensation. But lawyers acting for the British government have told the court that there is no solid evidence to prove that their health problems were caused by the radioactive blasts.

French Polynesia's nuclear test veterans' group, Mururoa o tatou, has welcomed news that the French government plans to introduce a law to set up a compensation fund for those suffering poor health as a result of the French nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific. Such a law is expected to be tabled early next year and could pave the way for France to recognise a causal link between the tests and the prevalence of conditions such as thyroid cancer.

WHEN the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima 63 years ago today, it paved the way for a cancer time bomb inside Toowoomba man John Collins. Mr Collins served in the Australian Army as part of the clean-up crew at Hiroshima 23 months after the infamous bomb wiped out the city.

If you are feeling anxious - and you should be - about the world's appetite for nuclear weapons, there is a bit of good news. More countries than we ever expected are refusing to be pressured by the United States and India to approve an ill-conceived nuclear deal.

French Polynesians who worked on nuclear Pacific test sites are disappointed the Employment Court has again deferred a hearing into compensation for sick workers. The court has postponed the date at which the French government will respond to allegations by eight former workers and widows that their illnesses were a result of nuclear fallout.

Brazilian authorities gave the final go ahead to the civilian nuclear power company, Electronuclear, to continue construction of the country's third nuclear power plant. Though the decision to revitalize the 22-year-old nuclear reactor, Angra 3, came late last year, plans were finalized in July by the government's environmental regulatory agency. Electronuclear, a subsidiary of the state-owned energy firm Electrobras, plans to begin construction in February.

Nuclear-test veterans say the Government must finally "stop sitting on its hands" now international experts have upheld Massey University research exposing the extent of the genetic damage they suffered.