PHYSICIANS' GROUP PRODS CLINTON ON ATOM POWER
Author: Associated Press
Date: Thursday, November 19, 1992
Page: 7
Section: NATIONAL/FOREIGN
WASHINGTON -- The Nobel Prize-winning physicians' group that has been
active for years on nuclear disarmament urged yesterday that President-elect
Bill Clinton take steps to get Russia and other nations to stop making
plutonium for civilian power reactors.
"Whether it is in military or civilian hands, plutonium can be used to
make nuclear weapons and as a tool for radiological terror," said Arjun
Makhijani, a technical consultant to the physicians group.
The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which won
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985, expressed concern at a news conference that
despite the end of the Cold War, authorities in Russia are expanding their
stockpile of civilian-grade plutonium at the rate of 2.5 tons a year.
The Russians are reported to have a stockpile of more than 30 tons of
plutonium for civilian use at the Chelyabinsk weapons site, in addition to
large amounts of plutonium in warheads, the group said.
The criticism followed a controversy over 1.7 tons of processed civilian-
grade plutonium shipped by sea from France to Japan for use in commercial
power reactors. The Japanese ship carrying the material was reported yesterday
to be in the mid-Atlantic, and was being tracked by the environmental group,
Greenpeace.
"An alarming surplus of plutonium is building up," said Katherine Yih, a
member of the physicians group. The group in 1985 was the recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize for its work on the potential medical effects of nuclear
warfare.
In a report on the dangers of plutonium in the post-Cold War environment,
the group criticized the plans of Japan and several European countries to rely
on plutonium to fuel commercial reactors.
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