I ask myself, 'what percentage of bad news is not getting out of the former Soviet Union?' I postulate ..'Most of it!!' But......

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Thursday, Aug 5 at Prague 04:05 am, N.Y. 10:05 pm Editor's Pick: Facts and Figures about Central Asia's autumn Elections.

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Three Arrested In Almaty For Selling Enriched Uranium

MOSCOW, Aug 3, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Three people have been arrested in the Kazakh capital Almaty for trying to sell five kilograms (12 pounds) of enriched uranium, the Itar-Tass news agency reported Monday.

The uranium could be used in the production of nuclear weapons, the report said.

The security forces gave no more details, but an investigation is underway. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)

Three Cases Of Bubonic Plague Detected In Kazakhstan

MOSCOW, Aug 3, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Three cases of bubonic plague have been discovered in a village in western Kazakhstan, the health ministry was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass Tuesday.

Quarantine restrictions have been clamped around the village of Maitakum, after the cases were detected, it said.

The affected villagers, a youth, his mother and grandmother, were said to be in stable condition and more than 80 other people who had been in recent contact with them have been isolated and placed under surveillance, Itar-Tass reported.

It was the third time this year that bubonic plague has been reported in Kazakhstan.

Bubonic plague symptoms include high fever and swellings of the lymph glands in the groin and neck which develop into painful boils.

The Black Death, once thought to be a punishment from God, killed more than 25 million people between the 14th and 17th centuries in a single epidemic which began in China and spread across Europe.

Chernobyl Head Sees Problems Closing In 2000

KIEV, Jul 29, 1999 -- (Reuters) The head of Ukraine's troubled Chernobyl nuclear power plant said on Tuesday the country would face a major shortage of electricity if the station was closed in early 2000 as planned.

"We should not close the station in the cold season of next year because we could face very serious consequences," Vitaly Tovstonohov told Reuters.

The plant director said as many as four of Ukraine's 14 reactors were likely to be out of commission for repair over the winter and forecast a shortage of electricity.

A lack of money to buy fuel and pay for the repairs needed would complicate the ex-Soviet state's situation, he added.

Tovstonohov said only eight of Ukraine's 14 nuclear reactors were currently generating electricity, with the other six, including Chernobyl's reactor number three, undergoing repairs.

Reactor number three is Chernobyl's last operating unit after number four exploded in 1986 in the world's worst civil nuclear disaster.

In 1995 cash-strapped Ukraine promised the Group of Seven leading industrial nations it would close Chernobyl by 2000 in exchange for international aid to complete the building of two replacement reactors at its Rivne and Khmelnytska nuclear power plants.

But Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma says Chernobyl will continue to function after the 2000 deadline if the G7 does not provide the promised $1.2 billion in time.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said earlier this month that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development would decide in September whether to finance the completion of the work on the two reactors.

Environmental groups have put stiff pressure on Schroeder, who represents Germany's presidency of the G7, to provide the funds only for gas- or coal-fired alternative generation options.

Ukraine says those options run counter to its national interests and would take too long to implement.

Tovstonohov also expressed concern about closing the reactor before completion of a new boiler to prevent pipes carrying highly contaminated water from bursting.

He said the United States was financing the $20 million boiler project which

Ukraine Reprimands Nuclear Industry Chief

KIEV, Jul 29, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) The Ukrainian authorities have issued a reprimand to the director of Energoatom, the body that runs the country's nuclear industry, the government said Wednesday.

Nicolas Dudchenko received a reprimand Monday for failing to carry out the repair and recharging of reactors at Zaporizhiya station in the specified time, said a highly-placed source within the government who wished to remain anonymous.

Dudchenko's mistakes led to prolonged shutdowns on four of the six reactors at Zaporizhiya station, the biggest in Europe. That meant serious power losses for the country, he added.

Zaporizhiya, which supplies 20 percent of Ukraine's power, has six VVER-100 -- 1,000 megawatt -- reactors.

They were the latest in Soviet technology, comparable to pressurized water reactors in the West. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)

Thursday, Aug 5 at Prague 04:25 am, N.Y. 10:25 pm Editor's Pick: Facts and Figures about Central Asia's autumn Elections.

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Chernobyl Closure To Dominate EU-Ukraine Summit

KIEV, Jul 23, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) The crippled Chernobyl nuclear power station was set to dominate an EU-Ukraine summit here Friday, with the two sides still wrangling over a 2000 closure deadline and funding of replacement reactors.

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma was expected to repeat a threat to keep the facility open after German lawmakers blocked the release of funds to Ukraine's nuclear industry despite an international agreement.

Closure of Chernobyl has been a key demand by the international community ever since its number four reactor exploded in April 1986, spewing nuclear debris over a swathe of Europe in the world's worst civilian nuclear accident.

Kuchma, hosting Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen, current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, and the commissioner for Eastern Europe, Hans van den Broek, will say Ukraine cannot afford to close the plant.

Kiev is already deeply in debt to Russia for natural gas imports which are vital to the economy and population during Ukraine's bitter winter, and insists the West come good on pledges to fund two replacement reactors for Chernobyl at other sites before closing the ill-fated facility.

In 1995 the Group of Seven leading industrial nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- agreed to provide 3.1 billion dollars to Ukraine to help shut Chernobyl.

Of that, 1.4 billion dollars was to fund the construction of two replacement reactors at the Rivne and Khmelnitsky nuclear power stations in the west of the country, as a quid pro quo for Chernobyl's closure by 2000.

Construction work on the replacements is to be financed in part by a 600 million dollar EU loan and a further 170-million-dollar loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Only the third of Chernobyl's four reactors remains in service, although it too is at the end of its operational life with hundreds of tiny cracks detected in the reactor's pipework in recent months.

Even more worrying is the state of the concrete sarcophagus hastily erected over the number four reactor after the 1986 meltdown, with cracks now apparent over 10 percent of its surface.

Experts warn that the structure is in danger of collapse, a catastrophe which would release into the atmosphere 150 tonnes of radioactive debris from the shattered reactor core.

Radiation equivalent to 500 times that released by the bomb which destroyed Hiroshima at the end of World War II was measured in the atmosphere around the plant after the reactor exploded.

"The sarcophagus is a really time bomb but we only have half the funds needed to carry out repairs," German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in July during a visit to Kiev.

Repair work to the protective shell is estimated to cost 760 million dollars but so far the international community has only raised around 400 million dollars for the project, including 100 million dollars pledged by the European Union. Ukraine is to contribute 50 million dollars.

The EBRD, which administers the Chernobyl fund, on Tuesday released a first tranche of 111.6 million dollars to allow work to begin.

However, a further 300 million dollars is needed to ensure Europe's nuclear safety, although even when the funds are found work will take eight years to complete. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse) Russian Officer Smuggles Nuclear Material In Central Asia

MOSCOW, Jul 23, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) A Russian officer was arrested Thursday in Kazakhstan in possession of highly radioactive substances police said had been stolen from the Baikonur space center, ITAR-TASS news agency reported.

A glass vial inscribed with the figures RA-23-54 and a tin container covered in lead plates the man was carrying yielded gamma rays that exceeded norms by 56 times in radiation tests.

The officer was attempting to smuggle the materials from Kazakhstan, where the Russian space agency operates at Baikonur, into neighboring Uzbekistan, Kazakh television reported Thursday. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), August 06, 1999

Answers

They don't need Y2K to fall apart ... but they'll melt down, we're convinced.
You're up early today, Michael! Sky thundering and glowing yellow last night at dusk. Easy to imagine sky coming alive with strange new things, thought of you ;^)

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), August 06, 1999.

Michael, thanks for the post, if the Dow, S&P Fututres and Nasdaq Futures are any indication of how the markets open this morning they are in BIG trouble. The Dow futures are down about 100 points at this moment.

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), August 06, 1999.