British sales of plutonium upset union

Press, 19 April 1982, Page 13

British sales of plutonium upset union

NZPA London Leaders of Britain's 34.000 power supply engineers will warn the Government that their crucial support for the nuclear energy programme could be jeopardised if plutonium exported to the United States is used for military purposes. The Electrical Power Engineers' Association, the politically moderate but industrially powerful union which includes almost all senior engineers and managers, had opposed any move by President Reagan to use Britishderived plutonium in his expanding nuclear weapons programme. The move results from confirmation by the British Foreign Office that there had been talks with the United States Government over the possible export of plutonium. Although the Foreign Office emphasised in October that ahy export of plutonium would be for civil purposes, the association fears that it could indirectly benefit the defence programme. The United States reportedly needs plutonium from Britain, which has large stocks, for its Clinch River fast breeder reactor project, which was suspended by President Carter and then

restarted by the Reagan Administration. It is widely believed that the Americans need to exploit their own production of plutonium — which in Britain is extracted from spent fuel rods — for warheads for new missiles. The Foreign Office also emphasised last year that exports would be covered by international safeguards laid down by the International Atomic Energy Authority in Vienna. Plutonium has been sent from Britain to the United States before, as part of the 1250 kg of the material exported to a number of countries' since 1971. However, at an unreported conference last week, .the union endorsed a resolution urging the Central Electricity Generating Board "to make known its intention to maintain as clearly as possible the distinction between civil and military uses of nuclear materials." Mr John Lyons, the association’s general secretary, is expected to seek a meeting with the board and the Secretary of State for Energy, Mr H. Lawson, to outline the union's policy. Mr Lyons is likely to" say that the union is far from being unilateralist or antiAmerican.