Nuclear nerves jangle

Press, 29 January 1988, Page 16

Nuclear nerves jangle

Pollution dangers, of any kind, fray nerves in West Germany. When the danger is nuclear, nerves snap. The country’s nuclear industry is now fighting to avoid a loss of credibility with the public. The industry may not be hanged on charges that German firms were involved in illegally delivering weapons-grade nuclear material to Pakistan and Libya. A senior member of the opposition Social Democratic party who made that charge has now admitted that proof is lacking. But the industry has other serious questions to answer.

The Government has suspended the operations of Nukem, a large German nuclear fuels company, and of Transnuklear, a subsidiary, after the discovery in Germany of 2400 drums of falsely labelled nuclear waste, imported from Belgium. State prosecutors are now looking into allegations that Transnuklear, and perhaps other companies, used bribery to promote an illegal cross-border nuclear transport business. Suspicions about the diversion of nuclear materials to Pakistan and Libya began there. On January 18 Nukem was

placed in the hands of the chemicals firm Degussa, one of its main shareholders. Two senior executives of the nuclear concern were suspended. A parliamentary inquiry is being launched amid insistent calls, even from conservative pro-Government politicians, to place nuclear transport companies in State hands. How, it is asked, can drums of waste apparently be shuttled across frontiers with no more control than that applied to cheese and sausage meat?

Copyright — “The Economist”