From the Winter Accidental Nuclear War Prevention Newsletter: (SfP member) Prof. Cedric Smith, of University College, London, and his associates are composing a letter on short decision time dangers for newspaper editors in England.
Kenneth Hare (U of Toronto) will head Ontario’s $1.5 million study of the safety of the Candu nuclear generating system used by Ontario Hydro. The study will not be concerned with the controversial issue of separation and export of tritium or of disposal of nuclear wastes.
When Pres. George Ignatieff visited the Borodino museum in Moscow this summer, he donated a lavishly illustrated handbook commissioned by Czar Nicholas II in St. Petersburg to mark the 100th anniversary of the famous 1812 battle against Napoleon outside Moscow. Commander of the Russian troops was Mikhail Kutuzov, a distant relative of Ignatieff’s.
Australian Seismological Centre Opens
Peace Research Centre at Australian National University, Canberra, announced the opening of the new Seismological Centre in September. The Centre will enable Australia to participate fully in any global seismic verification program established to monitor a test-ban treaty. Other international data centres are in Stockholm, Washington and Moscow. Map shows monitoring area.
Further information may be obtained from Australian Seismological Centre, GPO Box 378, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia.
Baha’i gift
In December Peter Richardson, Principal of University College, the University of Toronto, William Klassen and Anatol Rapoport of the College faculty, accepted a gift from Baha’i International toward an endow ment of the Univ. of Toronto’s peace chair. Roberts Library, Principal Richardson and Prof. Rapoport were given hand bound copies of the Baha’i World Centre publication, “The Promise of World Peace.” Two further annual gifts to the chair were pledged.
Waterloo Chapter
U.S. defence analyst Jack Kangas and Soviet journalist Igor Doroseev discussed the question, “What are the present obstacles to effective arms control and disarmament agreements?” at a Science for Peace and Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies event at the University of Waterloo Nov.25.
After presentations, Gunnar Boehnert, (Guelph) led a panel discussion with Conrad Brunk (Waterloo), Derek Paul (Toronto) and Toivo Miljan (Wilfred Laurier). As the student newspaper Imprint summarized the affair, “East-West Summitry Causes UW Stir!”
Kangas claimed that the major obstacle to arms control was the difficulty in evaluating and agreeing on the equivalence of weapons deployed by the two nations. Doroseev felt Star Wars and the present US administration were the principal obstacles to agreement. The need for trust was repeatedly stressed.
-Cynthia Folzer
Appeal
Sahabat Alam Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific People’s Environment Network have joined the Joint Conference for Shelving Daya Bay Nuclear Plant and Hong Kong Friends of the Earth in a call upon China to abandon construction of a planned 1800 megawatt pressurized water nuclear reactor at Daya Bay in China — 50 km from Hong Kong.
More information is available from the Bulletin. Letters and cables of support are urgently requested.
Address: Ms. Linda Siddall/Mr. Fung Chi Wood, c/o Friends of the Earth 1424 Princes Building, Central Hong Kong
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