Who's Afraid of Nuclear Power

   Nesrećne 1986., 26. aprila bila sam na Divčibarima i pokisla kao miš, zajedno sa svojom dvogodišnjom ćerkom. Kada sam saznala 27. iz "pouzdanog izvora" da je kiša bila radioaktivna da je stepen ozračenosti u Beogradu i okolini neverovatno visok, doživela sam nervni slom. Naročito zato što je taj pouzdani izvor bio funkcioner na visokom položaju koji, iz meni nepoznatih razloga, nije hteo, kao i ostali pouzdani u vlasti, da kaže narodu pravo stanje stvari.

U to vreme sam se svakodnevno družila sa Žikom Pavlovićem: kada sam njemu to saopštila, on mi je rekao da sam luda žena... prijateljski, ne sumnjam u njegovu naklonost. Ne znam da li se ta epizoda nalazi u njegovom dnevniku gde nas sve pominje. Elem, niko me nije shvatao ozbiljno, ni moje neprekidno pranje kose, salate, čitanje stranih vesti, telefoniranje u Italiju...

Ne znam koliko me je to držalo, mislim akutno, ovako hronično znam da se nikad nisam oporavila, naročito kad sam kasnije dobila saznanja i podršku za moje ludilo. Luda žena, eto to sam ja od tada zvanično kad su ekologija i politika u pitanju, a možda i šire. I ne stidim se svog ludila već javno nastupa. Btw, ne znam da li ste primetili kako često u književnosti sa veliko K, kad neka žena nešto pametno kaže, ali malo off, uvek je oteraju negde "gore" da malo odmori. Postoji znači citava tradicija nivoa ludih žena, dvorskih luda, Kasandri, zašto da budemo skromne, ponekad nam se i muškarci pridruže ala Hamlet ( kome ipak ne mogu da oprostim sto je Ofeliju oterao u grob jer nije htela u manastir), ali to je sada sasvim neka drugi priča...to be continued...

Serbian Reactor Still Contains Dangerous Materials

While weapon-grade fissile material was removed four years ago from the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences in Serbia, the facility’s decaying nuclear reactor still contains radioactive materials that could be used to build a radiological “dirty bomb,” the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Jan. 3, 2003).

The poorly guarded facility is “almost like a candy store” for terrorists, said Mike Durst, the International Atomic Energy Agency official working on ways to secure Vinca.

U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month launched the “Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism,” which urges protection of nuclear facilities still housing fissile materials that are short of weapon-grade.

Moscow and Washington four years ago helped Serbia transfer nearly 100 pounds of weapon-grade fuel from Vinca to Russia. Helicopters, heavily armed troops and decoy trucks were deployed for the six-hour operation, in which two nuclear warheads worth of fuel was driven from Vinca to the airport, then flown to a Russian facility.

The Vinca reactor building still holds some 8,000 spent fuel rods — dozens containing uranium enriched to various levels, according to AP. The material useful for manufacture of a dirty bomb is made up of uranium byproducts that would quickly kill anyone tampering with it without wearing protective suits and using other specialized equipment. However, experts have expressed concern that terrorists would be willing to secure the material at the cost of their lives.

There is also the fear that Vinca employees, with monthly incomes of less than $750, would be tempted to sell some of the material on the black market, according to AP.

With a single radiological weapon, which would combine radioactive material with conventional explosives, “you could hit Broadway, and you couldn’t decontaminate it for years,” said Obrad Sotic, former operations manager at Vinca.

Authorities plan to eventually ship the spent fuel to Russia and dismantle the reactor. In the meantime, the International Atomic Energy Agency is helping to install a centrally monitored alarm system and to draft a security plan for police.

Returning the spent fuel to Russia is expected to cost roughly $10 million, plus the funds necessary to reprocess the fuel once it is safely in Russia. Improving storage is projected to cost another $5 million. Donor countries have already pledged some 60 percent of that amount, but dismantling Vinca would cost yet another $60 million, according to AP.

The 2006 budget for the Serbian Science Ministry, which oversees Vinca, is less than $90 million.

Serbian Science Minister Aleksandar Popovic expressed disappointment that the international community, after the 2002 operation to remove the weapon-grade materials, did not assist with the remaining cleanup.

“Once the spent fuel is gone, I’ll be one happy guy,” he said (George Jahn, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, July 27).