Russian Nuclear Nightmare
In April, the Russian parliament voted to allow the import of up to 20,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel from around the world. The plan, by the atomic energy ministry Minatom, is supposed to raise money for Russia's nuclear clean-up program and general expenditure, but it will mean massively increased risks from the transport of nuclear material and if, as planned, some of the fuel is reprocessed, Russia could end up with even more waste. (see Newsletter 2 for feature on this issue)

Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin, the world's largest military-industrial corporation, is due to start work on a $55 million experimental plant to decommission Russian military rocket fuel in the city of Votkinsk in Udmurtain Republic, Russia. The plant will be used for the destruction of over 900 engines from Soviet era nuclear missiles, including the incineration of 17,000 tonnes of solid rocket fuel. Incineration of this fuel forms highly toxic polychlorinated dioxins such as furans and biphenyls. It will be built in a densely populated area 4km from the centre of Votkinsk. A similar project in the US (ten times smaller than the current scheme) proposed for a sparsely populated area of the Nevada desert was shelved because of environmental concerns. The scheme is being financed by the US government and will be run by Lockheed Martin for 5 years before being handed over to Russian rocket manufacturing company Topol.

Public opposition to the scheme has been vocal. Activists organised a municipal referendum in which 94% of voters opposed the scheme. Topol banned their employees from taking part and monitored those who went to vote. The results of the referendum have been nullified by the local administrative court. Local groups and Russian environmental direct action group Rainbow Keepers are organising an action camp for mid-July. For more information contact the organising group in Moscow on tw@ecoline.ru or rkrz@ecoline.ru

South Africa Drugs Victory
Campaigners around the world celebrated when the 39 drugs companies suing the South African government dropped their case after talks with the government. They were challenging a law allowing South Africa to import cheap generic versions of patented drugs in cases of health emergency such as the AIDS crisis - in other words, the pharmaceutical transnationals wanted to preserve their profits at the cost of the lives of South Africans dying for lack of drugs. The case had turned into a PR disaster for the drugs giants, with demonstrations around the world on the first day in court and condemnation from numerous NGOs, Nelson Mandela, the EU and even George Bush. The UK governemnt, however, refused to uphold South Africa's right to protect its citizens and, in a report written by the pharmaceutical industry and endorsed by the government, called for the preservation of current patent laws.

See CW website for more on this story

Bilderbergers meet in Sweden
For the last 50 years a secretive selection of the world's most powerful men (and a very few women) have been meeting up in luxury hotels. The network, the Bilderberg group, claim their meetings are just private get- togethers for exchanging ideas, while others say this is the way the elite sets the agenda behind our backs.

This year's Bilderberg meeting took place on May 24-28 on an island off Sweden's west coast. The Wallenberg family (probably the most economically influential group in Sweden) hosted the meeting and the Swedish secret police (SÄPO) was responsible for the rigorous security.
Countries in the network each send a delegation of at least a business leader, a politician and an intellectual to the meetings. Participants are forbidden to talk about what goes on. This is supposed to foster the open and free exchange of ideas. The Bilderberg group has attracted a lot of attention from far right conspiracy theorists. They claim this is the secret Jewish conspiracy that controls everything in the world. The attention the Bilderberg group has received from the far right put off most left wing organisations from staging a protest outside the meeting.

Shell Shocks
Friends of the Earth International and local environment groups have forced Shell to backtrack on plans to explore for gas in Pakistan's oldest national park. The joint venture with Premier Oil (best known to campaigners for continuing to work with the Burmese military junta in the face of international condemnation), was to be part of a planned major expansion of Shell's exploration activities, but on 9th May the company announced it was swapping its stake in the project for a share of another exploration project in a less environmentally sensitive area, leaving Premier in control of the Kirthar National Park project. FoE International is continuing to take Premier to court over possible damage to the park if exploration goes ahead.