The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 2

2 NEWS The Guardian Thursday April 23 1998 Reprocessing of weapons-grade material 'will promote international security' but greens are furious Blair defends uranium deal Return of the great peacemaker Lucy Ward Political Correspondent I i i MSr laaaaaBi BHHHHHHHHdPaHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHl I aeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaJ 1 Georgian 'hot' metal could be broken for routine use in hospitals the Georgian material is being sent photograph mi.rdo lfod i oi res poi: ileni een members ot a cabinet commit b'o. but was novel discussed it full 'abinet Si otllsb Sei let.il Dilllalll I liVV.il I elected suggestions of nisheil cement, saving the Department of Trade and Industiy. the Foreign Office and Scottish Office had been completely involved Mi Devvar stiessed the Gov eminent responsibility to plav its p.ii i in the interna tion.il community In the wrong hands, the material could he used to produce a small bomb, warned. During question tune in the Commons. Mi Blair stressed the role the US and European states ere nlav mg in dealing with the pioblem of nuclear vvaste in the former Soviet Union Countries had decided to repossess the weapons grade nuclear tuei to stop it tailing into the hands oi tin oi ists guerrilla lighters The US has taken some ot highly enriched ura mum from Kazakhstan and Russia has taken about from Iraq since the Gulf war Britain had followed the normal rules lot the transput latum of i iv il nuclear fuel in keeping the shipment a secret until after the ansportation he Scottish itional Party leader Ale said "We ye now jot a Govern ment who think beet on the bone is too unsale for people in Scotland to eat but that Dounreay, a plant which is loiallv decrepit, which hasn't reprocessed anything tor the last 1H months because it's lit erallv falling apart, is a con venu'lit dumping ground for nuclear waste Bomb-grade cowardice, page 20; Leader comment, page 21 heartfelt tributes! And how little it must trouble him that most are written out before hand the Whips and given to Labour MPs to memorise Paddv Ashdown tried to spoil the kissv-feely mood with a cantankerous question about education spending require a degree of economic maniptila turn which would make Arthur Daly but he tailed, because Hen Brad shavv the Labour victor of Kxetet was soon on his feet declaring how delighted his constituents were with all that e.xti a education spending Thanks, lien' A few more troublemakers ignored the new national mood of i econciliation.

de manding specific answers about the Lister agreement Alan Clark wanted to know hether the mass release of terrorists would also apply to Hi itish soldiers presently banged up for shooting people 'vv lule believing they were defending their comrades in arms' Mr Blair blathered in a con cerned kind of way. It was evidently not enough for Mr who glowered angrily at him for at least four minutes, then buried his face in his hands Robert McCartney the independent unionist, wanted assurances that, when it came to decommissioning weapons. Sinn Fein would not be allowed to pretend it had noth to do with the IRA Mr Blair replied ith a ma jestic Blairism (Unlike Major-isms, these make perfect sense They are just so incredi bl general and incredibly vague they could apply toanv-thingat all i Speaking about the agreement as a hole, he said "I believe it is a right, proper and fair way forward for the future, and it is the future we should be addressing. What I like about that formula is that it could apply to peace agreements in strife-racked areas, or equally well to the provision of half-price beer mats for old age pensioners Simon Hoggart TIIK I'eaccmakei flew into the Chamber. a calm smile cm his face, an ol i hiani'h in Ins beak, and sett led on a twin )r at least a grot bench Heavens.

if only those inur dermis tribes in Northern Ire land and the Middle Kast were as warm and uddlv as Hnt i.sh MPs The Prime Minister must have felt like Akcl.i returning to thecuh pat He and his backbenchers took turns to In each othei furry pelts Linda Perliam Lab. Ilfoid Nl was thrilled to have him home "May I welcome the efforts you hav made in the cause of peace in Northern Ireland and the Middle She trilled about the hopes that had been raised by the May A summit in London, "which brings a i eal prosper; of stability and security for Israel and her neighbours'" Just case we had missed it. she said it ana in Tom Blair said gravely that progress could be made "if there is goodwill on both sides" (And pigs could fly if they ail ow ned CiUlfstream jets i Next William Hague vvason his feet, welcoming the opportunity to welcome the agree ment in Northern Ireland, and welcoming also the opportunity to pay tribute to the Prime Minister's courage the search for peace Mr Blair's reply and I paraphrase was 'vos Krnie Ross, another Labour MP. said that Mr Blair had given the sides an arena in London which would "help move matters forvv ard to a real How gratifying it must be for Mr Blair to hear such Reprocessing involves dissolving the entire fuel rod and its contents in hot nitric acid to produce a liquid which can be put through a series of complex chemical processes. The end result is the recovery of the uranium in powder form and a quantity of liquid radioactive waste which has to be stored.

It can be eventually turned into glass blocks as vitrified waste and stored until it stops producing heat. and President Bill Clinton during the Prime Minister visit to Washington in Febrti arv The Prime Minister-, spokesman said the issue had been settled 'government to government rather than prime minister to president" and said ttie two leaders had not discussed it dining Mr Blair's visit The issue was resolved by TONY BLAIR ester day defended the Government's deci sion to accept weapons-grade lira inuni and spent nuclear fuel from the former Soviet Union for i eproressing in Scotland, claiming the deal would help promote international security Am id furious protests from en lronmeiitalisN ministers denied that Scotland was being used as dumping ground tor tlv waste, winch could arrive at the Dounreav nuclear plant from Georgia within days Downing Street also sought to counter claims that the ar rangement. brokered by Brit ish and American officials and cleared by Mr Blair, rep resented a nucleat deal A Commons statement on the issue had been prepared for release the moment the uranium arrived in Scotland, officials said, insisting that concern for security had pre-v ented ad ance disclosure The assurances did nothing to reassure green campaigners, who are afraid the plan reflects moves. by the British nuclear industry to secure its own future by establishing Britain as an international centre of fuel processing Friends of the Earth, hu condemns the UK's policy on accepting spent fuel, loss restrictive than that of the United States or France, called on the Government to deny the industry pei mission to reprocess nuclear waste. The Government was first forced to acknowledge the shipment operation, code named Auburn Endeavour, on Tuesday after details were Tourists enjoying St James's BaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaMv'lBaaaaBaal BVBaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaT' Gold loans may leave Bank with bad debts Paul Brown Environment Correspondent MOST of the 5kg consignment of highly enriched uranium from Georgia has never been used.

It was being kept to fuel a reactor in a university to provide power for the campus and for scientific experiments. It is in the form of a metal, and is uncontami-nated by other dangerous elements. The Government says it can he broken into smaller pieces and theoretically re-used for medical and industrial purposes. Radioactivity is routinely used in hospitals in tiny quantities to bombard and kill cancer cells. The remaining uranium, which weighs about 0.8kg.

is contained in Ave fuel rods used in the Georgian reactor. They have been producing heat in a nuclear reaction and as a result are con leaked to the New York Tunes Yesterday, it confirmed that 5.1kg of uranium were going to Dounreay from a research reactor in Tbilisi. Georgia. Unlike Britain. America and France have legislation barring the import of irradi ated material, except, in America's case, where it comes from an overseas plant which the US helped to build park, central London, yesterday in the science journal Nature finds that in 1990.

199.1 and 1997 average northern temperatures were the highest since at least 1400. Solar radiation and dust from volcanic eruptions have contributed to this extraordinary change, according to geosi dentists and tree specialists from the universities of Massachusetts and Arizona. But "greenhouse gases emerged as the dominant force" as the world grew steadily more industrialised in the 201 century. Change forced by these gases, which include carbon dioxide and methane, showed no significant impact until "a large positive correlation" was found in Casting light on visible darkness The Dounreay plant where taminated with other radionuclides. The Government says these fuel rods will be reprocessed.

But experts say they may eventually have to be stored, because the Dounreay facilities are currently shut for safety reasons. The problem for the UK Atomic Energy Authority is that the heat-producing fuel is very volatile. It is contained in a metal cladding whose condition is not vet known. A difficult deci- Mr Blair's official spokesman said Britain had great ex perience dealing with such material which, after being treated, would produce two drums of intermediate level nuclear waste. Dounreay al-ready has the equivalent of 14.000 drums of the waste, expected to rise to about 19.000 when the plant is decommissioned in 1U0 years' time.

as warm air chased away the hottest in various sources of evidence. The results support warnings of rapid temperature rises mainly caused by-gases from electricity generation, motor vehicles, factories, home heating and cooking, rotting vegetation in landfills, rice-growing and the digestive processes of termites and cows. Termites generate 20 per cent of the world's methane. The researchers were able to trace in detail the effects of earlier unusual weather patterns. These include the northern hemisphere's "year without summer" of 1816, influenced by the eruption of Mount Tamora in Indonesia.

The geoscientists, led by Michael Mann from Massachusetts University, say aaaaaaaab aaaT -aaaaaH aaaar I aVBaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaBa. aaa sion will have to be made whether it is safe to store or must be reprocessed. Currently the L'KAEA is having to "make out a safety case'" to the Government's watchdog, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, for re-opening reprocessing lines. Until "special dispensation" had been given for the Georgian consignment, all movement of radioactive materials to the site had been banned by the NIL The Foreign Office con fiipned that consultations on the Georgian uranium be twVen Britain and America began last August, amid growing US fear of the danger of leaving the fuel in the un stable former Soviet republic However, ministers and officials are denying siigges Hons that the deal was signed and sealed between Mr Blair cold photograph auvstair grant 600 years new techniques may soon make it possible to reconstruct average world temperatures during the whole millennium and determine better the role of natural and man-made factors on climate. Days after heavy rain and Hooding brought chaos to Britain, the country yesterday enjoyed its warmest day of the year.

At lunchtime, temperatures at London's Gatwick airport reached 2 1C (70K) around 7C hotter than normal before wet weather returned to the South. Michael Dukes, of the PA Weal herCentre, said the sunshine was the result of a "very brief surge" of warm air that had come up from France. gEasy with i i Dan Atkinson and deal crs vy In i have borrowed lint ish gold rosei es worth as much as mil lion may he unable to iepuv the Hankot Kngland industry sources warned last nigh! A rising bullion price raised the spectre ot defaults by borrowers who have enjoyed more than a deiaiic of easy profits in their dealings with central banks One senior industry figuie warned that some of tin nation's gold was now jewellery form, hanging around the necks ol overseas consumeis. and could not he reclaimed in a crisis Central hanks, including the Hank of Kngland. have Income enthusiastic lenders of bullion during the past hi vears.

accepting low interest rates in return tor shedding the responsibility of stoi mg and seeming their reserves As long as the pi Ice kept falling, everyone was happy particularly the speculators who yvere abie to repay- the Hank and other central banks with gold that was cheaper than it had been when they had horn iwed it Hul the pi has moved up 12 per cent since and was rising again vcterdav Now speculators who bin rowed Britain's sold it on to otheis including Jewellery makei might haw to buy more expensive bullion hats el ovei their debts leant numbers in sew here to Were slglllf able to do so the iesiill.ini tin moil could threaten London pivotal po sition the inteination.il gold market The crunch mild tie exai er bated by the inci easing ten dencv of all central hanks to iden their lists approv borroweis. thus taking in org.misal lolls vv ill) low er red it ratings An anahsl warned yesterday that credit Gases made 1 990s Opera sketch in which tw men. supposedly fighting in he dark, are brilliantly illuminated What is astonishing, how-e er. is the way Shaffer wrings endless variations on the basic joke in which a South Ken sculptor, hile entertaining his fiancee's father during a blown fuse, manages to return all the furniture and objets art he has secretly borrow ed from his antique dealing neighbour. Shaffer has a serious point to make: that only in darkness are hidden truths revealed.

lint what makes us laugh inordinately are the alarming physical consequences of people stumbling around in a supposed black-out. handbags gets speared on chair legs, feet land in travelling-bags, and the peppery colonel at one point finds himself at the mercy of an unexpected rock ing chair It becomes a plav about the treachery of inanimate objects But it is also vet much a director's and actors piece Greg Doran's product ion has the right frenzied choreographed skill and there are very funny performances from David Tennant as the deceitful sculptor. Desmond Ban it as the neighboring antique-dealer who suggests camp on the verge of being struck, and Geoffrey Freshwater as the elect ru repa ir man mistaken for a million aire art-lover. Shatter, like Stoppard. plays ittily ith theatrical stei eo vpes But this brilliant comedy finally rests on its ability to ring endless laugh ler out of what Milton called "Noiight.

but rather darkness visible" Michael Billington Tho Real Inspector HoundBlack Comedy Comedy Theatre THIS is a wittv and delicious pairing of two classic-comedies ot the sixties by. respectiveh Stoppard and Shaffer One contrasts reality and illusion theother light and dark. What links them is the way they both Iced otf the conventions of theatre itself Stoppard plav famously confronts two theatre crit ics. a vengeful deputy and a philandering first string, ith a creaky country house thriller of the kind, thankfully, they don't write any more The skill lies in the way the two aisle-squatters are drawn into the stage events and are thus fatally able to act out their vindictive and lubri cious fantasies At therisk of sounding like the pretentious deputy Moon, the play is partly about the dangers ol ish-f ulfilmeiit But what keeps it alive is Stop pard's merciless parody of the fog bound whodunit in hirh the characters lob great chunks of exposition at each other and the comic char is forever on the phone As played by Nichola Mr-Auliffe. with bedraggled stockings, a hat that looks like a curving pancakeand a fearful, premonitory stare, she turns out to be the funniest character, in that she reminds us just how much the rep thriller de pended on condescending class stereotypes.

Like Stoppard's play Shaffer's Black Comedy also hinges on a highly theatrical concept: a famous Peking rat ings were all ci well dur ing noi times but "gold should be there tor an abnormal occasion'' Ci-mial banks have traditionally held gold as bed ruck asset ith wlni to back their currencies Only the Swiss banc is still explicitly backed hv a given quantity ot bullion However, i ithei trading nations have kept 11 I il I visible gold reserves close hand Cntil this year speculators have enioved a one way bet in then dealing-, with central hanks They have borrowed gold al a low rate of interest, sold it tor dollars vested the dollars at a highei rate i 'I interest When the tune came to repay the gold, the pi ice sliding almost without inter ruption li otn its near $1,000 an i iinice peak l'tlio would have fallen further meaning a tulv gain for tile spei ulators on top of the profit thev would have made Iri'iii investing in dollars )ne anaiv st said yesterday It has been a money ma chine Bullion hanks and other players had made huge profits in their dealings with the Hank ot Kngland. he said Hut the gold price has bounced bat liom an 1H year low in and vester day was up fioin $.107 an ounce to VdH To One source warned that sonic bullion hanks might be part ulat Iv uluerable. as tliev in the position of hoi row ing short-term from the H.ink to lend longer term to spi ul.itors, jewellery man utaetiiieis and others He added that all involved ill bor rowing troni central banks had behaved as if the price would drop torever and that the loans could always be I epaid in cheaper gold It is not known what pro port ion ol Hi nam's tonnes of gold is un loan, but the in tern.it ion, il average is about 10 per cent of reserves. Global deliveries including gift service John Ezard THREE of the last eight years have been the hottest in the northern hemisphere for six centuries and greenhouse gases have emerged as the 'dominant" culprit. This is the finding of research issued yesterda which uses a new method to plot climate change since the Middle Ages.

The method bypasses the lack of weather records for most of this period by mea suring and sy nttiesising evidence from a broad range of sources, including tree rings, polar ice. coral reefs and recorded information. The research published ordering fast mZf 1.2 million Secure titles to browse, payment on review end all major order instantly credit cards delivery by 1st mi mm uibjetf to booh ClasS 05.