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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Steven Dolley
202-822-8444

Tuesday, April 9, 1996

BAVARIA'S 'ROGUE ELEPHANT' DECISION TO BUILD REACTOR WITH BOMB-GRADE URANIUM SETS DANGEROUS PRECEDENT

Washington---The Bavarian Government's decision to issue a construction license for the FRM-2 reactor at the Technical University of Munich thwarts global efforts to rid the world of weapon-usable, highly enriched uranium, according to Paul Leventhal, president of the Nuclear Control Institute. Mr. Leventhal issued the following statement today:

"The Bavarian state government's decision to license construction of the Garching reactor with a core made of bomb-grade uranium makes clear that Bavaria has assumed the role of rogue elephant and that the German federal government is incapable of reining it in. Bavaria is pulling Germany into the ranks of China and Libya, the only other nations to build large research reactors fueled with bomb-grade uranium since 1978, when the international program to rid the world of this explosive nuclear fuel began.

"Fortunately, this is only a partial license covering initial site preparation and construction, and there is still time to re-design the reactor to run on low-enriched, non-weapons-usable uranium if Bavaria is prepared to act responsibly, either voluntarily or at the direction of the federal government. As things now stand, Bavaria is acting irresponsibly at the behest of a handful of zealous scientists whose vision is limited to their own pet project. This action sets an enormously dangerous precedent by demonstrating to the world that a presumably responsible nation can thumb its nose at international non-proliferation norms and perpetuate commerce in atom-bomb material."

The Nuclear Control Institute is a policy research center that focuses on nuclear-proliferation problems.


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