Coalition of Nuclear-Free Countries

Request for action

Why a coalition of non-nuclear countries?
For nearly two years, the Austrian umbrella organisation Anti Atom International (AAI) has been lobbying mostly within Austria for the creation of a "Coalition of Nuclear-Free Countries". The aim is to broaden the base and coherence of resistance against nuclear power and to form a counter-weight against institutions such as IAEA, NEA, and EURATOM. Therefore we lobby the Austrian government to approach other like-minded governments to form such a coalition.

Achievements of the campaign so far

• So far, the Parliaments of eight out of nine federal regions unanimously support the project.
• The idea for a Coalition has won the support of a wide range of Austrian NGOs. Another aspect of the campaign is directed to other relevant institutions such as churches and the trade unions. We have also won the support of artists and other well-known personalities. EUROSOLAR's European president and German MP Hermann SCHEER is one of them.
• In probably the most important official move so far, Salzburg Region has invited (1) all European regional authorities to build a parallel Coalition of Nuclear-Free Regions.
• The Austrian Parliament has unanimously passed a resolution in which it calls on the Austrian government to approach like-minded EU-countries to define a joint position toward EU-extension and Eastern reactors.

Call for action
Anti Atom International asks all interested NGOs based in nuclear-free countries, regions, districts or counties, etc., to join the campaign. Please tell us as soon as possible if you want to

1. receive more information about the "coalition of nuclear-free countries"
2. support the campaign for a "coalition of nuclear-free countries"
3. be actively involved in the campaign (f.e. by contacting your local or national government)

As we want to present a list of all supporting NGOs at the time of the General Assembly of the IAEA it would be great to receive your replies by the end of September 1997!

Contact: PLAGE (H.Stockinger), Arenbergstr.10, A-5020 Salzburg; tel: ++43/662/643 567, fax: 643 73 44.
AAI (H. Högelsberger), Volksgartenstr.1, A-1010 Vienna; tel: ++43/1/522 9102, fax 522 9103, E-mail: AAI@blackbox.at

NEW NUCLEAR LIABILITY CONVENTION

The Diplomatic Conference on liability will be held in Vienna 8 to 12 September 1997. The aim of this conference is to consider and adopt a new version of the ,Vienna Convention of Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage" and a ,Convention on Supplementary Funding"
Despite the fact that the amended version of the Vienna Convention is an improvement compared with the old Convention, the compensation of trans-boundary pollution caused by a nuclear accident is still highly inadequate. The following table shows the discrepancies between guaranteed compensation payments for transboundary pollution and the real damage that could occur:

Event	Damage
"Supplementary Funding Convention" 1	approx. 225 billion US-$
Cherno-related compensation W-Europe2	approx. 1.2 billion US-$
Damage compensation claim for Temelin3	approx. 230 billion US-$
Damage after accident in German NPP4	approx. 5000 billion US-$

1. Goeteborg Conference on ,Nuclear Safety & Local Democracy" 24-26 June 1997
2. The amount of all compensation payments of Austria, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and UK for Chernobyl-related damage was 1.2 billion US-Dollar (Value of 1987 [International Nuclear Liability - Nucleonics Week, Sept 29, 1994]
3. In 1993 and 1994 Anti Atom International and its member organisations collected damage compensation claims. The Austrian citizens were invited to estimate the damage they expect if the Czech NPP Temelin experienced a severe accident after completion. The total sum of these claims is 3000 billion Austrian Schillings.
4. from: Ewers & Rennings (1992): Abschaetzung der Schaeden durch einen sogenannten Super-GAU - prognos.