INTERNATIONAL FOCUS

By TOM MORRIS

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Whether to gag
or throw up

The director used to be the
arranger for Tommy Dorsey’s
band. The producer once
acted in B-grade movies. The
stars were assorted NATO
talking heads, several actors,
some emigrees and one defec-
tor.

‘Let Poland be Poland’’,
hatched by the U.S. govern-
ment, and aired Jan. 31, was a
$350,000 bomb. Reviews of the
90-minute circus ranged from
the BBC’s, ‘the American
propaganda machine in top
gear,’ to Die Welt’s comment
that it “‘could only happen
under Ronald Reagan.”

The concept and product
were the height of bad taste
from an administration known
for its bad taste. Imagine: there
was the Turkish junta (in busi-
ness suit) lecturing the Poles
about democracy.

There was Thatcher, sitting
on a mountain of three million
jobless British workers, chat-
ting about freedom.

There -was Frank Sinatra,
freshly cleared by a rackets-in-
vestigation committee, singing
in Polish.

.Then came Bob Hope who
complained his voice was
being jammed,. followed by
U.S. ambassador to the UN,
Jeanne Kirkpatrick who was
later to reveal on TV that her

country is ‘‘ignored, despised,
reviled’ in the world body.

In between were scenes of
anti-Polish demos called in
response to Reagan’s an-
nouncement that Jan. 30 was
solidarity with Solidarity day.

We listened to the former
Polish ambassador to Japan, a
defector and traitor to his
country, explain that he had
seen it all coming, but nobody
would listen to him. Poor bas-
tard.

Charlton Heston lit a candle.
Reagan told the world he was a
union member. Alexander
Haig harranged a crowd in
Chicago and a speaker from
the ultra-right West German
Christian Democratic party did
the same in Bonn.

The problem many viewers
had was whether to watch the
early show (at 2 p.m. in Toron-
to) and ruin your supper, or
watch the later one (10.30
p.m.) and throw up.

Sadly, there was Henry
Fonda, sucked into this night-
marish mess. Also Glenda
Jackson — which only proves
talent is no substitute ion
common sense.

And there was OFL presi-

dent Cliff Pilkey sandwiched
between Haig and Kirkpatrick.

The show should be pre-
served for future generations
who may, in their wisdom,
erect a Hall of Idiocies. ‘‘Let
Poland be Poland”’ will surely
vie for top billing.

Reagan readies
for Salvador vote

Despite almost universal
condemnation of the plan to
hold an election in El Salvador
March 28, which will simply
‘‘legitimize’’ a right-wing re-
gime, the White House is'bar-
relling ahead.

There is, of course, the dip-
lomatic pressure being applied,

including on Canada, to sup--

port the fake vote. And this in
face of an all-party commit-
tee’s recommendation to Tru-
deau that no vote is possible
under a blanket of military ter-
ror.

But Reagan’s support comes
in another form: a $55-million
arms package tagged for the
junta he is trying to ram
through Congress. To do this,
the president must prove the
Duarte regime has made “a
concerted significant effort”’ i
improve its human rights re-
cord.

Television reports show just
the opposite. U.S. corres-
pondents tell’of increased ter-
ror and murder by junta forces
of civilians. A 287-page report
is before Congress detailing
murder, torture and repression
from eyewitnesses.

Nothing bothers Reagan. On
Jan. 25, neatly crossing over
rivers of blood and _ side-
stepping mountains of corpses,
Reagan signed a ‘‘certifica-

tion’ that the junta has made a
‘concerted, significant and
good faith effort to deal with
the complex political, social
and human rights problem it
is confronting ...”

The deal, according to
Washington observers, will

pass. Helicopters, cannon and ~

ammunition will again fill the
junta’s' warehouses. More
people will die fighting for lib-
erty. Reagan will resume
lecturing Poland.

Barbed wire
Olympics?

Maybe it’s time, even
though a full six years away,
for some voices to be raised
about the 1988 Summer Olym-
pic Games. It could be argued
that before the Games reach
Seoul, South Korea, we have
to go through the experience of
the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

Well, Los Angeles is on
stream (unless Reagan boy-
cotts the whole world in the
meantime) and _ National
Olympic Committees are re-
porting preparations well un-
derway. That’s good.

But the spectre of 1988, of

the Games being played in the —

killing ground of South Korea,
simply refuses to go away. Fif-
teen hundred people were
murdered there in 1980 by the

military regime, andthousands  §

are still jailed.

ons op pp

fons olilce Monn @}

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Planning and safety
for nuclear energy

By MILOSLAVA KODONOVA
Orbis Press Agency

At the time when the traditional
sources of energy are running out the
economic importance of nuclear power
Stations is very much in evidence. How-

ever, their reliability and safety, and’

their influence on people's health at pre-
sent and in the future are frequent topics
of discussions. In the capitalist world it
sometimes happens that the people's an-
xiety about a possible uncontrolled es-
cape of radiation, anxiety provoked by
inadequate or purposefully distorted in-
formation, becomes the subject of politi-
cal speculations.

What is the approach of socialist
Czechoslovakia to problems connected
with industrial uses of nuclear energy?
How are the interests of the Czecho-
slovak population and of the inhabitants
of neigboring countries respected in the
construction of nuclear power plants?

The importance of solving this prob-
lem is emphasized by the fact that
Czechoslovakia is the second largest
manufacturer of nuclear power plant
equipment within the community of the
Council for Mutual Economic Assis-
tance (CMEA), after the Soviet Union. It
has the second largest program” of
development of the nuclear energy in-
dustry. It is expected that by the year
2000, 50% of electric energy production
in Czechoslovakia will be generated by
nuclear power plants.

The safe and reliable operation of
these technologically intricate com-
plexes is guaranteed by the very concept
of their construction.

The development of nuclear energy
industry is based on the use of Soviet
light-water reactors of the VVER type
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEB. 12, 1982—Page 8

~

which have proven their worth in the
Soviet Union, the German Democratic
Republic, Bulgaria and Finland.

The construction of nuclear . power
Stations has its specific conditions in
each country, influenced by many vari-
able factors. For this reason, in Czechos-
lovakia, too, it relies on the country’s
own theoretical and research base pro-
vided by several nuclear research in-
stitutions. A prominent place among
them is held by the Nuclear Power Plant
Research Institute attached to the first
Czechoslovak nuclear. power station at,
Jaslovské Bohunice, West Slovakia.
Many specialists at the institute, founded
five years ago, gained theoretical knowl-
edge and practical experience at re-
nowned scientific institutions and in
atomic power plants in the Soviet Union.

Czechoslovak specialists have proven
their abilities and promoted the prestige
of the Czechoslovak nuclear program
also by their work in international organ-
izations. One of the projects carried out
by the institute was the elaboration of
methods of calculating and ascertaining
the amount of plutonium in burnt-up fuel,
this for the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) based in Vienna. It is a
contribution to building a system to con-
trol non-proliferation of nuclear
weapons. Scientists from the institute
also work in bodies of the CMEA, name-
ly in its section for nuclear power plants,
and the scientific and technical council
for radiation safety.

It is the main task of the institute to
create conditions for the safe, reliable
and efficient operation of nuclear power
plants equipped with VVER reactors.
Connected directly with its mission is
another project — a system of control of

the principal nuclear power plant in-
stallations, such as the reactor vessel,
primary piping, circulating pumps, clos-
ing valves, the volume compensator and
the steam generator. In practical applica-
tion it incorporates unique equipment
developed and manufactured in the in-
stitute which by remote control tele-
vision, monitors the quality of the sur-
face of the pipes after a certain time of
operation. This guarantees the safe op-
eration of the power plant and, more-
over, work with remote-controlled
equipment reduces the risk of exposing
the personnel to radiation.

To protect the environment and
human health the institute seeks to im-
prove the methods of calculating radio-
activity propagation. In cooperation with
other organizations concerned with
environmental protection the institute’s
specialists examined water and soil sam-
ples taken in the vicinity of the power
plant, and the results were gratifying: the
effects of the power station at Jaslovské
Bohunic on the surrounding environ-
ment are below the measurable level for
the time being.

By 2000, 50% of Czechoslovakia’s energy will be nuclear.

‘situations.

i

Czechoslovak researchers study the
radioactive waste disposal problem!
which is topical also in other countrié
New ways are being sought in the inst”
tute of solidifying liquid radio-activ® q
concentrates and reducing the volume 0
solid waste. The aim is to transform the
waste into a state which would prevent
an escape of radioactivity even under thé
most adverse conditions.

Nuclear researchers respond flexibly
to the problems of the expanding energy sy
industry in Czechoslovakia and other
countries, cooperating with researchers
and nuclear power plant specialists in th
Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Romania,
German Democratic Republic and Hut”
gary. It should be also noted thal
Czechoslovak research contributes ¢
the experience with industrial uses of nv’.
clear energy on an international scale:
For example, after the accident at thé
nuclear power plant in Harrisburd;
Pennsylvania, workers of the Jaslovské
Bohunice institute participated in t
analysis of its cause and worked out
course of action to be taken in similé