FWD: EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION ON Y2K COMPUTER PROBLEM AND POSSIBLE EUROPE-WIDE CONSEQUENCES draft version

[Ak Malten]

Beste Mensen,

Ik ontving het volgende bericht van Mari Takenouchi
maritakenouchi at hotmail.com

Het bevat een draft versie van de EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION
ON THE YEAR 2000 COMPUTER PROBLEM AND POSSIBLE EUROPE-WIDE CONSEQUENCES

Met vriendelijke groeten,

Peace,
or saved by
the pigeon,

Ak Malten,

Global Anti-Nuclear Alliance

---origineel bericht in het Engels (sorry!) volgt---
Dear all

Please forward the following DRAFT written by Green Party in European
Parliament to your government leaders and all the related Ministries.  Also,
please forward the same to countries with nuclear reactors (35 all together
and even more if we count the experimental reactors, and/or chemical plants)
through embassies or whatever accesible source you can think of.

The original draft was forwarded to IPPNW (ippnw at oln.comlink.apc.org) as
well.  I couldn't receive mails currently, so I have typed this in a train
heading to Stradbourg where the next European Parliament session is going to
be. (But this session is unlikely to adopt this resolution...However, there
is G8 Y2K Seminar in Berlin on Sep 21, we should set the target on this!  We
have no time!!!)

Please make the best use of this

Best of luck to all of us

Mari Takenouchi
maritakenouchi at hotmail.com


DRAFT

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION ON THE YEAR 2000 COMPUTER PROBLEM AND
POSSIBLE EUROPE-WIDE CONSEQUENCES

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the responsiblities of the EU in the areas of major
accidents and their consequenc3es, relating to radioactive and chemical
pollution, and its role in nuclear safety under the Euratom Treaty,

A. whereas the G8 is holding a special seminar on y2k in Berlin on September
21st, entitled: "Seminar zur jahr 2000 Vorsorgeplanung",
B. noting growing concern worldwide that the failure of computers to
recognize the year 2000 date change could affect control systems at nuclear
and chemical plants, and off-site electrical supplies from the networks to
such plants, as well as command, control, communications and intelligence
systems of nuclear forces,
C. whereas there is increasing doubt about the feasibility of bringing such
computerized systems to year 2000 compliance,
D. noting that as a result, according to respected analysis, there exists a
small but unacceptable risk of serious nuclear or chemical accidents, which
could have European-wide or even global consequences, especially where
nuclear plants use plutonium fuel, and similar risk of an accidental nuclear
war,
E. whereas there are hundreds of operating nuclear plants and research
reactors and thousands of chemical plants around the globe, and the United
States and Russia concurrently maintain thousands of nuclear weapons on
"hair-trigger" alert, such that they can be fired within minutes,
F. whereas data errors have caused mishaps and near accidents at nuclear
reactor power stations in the past, and false signals of missile attacks
have triggered a process in which national leaders had to decide in only a
few minutes whether to fire nuclear weapons,
G. noting that all EU Member States have either nuclear power or research
reactors or chemical plants, and two European Union member states have
nuclear forces which may be affected by year 2000 computer problems,
H. welcoming the efforts of governments and plant operators around the world
to tackle this problem, and in particular the UK governments announcement
that it has relaxed the notice to fire of its nuclear forces from minutes to
days,
I. noting that in 1996 the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear
Weapons recommended that all nuclear forces be taken off hair-trigger alert,
preferably by physical separation of the warheads from delivery vehicles,
J. noting that a number of resolutions in the UN General Assembly, notably
Resolution 53/77Y "Towards a nuclear weapon-free world: the need for a new
agenda" have called for nuclear forces to be de-alerted,
1. Calls on all governments to instruct the operation of all nuclear or
chemical plants not able to verifiably demonstrate their complete Y2K
compliance, that such plant must be at least temporarily shut down at the
Millennium, and that in any case stand-by electrical power should be
available for up to 60 days at all nuclear plant to operate cooling pumps
and safety systems, and longer term back-up must be provided for spent fuel
cooling ponds;
2. Calls on the OECD Members to provide specific resources to Central and
Eastern European countries for the purpose of replacing their nuclear plants
at the Millennium, either to fund fuels or electricity imports, especially
where the dependence on nuclear power is high, for example in Lithuania;
3. Calls on all governments of the nuclear weapon states plus India, Israel
and Pakistan to take whatever steps are necessary to absolutely avoid any
accidental or unintended firing of weapons, as soon as possible, and at
least before 31 December 1999;
4. Calls on all non-nuclear Member States of the European Union to make
vigorous representations to this effect;
5. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the
Council, the UN Security Council, the IAEA, the governments of the Member
States and the applicant states and the OECD, and the governments of Russia,
China, Israel, Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Mexico, South
Africa, Switzerland, and Ukraine.

ENDS



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