[en] The government has accepted the report 'Lead in the Environment' by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution which recommends the introduction of lead-free petrol. This acceptance is discussed in the context of how changes in policy on pollution legislation come about. It seems that broad changes in social attitudes are needed. Most changes start as environmental scares some of which capture public imagination, others do not. Scientists are a major influence on scares - some are ignored, others, where the risks may be less, are overplayed. Scares tend to follow a predictable pattern. The economic and social histories of some changes are presented - clean air, blue asbestos, the use of aerosols, fluoride in water, nuclear power, acid rain and VDU radiation. It is suggested that some scares are more a cry for help. Whether people are for or against technological development depends not on the risk they accept but on the different meanings of hazards they understand. To opponents of nuclear power, radiation is a metaphor for the whole insensitive, selfish, destructive industrial system. (U.K.)

[en] An account is given of interviews with members of the public in the community of Seascale, Cumbria, and of a visit to the Windscale works of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. The topics discussed include the radioactive contamination of seaweed on the beach, the reported high incidence of leukaemia in the neighbourhood and the reported discovery of traces of plutonium in dust at Ravenglass, a few miles south. The present article also lists other incidents involving release of radioactivity at Windscale. (U.K.)

[en] A study is presented of people who were supporters or leaders in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the 1950s and 1960s. Information is given from questionnaires completed by 403 respondents, about their social and political development during the past 20 years. (author)

[en] An account is given of the attempt by Rainbow Warrior to intercept Pacific Swan at Cherbourg Harbour, to protest against the transport of spent nuclear fuel from England to France for reprocessing. (U.K.)

[en] A brief discussion of French policy towards nuclear weapons and the sale and export of nuclear reactors and reprocessing plant is given, in relation to the air raid on Baghdad and the French presidential election. (U.K.)

[en] Some 15 or so of the people who live in Leiston, the town (pop. 4000) nearest the proposed Sizewell-B site, give their views about the building of the PWR station. The points raised include the possibility of employment, the disruption to the town during the actual building of the reactor and the safety record of PWRs. It is an issue which divides families and where young and old are found on both sides of the argument. The public inquiry is felt to be a formality only and the building of Sizewell-B to be inevitable. (U.K.)

No abstract available

[en] An account is given of the anti-nuclear and ecologist movement, called political ecology, in continental Europe -particularly France and West Germany. (U.K.)

[en] A progress report of the Sizewell-B PWR reactor enquiry. The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) witnesses have presented their evidence. Cross-examination of witnesses and presentation of the arguments against from objectors have still to come. The main area of dissatisfaction with the CEGB case is the reprocessing and storage of existing waste and the arrangements that there will be when Sizewell-B's waste is ready for storage. The issue of when safety aspects should be discussed is unresolved as the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate has not yet approved the reactor design. The inquiry also looks like becoming a debate on the whole nuclear power issue rather than relating specifically to Sizewell-B. (U.K.)

[en] A visit is described to the International Centre building in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency is housed. (U.K.)