- GAZA (IPC + Al Bayan) --
Israeli environmental officials declared that about 200 migrating birds
between Africa and Europe died when they stopped near the Israeli nuclear
reactor Dimona.
- The officials attributed the causes of death to drinking
the toxic waste water resulting from the Rotem chemical plant near the
town of Dimona, in the Negev Desert.
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- The migrating birds, all storks, died after one day of
drinking the water, the officials said.
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- Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear whistleblower who
was imprisoned for 18 years in Israel for exposing its nuclear secrets
to the world, warned of the increasing risk of Dimona's nuclear reactor,
and demanded the Israeli government to shut it down.
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- Vanunu told Al Jazeera satellite channel yesterday that
the Dimona reactor became very old, and unless it shuts down, another "Chernobyl"
disaster might occur again in the region.
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- The Dimona reactor is 40 years old now, and the reactors
of its kind usually lasts for 30 years, and many Israelis have demanded
its closure for the increased risk it started to pose to the Israeli society
and the entire region.
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- On July 27, the Israeli government began distributing
"Logol" iodine-containing pills to the people living around the
reactor, in order to protect them from the radiation leaking from the worn-out
reactor.
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- http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_08/148.html
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- homepage: http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/
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