ElmMliiralmlMS • Negotiators on nuclear test ban treaty miss self-imposed deadline Technical issues involving monitoring and on-site inspec tions were not the cause of the failure of negotiators at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva to reach agreement by the end of June. The major remaining hang-up in devel oping a pact to ban all nuclear explosions is the provision under which the treaty will come into force. The five de clared nuclear powers—the U.S., Russia, the U.K., France, and China—have indicated they will sign the treaty. China, which had threatened to block the ban, has backed away from its earlier position that nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes continue to be allowed. The remaining disagree ment is over whether the three undeclared nuclear pow ers—Israel, India, and Pakistan—must also sign. A further complication is India's insistence that the treaty include a schedule for total worldwide nuclear disarmament, a posi tion for which it has received little support. Negotiators will reconvene at the end of this month to attempt to agree on a compromise treaty draft submitted to them by Jaap Ramaker, the Dutch diplomat who chairs the talks.
• Takings bills garner support of Competitive Enterprise Institute "If political entities are able to effectively take property through regulatory activities, without paying compensation, there is no incentive to consider the costs of the proposed regulation and such costs are likely to be ignored/' So says, "Property Rights, Regulatory Takings, and Environmental Protection," a report issued by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization that works to promote the principles of free enterprise and limited government. The report wholeheart edly supports S. 605, the Omnibus Property Rights Act, which could be debated in the Senate later this month. The bill would require federal agencies to compensate landown ers when federal regulations prevent them from using their land "in a nonharmful manner." S. 605 also makes it easier for small landowners to pursue takings claims in federal court. The report contends that protecting landowners from regulatory takings will work to the betterment of the envi ronment by citing evidence that, in the current regulatory environment, landowners are deliberately destroying wild life habitat and preventing future habitat creation to avoid future federal regulation of private land under the Endan gered Species Act.
• Senate to vote on ratifying chemical arms treaty by Sept. 14 After much struggle, the Senate by unanimous consent has agreed to vote by Sept. 14 on ratifying the Chemical Weap ons Convention. However, it is likely the vote will come during the last week of July. The treaty, which the U.S. signed in January 1993, was held for years in the Senate For eign Relations Committee because committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-RC) had doubts about Russia's compliance with the accord. The treaty was voted out of Helms's com mittee in April, but not scheduled for full Senate vote by then-Majority Leader Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.). Dole resigned 22
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from the Senate last month to run for the U.S. presidency, leaving the fate of the treaty in limbo. The agreement for a full Senate vote on ratification was hammered out between new Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Minor ity Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.). Sixty-five nations must ratify the treaty for it to take effect. Once effective, na tions will have 10 years to destroy their chemical weapons. To date, 54 countries have ratified the accord.
• Eliminating dioxin sources would not cause economic loss The major sources of dioxins in the Great Lakes region could be shut down with little or no loss in jobs or economic activ ity, according to two reports by the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems (CBNS) of Queens College, City University of New York. It is generally believed that about 70% of air borne dioxins deposited in the Great Lakes region comes from incinerators that burn municipal or medical wastes. The CBNS studies show that by closing the region's 50 mu nicipal waste incinerators and shifting to intensive recycling, the Great Lakes communities could save more than $500 mil lion a year in waste disposal costs. And shutting down more than 600 incinerators in Great Lakes regional hospitals and installing autoclaves instead to sterilize infectious waste would increase hospital costs only 0.1%. The studies also evaluated the cost of converting several other dioxin-generating operations—such as pulp mills, iron sintering plants, and cement kilns that burn hazardous wastes—to dioxinfree alternatives. They calculate that these transitions could create 25,000 new jobs in the region, while 1,100 jobs could be lost. The two reports, "Zeroing Out Dioxin in the Great Lakes: Within Our Reach" and "Dioxin Fallout in the Great Lakes" were prepared by a team led by Barry Commoner, director of CBNS, and Mark Cohen, a CBNS researcher.
• Engineering academy names William Wulf interim president The National Academy of Engineering (ΝΑΕ) has moved quickly to bring its house back in order after the forced remov al of Harold Liebowitz as its president (C&EN, July 1, page 7). Its executive council has appointed computer engineer Wil liam A. Wulf, 56, professor of engineering and applied science at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, as its interim president. Wulf takes over from aeronautical engineer Liebo witz who, after a year in office, was recalled by a l,179~to-179 vote of ΝΑΕ members. The council had asked the members to remove Liebowitz for a series of actions it believed were dis ruptive to the inner workings of ΝΑΕ, to relations with the National Research Council, and to NAE's public image. Wulf formerly headed the Computer Sciences Directorate at the Na tional Science Foundation and was recently elected to a threeyear term on the ΝΑΕ council. He says he is committed to serve as interim president for nine to 12 months and wants to "reestablish faith" of the ΝΑΕ membership in NAE's leader ship. Ί will try my darndest to put the academy in shape for the next president," he says. An election is to be held early next year after the organization's 1,840 members express themselves on what they want from their 33-year-old institu tion. 'Too many people see ΝΑΕ as an inside-the-Bdtway black box," says Wulf. "And thaf s not good."
