============= Transaction # 1 ============================================== Transaction #: 1 Transaction Code: 0 (New Host Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 09:08:07 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 16:00:00 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 2 ============================================== Transaction #: 2 Transaction Code: 35 (New Host Connected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:08:08 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 3 ============================================== Transaction #: 3 Transaction Code: 6 (Direct Rank Search) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 09:09:21 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 16:00:00 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 6 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: zfind "(topic @ {drugs for the treatment of asthma})" ============= Transaction # 4 ============================================== Transaction #: 4 Transaction Code: 14 (Search Results Displayed) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:09:25 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 8389 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 12 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 5 ============================================== Transaction #: 5 Transaction Code: 2 (New Disp. Format Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:10:39 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 6 ============================================== Transaction #: 6 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:12:07 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT941-10709 _AN-EBHC6AE5FT 940 208 FT 08 FEB 94 / UK Company News: Glaxo asthma drug wi ns US approval By DANIEL GREEN Glax o has belatedly won US approval for one of its most important products of th e 1990s, the inhaled asthma treatment Serevent. The US Food and Drug Adminis tration had been expected to approve the drug in December and Glaxo shares f ell when this did not happen. After Serevent's approval yesterday, the share s rose 15p to end the day with a net fall of 2p at 664p. The drug is importa nt to Glaxo because it is a successor to Ventolin, the long standing big sel ler in asthma treatment. Such respiratory treatments are second in importanc e only to ulcer drugs in Glaxo's therapeutic portfolio, accounting for almos t one quarter of total sales. The older drug has now lost much of its patent protection and the company is relying on Serevent to underpin its position in the market. The drug was approved in Europe in 1991 and should eventually reach sales of Pounds 350m a year, according to James Capel, the broker. In the last full year, Serevent sold Pounds 73m while Ventolin sales were wort h Pounds 484m. The drug had a setback last month, however, when Italian gove rnment healthcare reforms favoured Ventolin by excluding Serevent from a lis t of drugs the government would pay for. Glaxo lodged an appeal against the ruling. Companies:- Glaxo Holdings. Countr ies:- USZ United States of America. Industries:- P2834 Pharmaceutical Preparations. Types:- TECH P roducts & Product use. The Financial Times London P age 24 ============= Transaction # 7 ============================================== Transaction #: 7 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:12:18 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT941-10709 _AN-EBHC6AE5FT 940 208 FT 08 FEB 94 / UK Company News: Glaxo asthma drug wi ns US approval By DANIEL GREEN Glax o has belatedly won US approval for one of its most important products of th e 1990s, the inhaled asthma treatment Serevent. The US Food and Drug Adminis tration had been expected to approve the drug in December and Glaxo shares f ell when this did not happen. After Serevent's approval yesterday, the share s rose 15p to end the day with a net fall of 2p at 664p. The drug is importa nt to Glaxo because it is a successor to Ventolin, the long standing big sel ler in asthma treatment. Such respiratory treatments are second in importanc e only to ulcer drugs in Glaxo's therapeutic portfolio, accounting for almos t one quarter of total sales. The older drug has now lost much of its patent protection and the company is relying on Serevent to underpin its position in the market. The drug was approved in Europe in 1991 and should eventually reach sales of Pounds 350m a year, according to James Capel, the broker. In the last full year, Serevent sold Pounds 73m while Ventolin sales were wort h Pounds 484m. The drug had a setback last month, however, when Italian gove rnment healthcare reforms favoured Ventolin by excluding Serevent from a lis t of drugs the government would pay for. Glaxo lodged an appeal against the ruling. Companies:- Glaxo Holdings. Countr ies:- USZ United States of America. Industries:- P2834 Pharmaceutical Preparations. Types:- TECH P roducts & Product use. The Financial Times London P age 24 ============= Transaction # 8 ============================================== Transaction #: 8 Transaction Code: 6 (Direct Rank Search) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 09:13:27 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 16:00:00 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 7 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: zfind "(topic @ {drugs for the treatment of asthma ventolin})" ============= Transaction # 9 ============================================== Transaction #: 9 Transaction Code: 14 (Search Results Displayed) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:13:30 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 8390 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 12 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 10 ============================================== Transaction #: 10 Transaction Code: 8 (Mixed Bool./Dir. Rank Search) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 09:14:01 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 16:00:00 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 1 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 8 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: zfind "(topic @ {drugs for the treatment of asthma ventolin}) and (title {gl axo})" ============= Transaction # 11 ============================================== Transaction #: 11 Transaction Code: 14 (Search Results Displayed) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:14:04 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 141 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 12 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 12 ============================================== Transaction #: 12 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:14:16 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT941-10709 _AN-EBHC6AE5FT 940 208 FT 08 FEB 94 / UK Company News: Glaxo asthma drug wi ns US approval By DANIEL GREEN Glax o has belatedly won US approval for one of its most important products of th e 1990s, the inhaled asthma treatment Serevent. The US Food and Drug Adminis tration had been expected to approve the drug in December and Glaxo shares f ell when this did not happen. After Serevent's approval yesterday, the share s rose 15p to end the day with a net fall of 2p at 664p. The drug is importa nt to Glaxo because it is a successor to Ventolin, the long standing big sel ler in asthma treatment. Such respiratory treatments are second in importanc e only to ulcer drugs in Glaxo's therapeutic portfolio, accounting for almos t one quarter of total sales. The older drug has now lost much of its patent protection and the company is relying on Serevent to underpin its position in the market. The drug was approved in Europe in 1991 and should eventually reach sales of Pounds 350m a year, according to James Capel, the broker. In the last full year, Serevent sold Pounds 73m while Ventolin sales were wort h Pounds 484m. The drug had a setback last month, however, when Italian gove rnment healthcare reforms favoured Ventolin by excluding Serevent from a lis t of drugs the government would pay for. Glaxo lodged an appeal against the ruling. Companies:- Glaxo Holdings. Countr ies:- USZ United States of America. Industries:- P2834 Pharmaceutical Preparations. Types:- TECH P roducts & Product use. The Financial Times London P age 24 ============= Transaction # 13 ============================================== Transaction #: 13 Transaction Code: 12 (Record Relevance Feedback) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 09:14:27 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 16:00:00 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: zfind Default:1 ============= Transaction # 14 ============================================== Transaction #: 14 Transaction Code: 14 (Search Results Displayed) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:15:07 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 206926 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 12 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 15 ============================================== Transaction #: 15 Transaction Code: 15 (Terms Cleared) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:16:32 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 16 ============================================== Transaction #: 16 Transaction Code: 6 (Direct Rank Search) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 09:16:53 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 16:00:00 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 3 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: zfind "(topic @ {cyanide commercial industrial})" ============= Transaction # 17 ============================================== Transaction #: 17 Transaction Code: 14 (Search Results Displayed) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:17:03 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 64790 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 12 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 18 ============================================== Transaction #: 18 Transaction Code: 8 (Mixed Bool./Dir. Rank Search) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 09:20:18 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 16:00:00 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 1 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 4 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: zfind "(topic @ {cyanide commercial industrial}) and (topic {cyanide})" ============= Transaction # 19 ============================================== Transaction #: 19 Transaction Code: 14 (Search Results Displayed) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:20:30 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 33 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 12 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 20 ============================================== Transaction #: 20 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:21:25 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT934-10056 _AN-DKHDHABAFT 931 108 FT 08 NOV 93 / US Pollution Scandal: Race to move mo untain of waste in the Rockies - When spring melts the winter snow, water ca rrying toxic heavy metals could bring death to the streams feeding the Rio G rande By KENNETH GOODING HIGH UP in Colorado's Rocky Mountains, Hayes Griswold and his team are racing against time. They are trying to dump 6.5m tonnes of dangerous mining waste back int o the pit it came from. They need to get as much of the work as possible don e before winter sets in, bringing some of the world's cruellest weather. The y know that if they don't succeed, then in spring, as the snow melts, 1,000 gallons a minute of water polluted with toxic heavy metals will pour from th e waste dump to threaten the streams that feed the Rio Grande River far belo w. This is Summitville, a gold mine that has come to epitomise all the worst aspects of modern mining. It is a public relations disaster for the mining industry which has spent millions of dollars to promote the idea that modern mines do not create environmental problems. Environmental groups everywhere point to Summitville as evidence that they do. It will cost Dollars 25.3m t o move the dump at Summitville, tip the waste back into the pit and treat it with neutralising materials. Another Dollars 5m will be needed to treat the contaminated ground beneath the dump. The bills are being paid by the US En vironmental Protection Agency, Hayes Griswold's employer. The EPA is spendin g Dollars 50,000 a day to prevent a toxic mixture of cyanide and heavy metal s spilling from the mine site. The agency was forced to take emergency actio n early this year after the mine's owner, Galactic Resources, a Canadian com pany, declared itself bankrupt. But, while narrowly averting an environmenta l catastrophe, the EPA was plunged into a financial nightmare. It estimates the final bill for cleaning up Summitville will be more than Dollars 100m. T he Federal Bureau of Investigation is checking out events at the mine, which within six days of going into production was leaking water contaminated wit h cyanide and heavy metals into the headwaters of the Alamosa River, which s upplies water to farms and ranches on its way to the Rio Grande. Within a ye ar it had poisoned all the fish in a reservoir 15 miles downstream and was c orroding irrigation equipment used by farmers in the valley below. The Color ado Bureau of Investigation is carrying out a parallel inquiry to establish 'if there have been violations of criminal laws at Summitville'. US law enab les the EPA to claw back money for cleaning up a polluted site from any pers on or organisation in any way previously connected with that site. The agenc y is investigating whether Vancouver-based Galactic's bankruptcy means the c ompany and its executives are insulated from these claw-back provisions. Amo ng the EPA's prime targets is Robert Friedland, aged 42, the Chicago-born so n of a German architect. For the first six years of the mine's short life Mr Friedland was chairman of Galactic. For much of that time he was also presi dent and chief executive. To develop the Summitville mine Mr Friedland raise d more than CDollars 300m (Pounds 147.7m) for Galactic, much of it from Euro pean institutional investors, particularly in Switzerland and the UK. Today Mr Friedland's main corporate investment vehicle is a Vancouver investment c ompany, Ivanhoe Capital. He has been promoting Vengold, a company exploring for gold in Venezuela. He is also negotiating with RTZ, the UK-based world's biggest mining company, for a stake in the Lihir gold project in Papua New Guinea. This is probably the biggest gold deposit in the world outside South Africa. Mr Friedland has a considerable personal following among some inves tors. He helped Vengold raise more than CDollars 50m in North America and Eu rope this year, one of the biggest capital-raising exercises by a Vancouver- quoted company. He was the executive driving force at Galactic when Summitvi lle was commissioned. Local legend has it that gold mining started at Summit ville, 12,500 ft up on the north-east flank of the San Juan mountains, 25 mi les south-west of Del Norte in Rio Grande County, in 1750. The skeletal rema ins of wooden buildings from mining activity in the 1870s still cling forlor nly to the mountainside near the huge pit dug by Galactic after mining resum ed in 1986. Galactic used a technique known as cyanide heap leaching to reco ver gold from the ore it mined. This process usually starts with the constru ction of an impermeable lined pad on the ground. Then heaps of crushed ore a re dumped on the pad and sprinkled with a cyanide solution that leaches the precious metal from the ore. It is a process that has been used by the minin g industry for many years. But this was the first time it had been used on s uch a scale in Colorado or at such a height. Cyanide started leaking from th e Summitville ore heap almost immediately. Yet rather than call a halt and o rder the pad to be repaired, regulators from Colorado's state Mine Land Recl amation Board allowed Summitville to collect the contaminated water and pump it back up to the top of the heap. Thus over-ambitious management, botched construction, reckless mining and weak state government regulation combined to create one of the biggest scandals in recent mining history. Summitville 'will likely be used as a case study of what can go wrong at a mine site', s ays a report prepared for a group of mining industry and environmental organ isations. Summitville, which was set up as a subsidiary of Galactic, claimed that there was not enough flat land for a conventional heap leach pad. It w as allowed to dam a narrow valley and build a huge heap in it which was even tually 127 ft deep and spanned 48 acres. A creek ran through the valley but Galactic simply lined the heap with plastic and ran a drain under it. It als o built an unlined waste pile - without regulatory approval. Big problems qu ickly developed. More water flowed into the heap than flowed out or evaporat ed, creating a risk that toxic water would spill over the top. Acidic water, which dissolved the heavy metals such as copper, zinc and iron in the waste material, began to flow from the waste pile. Cyanide started to leak into t he creek and from there into the ground water. The company tried to pump the leaking water back into the heap, but that raised the water level at an ala rming rate. The Colorado authorities considered closing the mine but were wo rried about the loss of jobs and taxes. The state also feared it would be le ft with the cost of an emergency clean-up for which there were no state fund s. So Summitville was allowed to continue as long as it installed a water tr eatment plant. But the plant could not cope. There were more spills of water laced with cyanide and heavy metals. The Colorado authorities then gave per mission for contaminated water to be dispersed over 16 acres of nearby land. But disposal was concentrated in only 5.5 acres of steep mountainside. The cocktail of cyanide and heavy metals flowed into nearby streams that feed th e rivers below. The Colorado Department of Health was alerted and when Mr Ji m Horn, one of its inspectors, arrived at the mine, contaminated water was n ot only flowing from the land disposal operations but also from nine other u nauthorised discharges. 'Literally, there was 1,000 to 2,000 lbs of heavy me tals - iron, zinc and copper - leaving the site in dissolved form,' he says. 'It was like adding half a Buick (car) a day to the Whiteman Fork that flow s into the Alamosa. There was no life in the river for 17 miles and no life in the Terrace Reservoir.' An anonymous telephone call sent the Environmenta l Protection Agency rushing to Summitville in September 1990. The EPA insist ed the state authorities act. Summitville paid Dollars 100,000 in civil pena lties (on top of previous fines totalling Dollars 30,000). As part of the se ttlement, it started work on a plan to clean up the site. By November 1992 t his plan was ready - showing the projected cost for the first phase alone wo uld be Dollars 20m. Neither Summitville nor its owner, Galactic, which had d isposed of all its saleable assets to keep pace with the mine's financial de mands, had that kind of money. Summitville declared itself bankrupt and said it would quit the site on December 15 1992. Galactic quickly followed its s ubsidiary into bankruptcy. Although Colorado insists that mining companies p rovide 'clean-up' bonds before they start operations, Summitville had been a sked for only Dollars 7.2m. About Dollars 2.5m of this had been handed back to help finance the early reclamation work. With only Dollars 4.7m to cover the clean-up, the state had no choice but to call on the EPA to use emergenc y powers to take over the mine. The EPA, whose income mainly comes from levi es on the US chemical and oil industries, is now footing the bill for the cl ean-up. The timing of the Summitville scandal could not be worse for the US mining industry. President Bill Clinton has promised to change the mining la ws, which date back to 1872 and, some claim, are too favourable to the indus try. The Summitville story is being cited as proof that federal mining laws need toughening. Mr Phil Hocker, president of the Minerals Policy Centre, a Washington-based lobbying group, says: 'The mining industry is attempting to portray Summitville as an isolated, atypical incident. But it is typical of a whole class of incidents in the US because often the political and econom ic power of one industry in one particular state can be so intimidating that regulators cannot resist it. There is a need for federal minimum standards to be set for mining.' This view is reinforced by a report on Summitville fo r Colorado's natural resources department by Mr Luke Danielson, a Denver law yer. This suggests that permits for the mine were rushed through even before a reclamation plan had been prepared. Then, just as Summitville's problems were becoming clear, Colorado drastically cut funding for the mined land rec lamation programme, 'leaving it understaffed, demoralised and under-equipped to cope effectively with a problem of this magnitude and complexity'. Color ado has already enacted, virtually with no opposition, sweeping reforms to i ts state mining laws. 'The political climate has changed. The state is no lo nger as tolerant towards the mining industry,' says Mr Alan Salazar at the s tate Office of Policy and Initiative. At the EPA, Mr Robert Duprey, director , waste management division, says: 'The most important lesson from Summitvil le is that we must have financial assurances up front from mining companies. And we must have more effective policing (of their activities). Also, we ne ed a federal permitting process for dealing with hazardous waste. This shoul d not be left to individual states. We have a lot of historic mining clean-u p to do, we don't want new ones.' Environmental activists in California, Mon tana, Oregon and Washington states are using the political ammunition provid ed by Summitville to call for an end to the use of sodium cyanide in mining, which mining companies say is essential in some forms of gold and copper mi ning. The Washington Wilderness Coalition has coined the telling phrase: 'Th ey take the gold. We keep the cyanide.' Summitville has also led to moves to wards tighter mining legislation in Latin America. Mr Oswaldo del Castillo, mining expert at Venezuela's National Council for Investment Promotion, says : 'It is a relief to us that Mr Friedland is not involved in mining in Venez uela.' Mr Friedland says that, because of the various investigations, his la wyers advise him not to give interviews about Summitville. But in a prepared statement he said that while he was an officer of Galactic he was never awa re of any improper activity by any employee which would compromise the envir onment. 'My primary role was attending to the financial affairs of the compa ny. There were numerous employees, consultants and government agencies who w ere directly involved in technical evaluations and decisions at the mine sit e. I am not a mining engineer and I of necessity deferred to the advice and expertise of these qualified professionals who were engaged to design, const ruct and manage the facility.' Meanwhile, up in the Rocky Mountains, winter is closing in on Hayes Griswold and his team. If they fail in their efforts to deal with the huge heap of contaminated ore, the spring will spread Summi tville's legacy into the valleys and fields below. Companies:- Galactic Resources. Countries:- CAZ Canada. Industries:- P9511 Air, Water, and Solid Waste Manageme nt. P4953 Refuse Systems. P1099 Metal Ores, NEC. Types:- RES Pollution. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Finan cial Times London Page 8 ============= Transaction # 21 ============================================== Transaction #: 21 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:21:33 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT934-10056 _AN-DKHDHABAFT 931 108 FT 08 NOV 93 / US Pollution Scandal: Race to move mo untain of waste in the Rockies - When spring melts the winter snow, water ca rrying toxic heavy metals could bring death to the streams feeding the Rio G rande By KENNETH GOODING HIGH UP in Colorado's Rocky Mountains, Hayes Griswold and his team are racing against time. They are trying to dump 6.5m tonnes of dangerous mining waste back int o the pit it came from. They need to get as much of the work as possible don e before winter sets in, bringing some of the world's cruellest weather. The y know that if they don't succeed, then in spring, as the snow melts, 1,000 gallons a minute of water polluted with toxic heavy metals will pour from th e waste dump to threaten the streams that feed the Rio Grande River far belo w. This is Summitville, a gold mine that has come to epitomise all the worst aspects of modern mining. It is a public relations disaster for the mining industry which has spent millions of dollars to promote the idea that modern mines do not create environmental problems. Environmental groups everywhere point to Summitville as evidence that they do. It will cost Dollars 25.3m t o move the dump at Summitville, tip the waste back into the pit and treat it with neutralising materials. Another Dollars 5m will be needed to treat the contaminated ground beneath the dump. The bills are being paid by the US En vironmental Protection Agency, Hayes Griswold's employer. The EPA is spendin g Dollars 50,000 a day to prevent a toxic mixture of cyanide and heavy metal s spilling from the mine site. The agency was forced to take emergency actio n early this year after the mine's owner, Galactic Resources, a Canadian com pany, declared itself bankrupt. But, while narrowly averting an environmenta l catastrophe, the EPA was plunged into a financial nightmare. It estimates the final bill for cleaning up Summitville will be more than Dollars 100m. T he Federal Bureau of Investigation is checking out events at the mine, which within six days of going into production was leaking water contaminated wit h cyanide and heavy metals into the headwaters of the Alamosa River, which s upplies water to farms and ranches on its way to the Rio Grande. Within a ye ar it had poisoned all the fish in a reservoir 15 miles downstream and was c orroding irrigation equipment used by farmers in the valley below. The Color ado Bureau of Investigation is carrying out a parallel inquiry to establish 'if there have been violations of criminal laws at Summitville'. US law enab les the EPA to claw back money for cleaning up a polluted site from any pers on or organisation in any way previously connected with that site. The agenc y is investigating whether Vancouver-based Galactic's bankruptcy means the c ompany and its executives are insulated from these claw-back provisions. Amo ng the EPA's prime targets is Robert Friedland, aged 42, the Chicago-born so n of a German architect. For the first six years of the mine's short life Mr Friedland was chairman of Galactic. For much of that time he was also presi dent and chief executive. To develop the Summitville mine Mr Friedland raise d more than CDollars 300m (Pounds 147.7m) for Galactic, much of it from Euro pean institutional investors, particularly in Switzerland and the UK. Today Mr Friedland's main corporate investment vehicle is a Vancouver investment c ompany, Ivanhoe Capital. He has been promoting Vengold, a company exploring for gold in Venezuela. He is also negotiating with RTZ, the UK-based world's biggest mining company, for a stake in the Lihir gold project in Papua New Guinea. This is probably the biggest gold deposit in the world outside South Africa. Mr Friedland has a considerable personal following among some inves tors. He helped Vengold raise more than CDollars 50m in North America and Eu rope this year, one of the biggest capital-raising exercises by a Vancouver- quoted company. He was the executive driving force at Galactic when Summitvi lle was commissioned. Local legend has it that gold mining started at Summit ville, 12,500 ft up on the north-east flank of the San Juan mountains, 25 mi les south-west of Del Norte in Rio Grande County, in 1750. The skeletal rema ins of wooden buildings from mining activity in the 1870s still cling forlor nly to the mountainside near the huge pit dug by Galactic after mining resum ed in 1986. Galactic used a technique known as cyanide heap leaching to reco ver gold from the ore it mined. This process usually starts with the constru ction of an impermeable lined pad on the ground. Then heaps of crushed ore a re dumped on the pad and sprinkled with a cyanide solution that leaches the precious metal from the ore. It is a process that has been used by the minin g industry for many years. But this was the first time it had been used on s uch a scale in Colorado or at such a height. Cyanide started leaking from th e Summitville ore heap almost immediately. Yet rather than call a halt and o rder the pad to be repaired, regulators from Colorado's state Mine Land Recl amation Board allowed Summitville to collect the contaminated water and pump it back up to the top of the heap. Thus over-ambitious management, botched construction, reckless mining and weak state government regulation combined to create one of the biggest scandals in recent mining history. Summitville 'will likely be used as a case study of what can go wrong at a mine site', s ays a report prepared for a group of mining industry and environmental organ isations. Summitville, which was set up as a subsidiary of Galactic, claimed that there was not enough flat land for a conventional heap leach pad. It w as allowed to dam a narrow valley and build a huge heap in it which was even tually 127 ft deep and spanned 48 acres. A creek ran through the valley but Galactic simply lined the heap with plastic and ran a drain under it. It als o built an unlined waste pile - without regulatory approval. Big problems qu ickly developed. More water flowed into the heap than flowed out or evaporat ed, creating a risk that toxic water would spill over the top. Acidic water, which dissolved the heavy metals such as copper, zinc and iron in the waste material, began to flow from the waste pile. Cyanide started to leak into t he creek and from there into the ground water. The company tried to pump the leaking water back into the heap, but that raised the water level at an ala rming rate. The Colorado authorities considered closing the mine but were wo rried about the loss of jobs and taxes. The state also feared it would be le ft with the cost of an emergency clean-up for which there were no state fund s. So Summitville was allowed to continue as long as it installed a water tr eatment plant. But the plant could not cope. There were more spills of water laced with cyanide and heavy metals. The Colorado authorities then gave per mission for contaminated water to be dispersed over 16 acres of nearby land. But disposal was concentrated in only 5.5 acres of steep mountainside. The cocktail of cyanide and heavy metals flowed into nearby streams that feed th e rivers below. The Colorado Department of Health was alerted and when Mr Ji m Horn, one of its inspectors, arrived at the mine, contaminated water was n ot only flowing from the land disposal operations but also from nine other u nauthorised discharges. 'Literally, there was 1,000 to 2,000 lbs of heavy me tals - iron, zinc and copper - leaving the site in dissolved form,' he says. 'It was like adding half a Buick (car) a day to the Whiteman Fork that flow s into the Alamosa. There was no life in the river for 17 miles and no life in the Terrace Reservoir.' An anonymous telephone call sent the Environmenta l Protection Agency rushing to Summitville in September 1990. The EPA insist ed the state authorities act. Summitville paid Dollars 100,000 in civil pena lties (on top of previous fines totalling Dollars 30,000). As part of the se ttlement, it started work on a plan to clean up the site. By November 1992 t his plan was ready - showing the projected cost for the first phase alone wo uld be Dollars 20m. Neither Summitville nor its owner, Galactic, which had d isposed of all its saleable assets to keep pace with the mine's financial de mands, had that kind of money. Summitville declared itself bankrupt and said it would quit the site on December 15 1992. Galactic quickly followed its s ubsidiary into bankruptcy. Although Colorado insists that mining companies p rovide 'clean-up' bonds before they start operations, Summitville had been a sked for only Dollars 7.2m. About Dollars 2.5m of this had been handed back to help finance the early reclamation work. With only Dollars 4.7m to cover the clean-up, the state had no choice but to call on the EPA to use emergenc y powers to take over the mine. The EPA, whose income mainly comes from levi es on the US chemical and oil industries, is now footing the bill for the cl ean-up. The timing of the Summitville scandal could not be worse for the US mining industry. President Bill Clinton has promised to change the mining la ws, which date back to 1872 and, some claim, are too favourable to the indus try. The Summitville story is being cited as proof that federal mining laws need toughening. Mr Phil Hocker, president of the Minerals Policy Centre, a Washington-based lobbying group, says: 'The mining industry is attempting to portray Summitville as an isolated, atypical incident. But it is typical of a whole class of incidents in the US because often the political and econom ic power of one industry in one particular state can be so intimidating that regulators cannot resist it. There is a need for federal minimum standards to be set for mining.' This view is reinforced by a report on Summitville fo r Colorado's natural resources department by Mr Luke Danielson, a Denver law yer. This suggests that permits for the mine were rushed through even before a reclamation plan had been prepared. Then, just as Summitville's problems were becoming clear, Colorado drastically cut funding for the mined land rec lamation programme, 'leaving it understaffed, demoralised and under-equipped to cope effectively with a problem of this magnitude and complexity'. Color ado has already enacted, virtually with no opposition, sweeping reforms to i ts state mining laws. 'The political climate has changed. The state is no lo nger as tolerant towards the mining industry,' says Mr Alan Salazar at the s tate Office of Policy and Initiative. At the EPA, Mr Robert Duprey, director , waste management division, says: 'The most important lesson from Summitvil le is that we must have financial assurances up front from mining companies. And we must have more effective policing (of their activities). Also, we ne ed a federal permitting process for dealing with hazardous waste. This shoul d not be left to individual states. We have a lot of historic mining clean-u p to do, we don't want new ones.' Environmental activists in California, Mon tana, Oregon and Washington states are using the political ammunition provid ed by Summitville to call for an end to the use of sodium cyanide in mining, which mining companies say is essential in some forms of gold and copper mi ning. The Washington Wilderness Coalition has coined the telling phrase: 'Th ey take the gold. We keep the cyanide.' Summitville has also led to moves to wards tighter mining legislation in Latin America. Mr Oswaldo del Castillo, mining expert at Venezuela's National Council for Investment Promotion, says : 'It is a relief to us that Mr Friedland is not involved in mining in Venez uela.' Mr Friedland says that, because of the various investigations, his la wyers advise him not to give interviews about Summitville. But in a prepared statement he said that while he was an officer of Galactic he was never awa re of any improper activity by any employee which would compromise the envir onment. 'My primary role was attending to the financial affairs of the compa ny. There were numerous employees, consultants and government agencies who w ere directly involved in technical evaluations and decisions at the mine sit e. I am not a mining engineer and I of necessity deferred to the advice and expertise of these qualified professionals who were engaged to design, const ruct and manage the facility.' Meanwhile, up in the Rocky Mountains, winter is closing in on Hayes Griswold and his team. If they fail in their efforts to deal with the huge heap of contaminated ore, the spring will spread Summi tville's legacy into the valleys and fields below. Companies:- Galactic Resources. Countries:- CAZ Canada. Industries:- P9511 Air, Water, and Solid Waste Manageme nt. P4953 Refuse Systems. P1099 Metal Ores, NEC. Types:- RES Pollution. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Finan cial Times London Page 8 ============= Transaction # 22 ============================================== Transaction #: 22 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:21:58 Selec. Rec. #: 2 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT932-5802 _AN-DFBBWACKFT 9306 02 FT 02 JUN 93 / Business and the Environment: All for the birds - Mining groups are anxious to protect wildlife By KENNETH GOODING Birds in Nevada now have new homes courtesy of Coeur d'Alene Mines. The company is attaching lightweight nesti ng boxes to its claim posts - the posts used to mark boundaries when mining companies stake their claims. The idea was developed by Rob Berry, senior la ndsman with Coeur d'Alene's exploration subsidiary. He noticed that the holl ow plastic boundary posts often claimed more than mining land. Birds slipped into the open ends of the posts, sometimes to nest in them, and could not a lways escape. Rather than simply capping the posts, Berry developed the bird boxes, which are folded together from one piece of corrugated cardboard and attached with some simple hardware. The boxes are light enough for mineral exploration teams - who frequently hike many miles into remote areas - to ca rry several at a time. Berry called on experts at the Nevada Department of W ildlife to help design the nesting boxes, which were first tested last year at the group's Rochester mine in Nevada, the largest primary silver mine in the US. Now schools and Scout groups are also using them. Berry's boxes are suitable for small birds, bluebirds and wrens, but larger ones have been des igned to accommodate kestrels, a species of owl and wood ducks. This, howeve r, is not just a simple story about a nature-lover and a good idea. Dead bir ds are a very big issue at open-pit mines in the US. Mining companies are sp ending millions of dollars to make sure that they do not fall foul of legisl ation such as the US Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The act makes it illegal for any company or mine to kill migrating water fowl and every death has to be reported. The mining method that causes difficulties is called heap leaching . Ore is placed in a heap on an impermeable plastic pad and a weak cyanide s olution is sprinkled over it. The solution collects at the bottom after perc olating through the ore and dissolving much of the metal. This very low-cost process has enabled gold and silver to be won from rock containing very lit tle of the precious metals - typically well under one ounce of gold in every tonne of ore - and it contributed to the tremendous upsurge of gold mining activity in Australia as well as North America in the 1980s. But tailings (w aste), discharged into ponds after the gold has been separated from the solu tion, still contains cyanide which takes some time to lose its toxicity in t he sunlight. Many of the US gold mines using heap leaching are in desert are as, and when birds in the desert see a patch of blue water there is little t hat can be done to stop them if they want to drop in for a drink. Most of th e ponds are too large to be satisfactorily covered by netting - heavy winte r snows tend to tear it. But at the Rochester mine Coeur d'Alene tried this and various other methods to keep birds away from the cyanide solution. To s care the birds away, strips of polished aluminium were employed as well as p ropane cannons that exploded compressed gas with a loud bang at intervals. N one of these strategies worked perfectly. Now the company is pioneering a 'c losed loop' leaching system that does away with the open ponds. Instead, the cyanide solution circulates without seeing the light of day, and the 'pregn ant' or metal-bearing solution is held in a closed tank before processing. E ven the drip-irrigation facility is buried below the surface of the heap of ore on the leach pad. All this obviously helps to protect birds and other wi ldlife. But it has also reduced Rochester's costs by enabling leaching to go on year-round without the heap freezing and by reducing the amount of cyani de and water used. Coeur d'Alene is now leaching out the same amount of meta l with 4,000 gallons of solution, against the previous 7,000 gallons. Dennis Wheeler, Coeur d'Alene's president, says the system helped to reduce the ca sh costs of production at Rochester from Dollars 3.76 a troy ounce in 1991 t o Dollars 3.22 last year - or by more than 14 per cent. He says: 'Environmen tal protection is a key element in the mining industry and it will remain so .' So he encourages a positive approach throughout the company - an approach that led Berry to come forward with his bird house initiative and resulted in Coeur d'Alene winning several environmental awards in the past five years . This helps create a positive image for the mining industry in its battles with environmentalists. Wheeler suggests: 'Mining is a compatible use of the land and fully in keeping with the US tradition of multiple use of our land s.' He also insists that his shareholders recognise that money spent on envi ronmental actions is well-spent. 'Our shareholders want to be part of an org anisation that recognises a responsibility to the environment.' Companies:- Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. Countries:- USZ United States of America. Industries:- P1041 Gold Ores. P1044 Silver Ores. Types:- RES Polluti on. RES Natural resources. The Financial Times London Page 14 ============= Transaction # 23 ============================================== Transaction #: 23 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:22:59 Selec. Rec. #: 5 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT934-7389 _AN-DKSDHAHKFT 9311 19 FT 19 NOV 93 / Commodities and Agriculture: Newmont f inds glittering prize in Peru - A gold project that is attracting the intere st of other foreign miners By SALLY BOWEN A GROUP of big-name international mining concerns is hard on the heel s of Denver-based Newmont Mining's hugely successful new gold venture in the north-central Peruvian Andes. RTZ, Placer Dome, American Barrack and Genmin are among the overseas companies reported to be eager to snap up similar ba rgains among still-available concessions. Minera Yanacocha poured its first gold on August 7 and is on target to repay the Dollars 36.6m capital investm ent in a staggeringly short seven months. Yanacocha is a joint venture betwe en Newmont, the Peruvian mining group Buenaventura and Mine Or of France, a subsidiary of BRGM. The World Bank's International Finance Corporation came in at a late stage to take up 5 per cent of the shareholding. 'Nowhere in th e world have we seen ore like this,' says Mr Len Harris, Newmont's general m anager in Peru. 'And nowhere else have we received more co-operation from a government.' The disseminated low-grade deposit, some 45km from the Andean t own of Cajamarca, has been documented for well over a century. The original claim was staked by Cedimin, a company formed by BRGM and Buenaventura. Newm ont entered into an exploration agreement with Cedimin in 1984 and has direc ted operations ever since. What has finally made exploitation of the Yanacoc ha deposit feasible is the development of leaching techniques during the pas t decade. Newmont, now the largest gold producer in the US, pioneered the pr ocess. Yanacocha is one of Peru's earliest experiences of the technique, alr eady widely used in neighbouring Chile. The ore at Yanacocha is exceptionall y porous. After a little blasting it can be scooped up by loaders and trucke d straight to the leach-pads. There it is simply flattened by bulldozers pri or to leaching. No crushing is required, which reduces costs considerably. ' It was always obvious that, technically, this was a marvellous deposit,' say s Mr Harris. 'Security has been Newmont's prime concern, but it's just anoth er risk in a risky business - and you resolve it by getting good people to p rotect you.' Now, in and around the site, a contract company provides probab ly the tightest security ever seen in Peruvian mining. The ratio of guards t o workers is almost one to one. Transport and air-freight of the end-product - dore bullion ingots containing 60 per cent gold and 40 per cent silver - is handled by Johnson Matthey, the UK-based refiner, which is purchasing all Yanacocha's present output. Newmont officials say output from the three min es in the Carachugo deposit, where work is at present concentrated, should t op 250,000 troy ounces next year. That would almost double Peru's official g old output level, according to Mr Daniel Hokama, the mines minister. For 199 5, prospects are even more glittering. Another deposit in the same concessio n area as Carachugo, known as Maqui Maqui, 'looks to be a bigger and higher grade orebody', says Mr Harris. Feasibility studies are now being completed by Kilborn of Canada and it is hoped that the Newmont board will give the go -ahead this month. Carachugo's mineable reserves are reckoned to total 28.7m tonnes, giving the deposit a life of between five and six years. Average go ld content is 1.38 grams a tonne - high for the leaching technique. Newmont profitably leaches gold with as little as 0.6 grams a tonne in its US mining operations. Maqui Maqui could bump up total output from the Yanacocha conce ssion to well in excess of 6m tonnes, say Newmont officials. And there are s till more promising anomalies within the 25,000-hectare concession site. Loc al groups have expressed fears of environmental damage from a possible escap e of the cyanide solution used to leach the ore. Newmont officials say, howe ver, that they are applying 'the same stringent precautions in Peru as we wo uld in the state of Nevada'. All pipes carrying the cyanide solution from le ach-pads to plant run through plastic-coated channels; there are sophisticat ed monitoring devices to detect leaks; a large pond has been built to catch overflow in case of exceptionally heavy rainfall; and Dollars 250,000 has be en spent on the Canadian 'Inco' process to neutralise the cyanide solution t o drinking water standards if it ever became necessary to discharge the solu tion. 'We're doing more here than the law calls for,' says Mr Harris. 'That' s right - it's also good business.' Companies:- Newmo nt Mining Corp. Countries:- PEZ Peru, South America. < /CN> Industries:- P1041 Gold Ores. Types:- < TP>RES Natural resources. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Fina ncial Times London Page 38 ============= Transaction # 24 ============================================== Transaction #: 24 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:23:27 Selec. Rec. #: 6 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT941-16332 _AN-EAKC0ACTFT 940 111 FT 11 JAN 94 / Technology: Miners bitten by the gold bug - How Ashanti is using bacteria to release the precious metal at its pr ocessing plant By KEN GOODING Gold miners like to think that their latest allies, Thiobacillus ferro-oxidans, s pend their lives eating and breeding. They speak affectionately of them as ' gold bugs', which munch their way through ore to release precious metal that would otherwise be very difficult to liberate. If bugs are treated well, th eir number multiplies rapidly. That is certainly the way that many of those responsible for the world's biggest biological gold processing venture talk about T. ferro-oxidans. Their venture, a Dollars 105m (Pounds 71m) plant at Ashanti Goldfields in Ghana, starts up well ahead of schedule this week, ins tead of March as originally planned. The plant is a crucial element in a Dol lars 305m, three-year expansion scheme that will take Ashanti's annual gold output above 1m troy ounces and place it among the world's top 10 producers. When pressed, however, the miners have to admit that the truth about T. fer ro-oxidans is more complex but no less colourful. These bacteria are among t he most odd of this planet's life forms. They require a very acid environmen t and a temperature of between 30`C and 40`C to do their best work. They are unaffected by high concentrations of most metals. But they do not 'munch' g old ore. They cause enzyme and chemical changes on the gold-bearing sulphide rock, extracting electrons or energy from the ore and breaking the sulphide bonds. That releases the metal. Neither do they breed in the conventional w ay. Every few hours each single-cell bacterium splits in two - and that lead s to the rapid multiplication. T. ferro-oxidans cannot cause disease because it can only develop on inorganic matter. Those bacteria being employed by A shanti started life in South Africa at the Fairview gold mine. It was at Fai rview that Gencor, the South African mining group, built the first commercia l-scale gold processing plant to use biological leaching. Ashanti is relying on technology developed by Gencor; technology that is also being used at th e Sao Bento gold mine in Brazil and at the Harbour Lights and Wiluna mines i n Western Australia. Until the mid-1980s, miners used two other methods to b reak down (or oxidise) refractory (or difficult) ore that otherwise would ha ve released very little of its gold: pressure oxidation and roasting. Both a re expensive, and roasting has the added drawback of sending liberated sulph ur and arsenic compounds up the chimney. If the compunds are not captured th ey produce acid rain and poison the countryside. Neither of these high-tech processes seem in any great danger from bioleaching, however. Two large gold projects where bioleaching would work well - at Lihir Island in Papua New G uinea and Kanowna Belle in Western Australia - have decided to used pressure oxidation and roasting respectively. Ashanti considered roasting its refrac tory ore but opted for bioleaching because operating costs should be lower a nd it 'is the world's most environmentally friendly way of extracting gold f rom ore', says John Clarke, Ashanti's consulting metallurgist. Roasting also needs high-tech process plant - temperatures of 680`C-700`C are required - and is not really suitable in a country where there are shortages of the ski lls needed to operate and provide technical support for such equipment. In c ontrast, the bioleaching process is relatively simple to operate. 'Constancy is the key to successful bioleaching,' says Clarke. 'Constant material, con stant temperature. Always let the bugs acclimatise to their new environment. ' Ashanti's plant was built by Minproc, the Australian group. Sulphide ore i s crushed into a powder, which is mixed with water in tanks into which the b acteria are introduced. After the bugs have done their work - they take abou t four days and release more than 90 per cent of the gold - the solution is moved to conventional carbon-in-leach tanks where gold is recovered. The sol ution containing the free arsenic, sulphur and iron is pumped into neutralis ation tanks. Limestone and lime - 150,000-200,000 tonnes a day, accounting f or half the operating costs - is added to the solution, which is rendered no n-toxic as it hardens to form stable arsenic and sulphur compounds. Ashanti' s plant has six times the capacity of the biggest built so far, but each tan k is only twice the size of those at Sao Bento and Wiluna. Clarke suggests i t is unlikely that bigger tanks will be used elsewhere because of the need t o keep supplying T. ferro-oxidans with oxygen and nutrients. Initially, the bugs will be responsible for producing about half Ashanti's gold and, in a y ear or so, nearly all of it. The question being asked elsewhere in the gold mining industry is: do the bugs have to be kept in tanks to do their work? N ewmont Mining, biggest of the US gold miners, believes tanks are not necessa ry. Newmont has built a 20,000-tonne heap of refractory ore at its operation s on the Carlin Trend in the Nevada desert and introduced T. ferro-oxidans t o it. The company has already established that the system works technically and has patented some aspects (such as the way the fluid containing the bugs can be percolated through a large heap of ore and not allowed to get too ho t or too cold). Newmont is about to begin a feasibility study to look at cap ital and operating costs to make sure that its process is commercially viabl e. Once the bacteria have done their work, the heap must be washed and neutr alised and then the gold extracted by conventional heap-leaching, by which a weak cyanide solution is trickled through the ore to capture the metal. New mont is also experimenting with a chemical other than cyanide, though it wil l not say which. Companies:- Ashanti Goldfields. Countries:- GHZ Ghana, Africa. Industries:- P3339 Primary Nonferrous Metals, NEC. Types:- RE S Facilities. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Financial Times London Page 13 ============= Transaction # 25 ============================================== Transaction #: 25 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:24:09 Selec. Rec. #: 7 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT944-7809 _AN-EKWECACWFT 9411 23 FT 23 NOV 94 / Business and the Environment: Alternat ive waste treatment - Brazil is enthusiastic about plasma-based disposal By PATRICK MCCURRY A pilot project to dispose of hazardous waste is planned to start at a hospital in the densely- populated city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, using technology developed by Nasa scie ntists. Brazilian researchers will use plasma - super-heated gases - at the University of Sao Paulo hospital to provide cheaper and safer disposal to tr aditional incinerators or landfills. Hospitals in Sao Paulo, South America's largest city with a population of 15m, produce 115 tonnes of waste a day wh ich contains blood, syringes and body parts. Because of the risk of disease this waste must be incinerated, an expensive process as its humidity content is 40 per cent to 60 per cent. There are additional health risks from norma l gas or oil-fired incineration, in particular the release of carcinogenic d ioxins and toxic ashes. Roberto Szente, head of plasma research at the Sao P aulo state-funded Technology Research Institute, says: 'Because gas is a rel atively poor conductor the plasma can heat up to 10,000`C' The technology wa s developed by Nasa, the US space agency, to simulate the heating experience d by rockets re-entering the atmosphere. Plasma forms at extremely high temp eratures, when atoms of gas split into a mixture of positive ions and electr ons. It can be made by transferring energy from an electric arc to a gas suc h as air or nitrogen. It is only with the growth in environmental awareness that the IPT, along with other research centres around the world, started ap plying it to hazardous waste. 'With plasma, the temperature is so high that everything, including metals, melts and becomes a liquid pool,' says Szente. This pool solidifies as slabs of residues, basically blocks of glass and ir on, that can be used in construction or disposed of in landfill. Because the result is a molten state which later solidifies, there is less risk of diox ins being dispersed than with ashes. Erasmo Tolosa, hospital superintendent, says the city council contracts out collection and treatment of waste. 'We don't have a great deal of confidence in the current system and we know that in some parts of Brazil the waste is just dumped,' he says, referring to ne ws reports of human limbs being found on rubbish dumps in the poor north-eas t of Brazil. The IPT is applying plasma technology to another pilot project to deal with the galvanised waste produced by companies in the metal-coating industry, a spin-off from Sao Paulo's booming car industry. Companies used to discharge the liquid residues from galvanisation straight into the Tiete River, one of the most polluted in the world. But with the introduction of p ollution controls to clean the river, the companies are left with a mud - th e by-product of galvanisation - containing heavy metals such as iron, silica , calcium and zinc, as well as cyanide. IPT tests show that when plasma is a pplied to the mud it destroys the cyanide and the end result is non-toxic sl abs of metal, 96 per cent iron, says Szente. Marco Antonio Barbieri, directo r of a chrome company and spokesman for around 100 small galvanisation compa nies involved in the project, says plasma treatment is likely to cost Dollar s 40-Dollars 70 a tonne compared with about Dollars 200 for landfill, Dollar s 400-Dollars 800 for cement kilns and Dollars 1,500 for use of private inci nerators. Despite all its apparent advantages, plasma's progress so far in w aste disposal has been piecemeal. Szente says this is partly because it is s till a relatively unknown technology, and also because companies are unwilli ng to decommission expensive incinerators to spend more money building plasm a units. Countries:- BRZ Brazil, South America. Industries:- P9511 Air, Water, and Solid Waste Management. P4953 Refuse Systems. Types:- CMMT Comment & Analy sis. TECH Services & Services use. The Financial Times London Page 24 ============= Transaction # 26 ============================================== Transaction #: 26 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:24:27 Selec. Rec. #: 2 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT932-5802 _AN-DFBBWACKFT 9306 02 FT 02 JUN 93 / Business and the Environment: All for the birds - Mining groups are anxious to protect wildlife By KENNETH GOODING Birds in Nevada now have new homes courtesy of Coeur d'Alene Mines. The company is attaching lightweight nesti ng boxes to its claim posts - the posts used to mark boundaries when mining companies stake their claims. The idea was developed by Rob Berry, senior la ndsman with Coeur d'Alene's exploration subsidiary. He noticed that the holl ow plastic boundary posts often claimed more than mining land. Birds slipped into the open ends of the posts, sometimes to nest in them, and could not a lways escape. Rather than simply capping the posts, Berry developed the bird boxes, which are folded together from one piece of corrugated cardboard and attached with some simple hardware. The boxes are light enough for mineral exploration teams - who frequently hike many miles into remote areas - to ca rry several at a time. Berry called on experts at the Nevada Department of W ildlife to help design the nesting boxes, which were first tested last year at the group's Rochester mine in Nevada, the largest primary silver mine in the US. Now schools and Scout groups are also using them. Berry's boxes are suitable for small birds, bluebirds and wrens, but larger ones have been des igned to accommodate kestrels, a species of owl and wood ducks. This, howeve r, is not just a simple story about a nature-lover and a good idea. Dead bir ds are a very big issue at open-pit mines in the US. Mining companies are sp ending millions of dollars to make sure that they do not fall foul of legisl ation such as the US Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The act makes it illegal for any company or mine to kill migrating water fowl and every death has to be reported. The mining method that causes difficulties is called heap leaching . Ore is placed in a heap on an impermeable plastic pad and a weak cyanide s olution is sprinkled over it. The solution collects at the bottom after perc olating through the ore and dissolving much of the metal. This very low-cost process has enabled gold and silver to be won from rock containing very lit tle of the precious metals - typically well under one ounce of gold in every tonne of ore - and it contributed to the tremendous upsurge of gold mining activity in Australia as well as North America in the 1980s. But tailings (w aste), discharged into ponds after the gold has been separated from the solu tion, still contains cyanide which takes some time to lose its toxicity in t he sunlight. Many of the US gold mines using heap leaching are in desert are as, and when birds in the desert see a patch of blue water there is little t hat can be done to stop them if they want to drop in for a drink. Most of th e ponds are too large to be satisfactorily covered by netting - heavy winte r snows tend to tear it. But at the Rochester mine Coeur d'Alene tried this and various other methods to keep birds away from the cyanide solution. To s care the birds away, strips of polished aluminium were employed as well as p ropane cannons that exploded compressed gas with a loud bang at intervals. N one of these strategies worked perfectly. Now the company is pioneering a 'c losed loop' leaching system that does away with the open ponds. Instead, the cyanide solution circulates without seeing the light of day, and the 'pregn ant' or metal-bearing solution is held in a closed tank before processing. E ven the drip-irrigation facility is buried below the surface of the heap of ore on the leach pad. All this obviously helps to protect birds and other wi ldlife. But it has also reduced Rochester's costs by enabling leaching to go on year-round without the heap freezing and by reducing the amount of cyani de and water used. Coeur d'Alene is now leaching out the same amount of meta l with 4,000 gallons of solution, against the previous 7,000 gallons. Dennis Wheeler, Coeur d'Alene's president, says the system helped to reduce the ca sh costs of production at Rochester from Dollars 3.76 a troy ounce in 1991 t o Dollars 3.22 last year - or by more than 14 per cent. He says: 'Environmen tal protection is a key element in the mining industry and it will remain so .' So he encourages a positive approach throughout the company - an approach that led Berry to come forward with his bird house initiative and resulted in Coeur d'Alene winning several environmental awards in the past five years . This helps create a positive image for the mining industry in its battles with environmentalists. Wheeler suggests: 'Mining is a compatible use of the land and fully in keeping with the US tradition of multiple use of our land s.' He also insists that his shareholders recognise that money spent on envi ronmental actions is well-spent. 'Our shareholders want to be part of an org anisation that recognises a responsibility to the environment.' Companies:- Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. Countries:- USZ United States of America. Industries:- P1041 Gold Ores. P1044 Silver Ores. Types:- RES Polluti on. RES Natural resources. The Financial Times London Page 14 ============= Transaction # 27 ============================================== Transaction #: 27 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:24:27 Selec. Rec. #: 5 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT934-7389 _AN-DKSDHAHKFT 9311 19 FT 19 NOV 93 / Commodities and Agriculture: Newmont f inds glittering prize in Peru - A gold project that is attracting the intere st of other foreign miners By SALLY BOWEN A GROUP of big-name international mining concerns is hard on the heel s of Denver-based Newmont Mining's hugely successful new gold venture in the north-central Peruvian Andes. RTZ, Placer Dome, American Barrack and Genmin are among the overseas companies reported to be eager to snap up similar ba rgains among still-available concessions. Minera Yanacocha poured its first gold on August 7 and is on target to repay the Dollars 36.6m capital investm ent in a staggeringly short seven months. Yanacocha is a joint venture betwe en Newmont, the Peruvian mining group Buenaventura and Mine Or of France, a subsidiary of BRGM. The World Bank's International Finance Corporation came in at a late stage to take up 5 per cent of the shareholding. 'Nowhere in th e world have we seen ore like this,' says Mr Len Harris, Newmont's general m anager in Peru. 'And nowhere else have we received more co-operation from a government.' The disseminated low-grade deposit, some 45km from the Andean t own of Cajamarca, has been documented for well over a century. The original claim was staked by Cedimin, a company formed by BRGM and Buenaventura. Newm ont entered into an exploration agreement with Cedimin in 1984 and has direc ted operations ever since. What has finally made exploitation of the Yanacoc ha deposit feasible is the development of leaching techniques during the pas t decade. Newmont, now the largest gold producer in the US, pioneered the pr ocess. Yanacocha is one of Peru's earliest experiences of the technique, alr eady widely used in neighbouring Chile. The ore at Yanacocha is exceptionall y porous. After a little blasting it can be scooped up by loaders and trucke d straight to the leach-pads. There it is simply flattened by bulldozers pri or to leaching. No crushing is required, which reduces costs considerably. ' It was always obvious that, technically, this was a marvellous deposit,' say s Mr Harris. 'Security has been Newmont's prime concern, but it's just anoth er risk in a risky business - and you resolve it by getting good people to p rotect you.' Now, in and around the site, a contract company provides probab ly the tightest security ever seen in Peruvian mining. The ratio of guards t o workers is almost one to one. Transport and air-freight of the end-product - dore bullion ingots containing 60 per cent gold and 40 per cent silver - is handled by Johnson Matthey, the UK-based refiner, which is purchasing all Yanacocha's present output. Newmont officials say output from the three min es in the Carachugo deposit, where work is at present concentrated, should t op 250,000 troy ounces next year. That would almost double Peru's official g old output level, according to Mr Daniel Hokama, the mines minister. For 199 5, prospects are even more glittering. Another deposit in the same concessio n area as Carachugo, known as Maqui Maqui, 'looks to be a bigger and higher grade orebody', says Mr Harris. Feasibility studies are now being completed by Kilborn of Canada and it is hoped that the Newmont board will give the go -ahead this month. Carachugo's mineable reserves are reckoned to total 28.7m tonnes, giving the deposit a life of between five and six years. Average go ld content is 1.38 grams a tonne - high for the leaching technique. Newmont profitably leaches gold with as little as 0.6 grams a tonne in its US mining operations. Maqui Maqui could bump up total output from the Yanacocha conce ssion to well in excess of 6m tonnes, say Newmont officials. And there are s till more promising anomalies within the 25,000-hectare concession site. Loc al groups have expressed fears of environmental damage from a possible escap e of the cyanide solution used to leach the ore. Newmont officials say, howe ver, that they are applying 'the same stringent precautions in Peru as we wo uld in the state of Nevada'. All pipes carrying the cyanide solution from le ach-pads to plant run through plastic-coated channels; there are sophisticat ed monitoring devices to detect leaks; a large pond has been built to catch overflow in case of exceptionally heavy rainfall; and Dollars 250,000 has be en spent on the Canadian 'Inco' process to neutralise the cyanide solution t o drinking water standards if it ever became necessary to discharge the solu tion. 'We're doing more here than the law calls for,' says Mr Harris. 'That' s right - it's also good business.' Companies:- Newmo nt Mining Corp. Countries:- PEZ Peru, South America. < /CN> Industries:- P1041 Gold Ores. Types:- < TP>RES Natural resources. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Fina ncial Times London Page 38 ============= Transaction # 28 ============================================== Transaction #: 28 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:24:27 Selec. Rec. #: 6 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT941-16332 _AN-EAKC0ACTFT 940 111 FT 11 JAN 94 / Technology: Miners bitten by the gold bug - How Ashanti is using bacteria to release the precious metal at its pr ocessing plant By KEN GOODING Gold miners like to think that their latest allies, Thiobacillus ferro-oxidans, s pend their lives eating and breeding. They speak affectionately of them as ' gold bugs', which munch their way through ore to release precious metal that would otherwise be very difficult to liberate. If bugs are treated well, th eir number multiplies rapidly. That is certainly the way that many of those responsible for the world's biggest biological gold processing venture talk about T. ferro-oxidans. Their venture, a Dollars 105m (Pounds 71m) plant at Ashanti Goldfields in Ghana, starts up well ahead of schedule this week, ins tead of March as originally planned. The plant is a crucial element in a Dol lars 305m, three-year expansion scheme that will take Ashanti's annual gold output above 1m troy ounces and place it among the world's top 10 producers. When pressed, however, the miners have to admit that the truth about T. fer ro-oxidans is more complex but no less colourful. These bacteria are among t he most odd of this planet's life forms. They require a very acid environmen t and a temperature of between 30`C and 40`C to do their best work. They are unaffected by high concentrations of most metals. But they do not 'munch' g old ore. They cause enzyme and chemical changes on the gold-bearing sulphide rock, extracting electrons or energy from the ore and breaking the sulphide bonds. That releases the metal. Neither do they breed in the conventional w ay. Every few hours each single-cell bacterium splits in two - and that lead s to the rapid multiplication. T. ferro-oxidans cannot cause disease because it can only develop on inorganic matter. Those bacteria being employed by A shanti started life in South Africa at the Fairview gold mine. It was at Fai rview that Gencor, the South African mining group, built the first commercia l-scale gold processing plant to use biological leaching. Ashanti is relying on technology developed by Gencor; technology that is also being used at th e Sao Bento gold mine in Brazil and at the Harbour Lights and Wiluna mines i n Western Australia. Until the mid-1980s, miners used two other methods to b reak down (or oxidise) refractory (or difficult) ore that otherwise would ha ve released very little of its gold: pressure oxidation and roasting. Both a re expensive, and roasting has the added drawback of sending liberated sulph ur and arsenic compounds up the chimney. If the compunds are not captured th ey produce acid rain and poison the countryside. Neither of these high-tech processes seem in any great danger from bioleaching, however. Two large gold projects where bioleaching would work well - at Lihir Island in Papua New G uinea and Kanowna Belle in Western Australia - have decided to used pressure oxidation and roasting respectively. Ashanti considered roasting its refrac tory ore but opted for bioleaching because operating costs should be lower a nd it 'is the world's most environmentally friendly way of extracting gold f rom ore', says John Clarke, Ashanti's consulting metallurgist. Roasting also needs high-tech process plant - temperatures of 680`C-700`C are required - and is not really suitable in a country where there are shortages of the ski lls needed to operate and provide technical support for such equipment. In c ontrast, the bioleaching process is relatively simple to operate. 'Constancy is the key to successful bioleaching,' says Clarke. 'Constant material, con stant temperature. Always let the bugs acclimatise to their new environment. ' Ashanti's plant was built by Minproc, the Australian group. Sulphide ore i s crushed into a powder, which is mixed with water in tanks into which the b acteria are introduced. After the bugs have done their work - they take abou t four days and release more than 90 per cent of the gold - the solution is moved to conventional carbon-in-leach tanks where gold is recovered. The sol ution containing the free arsenic, sulphur and iron is pumped into neutralis ation tanks. Limestone and lime - 150,000-200,000 tonnes a day, accounting f or half the operating costs - is added to the solution, which is rendered no n-toxic as it hardens to form stable arsenic and sulphur compounds. Ashanti' s plant has six times the capacity of the biggest built so far, but each tan k is only twice the size of those at Sao Bento and Wiluna. Clarke suggests i t is unlikely that bigger tanks will be used elsewhere because of the need t o keep supplying T. ferro-oxidans with oxygen and nutrients. Initially, the bugs will be responsible for producing about half Ashanti's gold and, in a y ear or so, nearly all of it. The question being asked elsewhere in the gold mining industry is: do the bugs have to be kept in tanks to do their work? N ewmont Mining, biggest of the US gold miners, believes tanks are not necessa ry. Newmont has built a 20,000-tonne heap of refractory ore at its operation s on the Carlin Trend in the Nevada desert and introduced T. ferro-oxidans t o it. The company has already established that the system works technically and has patented some aspects (such as the way the fluid containing the bugs can be percolated through a large heap of ore and not allowed to get too ho t or too cold). Newmont is about to begin a feasibility study to look at cap ital and operating costs to make sure that its process is commercially viabl e. Once the bacteria have done their work, the heap must be washed and neutr alised and then the gold extracted by conventional heap-leaching, by which a weak cyanide solution is trickled through the ore to capture the metal. New mont is also experimenting with a chemical other than cyanide, though it wil l not say which. Companies:- Ashanti Goldfields. Countries:- GHZ Ghana, Africa. Industries:- P3339 Primary Nonferrous Metals, NEC. Types:- RE S Facilities. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Financial Times London Page 13 ============= Transaction # 29 ============================================== Transaction #: 29 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:24:27 Selec. Rec. #: 7 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT944-7809 _AN-EKWECACWFT 9411 23 FT 23 NOV 94 / Business and the Environment: Alternat ive waste treatment - Brazil is enthusiastic about plasma-based disposal By PATRICK MCCURRY A pilot project to dispose of hazardous waste is planned to start at a hospital in the densely- populated city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, using technology developed by Nasa scie ntists. Brazilian researchers will use plasma - super-heated gases - at the University of Sao Paulo hospital to provide cheaper and safer disposal to tr aditional incinerators or landfills. Hospitals in Sao Paulo, South America's largest city with a population of 15m, produce 115 tonnes of waste a day wh ich contains blood, syringes and body parts. Because of the risk of disease this waste must be incinerated, an expensive process as its humidity content is 40 per cent to 60 per cent. There are additional health risks from norma l gas or oil-fired incineration, in particular the release of carcinogenic d ioxins and toxic ashes. Roberto Szente, head of plasma research at the Sao P aulo state-funded Technology Research Institute, says: 'Because gas is a rel atively poor conductor the plasma can heat up to 10,000`C' The technology wa s developed by Nasa, the US space agency, to simulate the heating experience d by rockets re-entering the atmosphere. Plasma forms at extremely high temp eratures, when atoms of gas split into a mixture of positive ions and electr ons. It can be made by transferring energy from an electric arc to a gas suc h as air or nitrogen. It is only with the growth in environmental awareness that the IPT, along with other research centres around the world, started ap plying it to hazardous waste. 'With plasma, the temperature is so high that everything, including metals, melts and becomes a liquid pool,' says Szente. This pool solidifies as slabs of residues, basically blocks of glass and ir on, that can be used in construction or disposed of in landfill. Because the result is a molten state which later solidifies, there is less risk of diox ins being dispersed than with ashes. Erasmo Tolosa, hospital superintendent, says the city council contracts out collection and treatment of waste. 'We don't have a great deal of confidence in the current system and we know that in some parts of Brazil the waste is just dumped,' he says, referring to ne ws reports of human limbs being found on rubbish dumps in the poor north-eas t of Brazil. The IPT is applying plasma technology to another pilot project to deal with the galvanised waste produced by companies in the metal-coating industry, a spin-off from Sao Paulo's booming car industry. Companies used to discharge the liquid residues from galvanisation straight into the Tiete River, one of the most polluted in the world. But with the introduction of p ollution controls to clean the river, the companies are left with a mud - th e by-product of galvanisation - containing heavy metals such as iron, silica , calcium and zinc, as well as cyanide. IPT tests show that when plasma is a pplied to the mud it destroys the cyanide and the end result is non-toxic sl abs of metal, 96 per cent iron, says Szente. Marco Antonio Barbieri, directo r of a chrome company and spokesman for around 100 small galvanisation compa nies involved in the project, says plasma treatment is likely to cost Dollar s 40-Dollars 70 a tonne compared with about Dollars 200 for landfill, Dollar s 400-Dollars 800 for cement kilns and Dollars 1,500 for use of private inci nerators. Despite all its apparent advantages, plasma's progress so far in w aste disposal has been piecemeal. Szente says this is partly because it is s till a relatively unknown technology, and also because companies are unwilli ng to decommission expensive incinerators to spend more money building plasm a units. Countries:- BRZ Brazil, South America. Industries:- P9511 Air, Water, and Solid Waste Management. P4953 Refuse Systems. Types:- CMMT Comment & Analy sis. TECH Services & Services use. The Financial Times London Page 24 ============= Transaction # 30 ============================================== Transaction #: 30 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:25:07 Selec. Rec. #: 9 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT931-16618 _AN-DAFBVAAWFT 930 106 FT 06 JAN 93 / US stops BP chemical technology sale to Iran By ALAN FRIEDMAN NEW YORK THE BUSH administration yesterday blocked the propo sed sale of controversial chemicals plant technology to Iran by the US chemi cals subsidiary of British Petroleum (BP). The rejection, which caught both BP and the State Department by surprise, was announced by Mr Marlin Fitzwate r, President Bush's press secretary. It followed reports yesterday morning t hat US government agencies remained divided about the proposed sale because of concerns that Iran might be able to develop chemical weapons with a hydro gen cyanide by-product of the BP technology. In Cleveland, BP's US chemicals company said BP had not been notified of any decision. Mr Fitzwater said th e decision to reject the sale to Iran had been taken a month ago. But a Stat e Department official said he understood the BP proposal and a separate US c ompany proposal to sell aircraft for crop dusting to Iran had both been sche duled for further discussion yesterday at an inter-agency meeting. The State Department said, however, it would defer to the White House on the issue. M r Tony Kozlowski of BP's US chemicals company in Cleveland, Ohio, said the c ompany was first approached 18 months ago by Fibchem, an Iranian fibre chemi cals company. He said BP subsequently consulted various US government agenci es and was told there were no objections to the sale from the Commerce, Ener gy and Defence Departments or from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). So me officials at the State Department had apparently opposed the sale on the grounds that it could help Iran's effort to develop a series of chemical wea pons. The technology proposed for sale by BP included blueprints, plans, tec hnical assistance, training and catalysts needed to build a chemical plant a t Bandar Imam that would produce acrylonitrile, a base chemical used in the manufacture of synthetic fibres. The value of the proposed transaction was b elieved to be less than Dollars 50m. BP said it was seeking to address conce rns as it continued its application for an export licence from the Commerce Department. The company said the cyanide by-product could, however, be obtai ned on the open market. Congressional critics have worked behind the scenes to oppose the proposed transaction. Mr Yossef Bodansky, director of the Hous e Republican task force on terrorism and unconventional warfare, said yester day he was pleased at the rejection. He said the chemical by-product was 'a very fast-acting nerve agent that is extremely effective for battlefield use '. Companies:- British Petroleum. Fibchem. Countries:- USZ USA. IRZ Iran, Middle East. Industries:- P28 Chemicals and Allied Products. P9611 Admini stration of General Economic Programs. Types:- TECH Li cences. MKTS Equipment sales. GOVT Government News. The Financial Times London Page 3 ============= Transaction # 31 ============================================== Transaction #: 31 Transaction Code: 14 (Search Results Displayed) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:26:07 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 33 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 12 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 32 ============================================== Transaction #: 32 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:26:12 Selec. Rec. #: 12 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT921-11880 _AN-CA2A2AF8FT 920 129 FT 29 JAN 92 / International Company News: Cyanamid plans Dollars 50m project to cut toxic waste By KARE N ZAGOR AMERICAN Cyanamid, the US pharmaceuticals and speci alty chemicals group, yesterday said it would spend Dollars 50m on projects to cut its toxic emissions by 79 per cent. The announcement coincided with t he release of findings by the Council on Economic Priorities, a US public in terest economic research agency, which criticised Cyanamid's environmental r ecord. Ms Alice Tepper Marlin, founder and executive director of the agency, described Cyanamid as the nation's third biggest emitter of toxic waste in 1989. According to Ms Marlin, Cyanamid released an average of 41lb of toxic chemical for every Dollars 1,000 of sales, or four times the chemical indust ry average. Cyanamid said yesterday that it would build a regeneration plant to recover 120m lb of sulphuric acid and other chemicals annually that were currently disposed of by deepwell injection. The company is also building a facility to recover acetonitrile and hydrogen cyanide. All of the new envir onmental projects will be located at the company's Fortier plant in Waggaman , Louisiana, which the Council on Economic Priorities described as the large st emitter of toxic pollution in the US in 1988 and the second largest in 19 89. The Financial Times London Page 25 ============= Transaction # 33 ============================================== Transaction #: 33 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:27:18 Selec. Rec. #: 14 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT941-2277 _AN-ECVCOACGFT 9403 22 FT 22 MAR 94 / Technology: Gold rush - Matthew Curtin reports on advances in mining which may transform productivity By MATTHEW CURTIN Technology has come to the ai d of the volatile South African gold mining industry more than once over the past century. Today, new advances are being sought to transform productivit y as companies recover from a crisis which brought many mines to the brink o f closure. Executives are still nervous at memories of the early 1990s, when a combination of steadily declining real gold prices, double-digit inflatio n and the deteriorating quality of the ore reserves sent the industry into a spiral. In the event, only two big gold mines closed. South African gold ou tput steadied above 600 tonnes a year from the late 1980s, but cost-containm ent and improved productivity meant the mines shed more than 150,000 jobs or nearly a third of their workforce between 1989 and 1993. Yet successful as this restructuring of the industry has been, the mines need technological ad vances or consistently higher gold prices of at least Dollars 450 an ounce - compared with around Dollars 385 today - if gold production is not to go i nto slow but steady decline. The problem is, says Kobus Olivier, chief consu lting engineer at the Gencor group's gold division, that a breakthrough whic h would transform the mines' productivity underground has proved elusive. Ho wever, two new techniques are now in sight, generating more excitement about the technological possibilities than there has been for years, he adds. The techniques are: diamond wire cutting pioneered by Gencor and Anglo American , the country's biggest gold producer; and the impact ripper, an industry re search project recently taken over by mining house Gold Fields. The first si mply applies the established method of quarrying granite and other hard ston es to underground mining. A synthetic-covered steel cable less than a centim etre thick and studded with industrial diamonds saws through the rockface, c utting away the ore in large chunks. The impact ripper is an hydraulically p owered chisel, mounted on rails, which attacks the rockface with an accuracy that blasting lacks. Olivier says the potential benefits are huge because e ither technique could transform the cost structure of the industry and under ground productivity. Diamond wire cutters can operate 24 hours a day, requir e less labour and minimise the amount of waste rock mined. Diamond wire is e xpensive - the first material Gencor ordered cost R1,000 (Dollars 290) a met re - but greater demand would reduce its cost and eliminate much of the need for explosives used for the 900,000 blasts the gold mines make every day. K en Dix, general manager of Anglo American's Freegold operation, which is usi ng diamond wire cutters on a trial basis, says the technique would lead to t he redesign of underground mining plans and thus save more tunnelling, timbe r and explosive costs and shave 60 per cent off transport costs. Underground safety would improve, too, bringing new efficiencies, because the narrower stope-widths and minimal use of explosives would do less to aggravate the ro ck pressure underground. Rockfalls kill about 270 workers a year underground on the gold mines. Much the same benefits apply to the impact ripper. Len G ibbs, consulting engineer at Gold Fields which has a number of machines oper ating at its Kloof mine, says: 'The possibilities have to be exciting. The d eeper you go, the more you need mechanised mining methods and less reliance on manpower.' This has been true since the early days of gold mining; the ge ological challenges of extracting the precious metal at deeper and more dang erous levels have forced producers to refine their techniques. Much gold out put now comes from mines sunk to below sea-level or more than 3,000 metres u nderground. The MacArthur Forrest cyanide process saved the South African go ld mining industry when it was introduced in 1890 at the Salisbury mine near the mining camp of Johannesburg. Existing mercury-based techniques, adequat e for recovering gold from surface ore, were no good for treating metallurgi cally difficult underground material which the mines had to exploit because they had exhausted surface reef outcrops. Gold recovery rates had fallen to less than 50 per cent, but to the surprise of miners at the time the new pro cess quickly achieved recoveries of 85-95 per cent. Yet impressive as the re finements made over the years have been, metallurgical and mechanical mining technology has not changed for decades. The cyanidisation process has been modified to push recovery grades to more than 99 per cent, allowing the retr eatment of millions of tonnes of low-grade waste material in recent years, b ut leaving little room for improvement. The labour-intensive underground pro duction routine of drilling holes in the rockface, filling them with explosi ves, blasting once a day and cleaning up the broken rock before hoisting it to the surface, is the same as it was 100 years ago. South Africa's remainin g gold reserves are huge, well-defined, but deep. Exploration has identified extensive high-grade ore reserves in the Potchefstroom Gap, an area south-w est of Johannesburg, but at depths of up to 5,000 metres below surface. The capital cost of a sinking a new mine shaft to that depth would be more than R2.5bn. Despite the excitement about the new methods, there have been teethi ng problems. Gencor gave up its experiment with diamond wire cutting last ye ar. Olivier says the group 'knows it works', but found the wire tended to ge t pinched as the rockface closed once it had been cut. Gencor seems happy to wait and see what progress Anglo can make, given that the group's mining eq uipment and industrial diamond businesses have a keen interest in the techno logy's success. Dix points to the excessive wear and tear on expensive equip ment, but stresses that 'it's early days'. Gold Fields has found that the fi rst orebody on which it tried the impact ripper proved more susceptible to t he technique than the orebody at Kloof where the equipment would most likely be used. However, Olivier says the problems are unlikely to be insurmountab le. He adds that while one technique might not transform gold mining, a comb ination of the new technologies with further refinements still promises the breakthrough for which the miners are yearning. Countries:- ZAZ South Africa, Africa. Industries:- P1041 Go ld Ores. P3532 Mining Machinery. Types:- MKTS Prod uction. CMMT Comment & Analysis. TECH Products & Product use. The Financial Times London Page 13 ============= Transaction # 34 ============================================== Transaction #: 34 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:27:44 Selec. Rec. #: 15 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT932-7114 _AN-DEYCHAG4FT 9305 25 FT 25 MAY 93 / Survey of the Philippines (9): Protect ion for a final frontier - Victor Mallet visits the island of Palawan, an en vironmental test-case for south-east Asia By VICTOR MALLET THE SIGN at the 'Bottleground' bar on Rizal Avenue, boasts: 'Hot Women Plus Cold Beer.' With its brothels and Roman Catholic chu rches, there is not much at first glance to distinguish Puerto Princesa, the capital of the island province of Palawan, from any other town in the Phili ppines. A typical family owns an old videotape of the wedding of Britain's P rince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer, and has eight children. Seven masses ar e celebrated each Sunday at the Immaculate Conception cathedral, to accommod ate the growing number of inhabitants. Religion even penetrates the undergro und river, Palawan's main tourist attraction - 'see this stalactite - it is like the Virgin Mary,' declares the boatman to his sceptical passengers. 'An d this one' - he points at another apparently shapeless rock - 'is like the Holy Family.' In one very important sense, however, Palawan is different. El sewhere in the Philippines almost all the tropical forest has been destroyed , but about half of this long, thin mountainous island south-west of Manila is still covered with trees. Elsewhere, coral reefs have been dynamited into oblivion, but in the waters around Palawan much of the coral and other form s of marine life have survived, making the area a paradise for divers and th e source of two thirds of the fish for the national capital, Metro Manila. P alawan has become a test case, not just for the Philippines but for south-ea st Asia as a whole: is it possible to preserve some of the region's beauty a nd natural resources for future generations, or must everything be destroyed to make room for an increasing population and for the traffic jams which ac company the phenomenon known as 'economic development'? 'Palawan, our last f rontier: make it last. Stop illegal fishing,' declares the roadside billboar d in Puerto Princesa. Another billboard shows the diminishing size of fish c aught over the past 20 years, and urges fishermen to stop using cyanide, whi ch does not discriminate between baby and mature fish and therefore needless ly decimates fish populations. The presence of the billboards is both bad ne ws and good news. The bad news is that the battle to save Palawan's resource s for the future is an uphill struggle; the good news is that a few members of the central and local governments are starting to take the matter serious ly. The very fact that Palawan is relatively undamaged - and undisturbed by separatist or communist rebels - makes the island a favoured destination bot h for poor migrants from other parts of the Philippines and for foreign tour ists. Migrants follow the logging companies' bulldozers to clear farmland fo r rice, cashew nuts or coconuts, and the tourists come to find the tranquill ity now lost in much of the rest of south-east Asia. Palawan also has oil of fshore and nickel deposits in the south, but the financial benefits - even w hen they come to the island rather than to the central government or to big business - are clouded by the inevitable disadvantages. The island's populat ion has doubled to about 600,000 in the past decade, and Puerto Princesa is starting to smell of the diesel smoke and motor-cycle fumes generated by tru cks and tricycle taxis; one of the nickel companies is being accused of poll uting a river with laterite waste; there are fears that the gold prospectors , who have recently rushed to the north of the island, will poison fresh wat er with the mercury they use to separate their gold from sand; and there are increasing signs that deforestation is causing the erosion of land, silting of rivers, and fresh-water shortages which have plagued other islands in th e Philippines. A moratorium on commercial logging in Palawan was imposed las t year, and more recently the authorities banned the transport of live fish which had been exported from the island to aquariums and to Chinese restaura nts. Enforcement of environmental regulations, however, is hard - 'it's very difficult,' says Mr Felipe Ortiz, the chief of forest management at the Dep artment of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Puerto Princesa. 'The re are many people in the city - and it's still a developing city. There's r eally a need for lumber.' Furthermore, big businessmen backed by private arm ies are still keen to export logs in defiance of the official ban. Court cas es filed against those who violate timber laws are sometimes mysteriously di smissed, local officials say. But the election of a new mayor and a more enl ightened local government for the capital Puerto Princesa in May last year h as given a boost to Palawan's environmental campaigners. 'Before, they (the old officials) made lots of speeches about conservation, but meanwhile their people were out cutting trees,' says Mr Ortiz. In 1991, 14 members of Harib on Palawan, the island's main environmental group, were charged with subvers ion and harassment, although the charges were eventually dropped. Now, Harib on workers carry walkie-talkies provided by the local authorities so the two sides can work as a team. The resounding defeat of Mr Ramon Mitra, the form er speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives, in last year's presid ential election, is also a bonus for the environmentalists, since he was reg arded as the political patron of Mr Jose Alvarez, a businessman from outside the island who has taken a leading role in the logging industry in Palawan. Palawan's new mood of co-operation between the local authorities, environme ntalists and inhabitants was underlined at a recent ceremony in the district of Tagabinet attended by Haribon representatives and local officials. Twent y-two members of the Batak and Tagbanua tribes were awarded 'stewardship cer tificates', giving them the right (under a national plan to control upland c ultivation) to occupy and farm their land near the St Paul's national park. Previously they were regarded as illegal settlers. In exchange they must und ertake not to expand their clearing by cutting down forest trees. Mr Mil Rey noso, the vice-mayor of Puerto Princesa, said too much deforestation would t urn the country into a desert like Iraq - 'it affects the personality of the people there,' he said. 'They are so hard.' It is by no means certain that the farmers fully understand their obligations under the scheme - one drunke n smallholder immediately asked whether it was all right if he chopped down a protected species of tree because it was good for building houses - but at least a start has been made in winning the support of the inhabitants of Pa lawan for efforts to preserve the island's resources. Mr Joselito Alisuag, t he activist lawyer who heads Haribon Palawan, is relieved that he finally ha s a few allies in the city hall. 'We used to fight everyone,' he says as he fingers his walkie-talkie. 'Now we've got friends.' Countries:- PHZ Philippines, Asia. Industries:- P9511 A ir, Water, and Solid Waste Management. P9512 Land, Mineral, Wildlife Con servation. Types:- RES Pollution. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Financial Times London Page IV ============= Transaction # 35 ============================================== Transaction #: 35 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:29:18 Selec. Rec. #: 23 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT932-3215 _AN-DFOCRAF2FT 9306 15 FT 15 JUN 93 / International Company News: AECI, Saso l merge petrochemical and plastics interests By PHIL IP GAWITH JOHANNESBURG AECI and S asol, South Africa's two biggest chemicals groups, are to merge some of thei r petrochemical and plastics interests and form a company with an annual sal es of more than R2.5bn (Dollars 784m). The proposed merger combines Sasol's feedstocks with downstream converting companies in AECI, which is 38 per cen t owned by ICI of the UK. It will produce an integrated and diversified plas tics group able to compete internationally. The initiative is an attempt to improve the companies' competitive position against the background of weak i nternational petrochemical markets and the prospect of increased competition in the domestic market as tariff barriers are lowered. Mr Mike Sander, mana ging director of AECI, said: 'It takes us from being an inwardly focused gro up to a manufacturing entity that can be very, very competitive internationa lly.' Mr Paul Kruger, managing director of Sasol, said the venture was a log ical step in Sasol's strategy of adding value to its feedstock strength by e xpanding its interest in the polymer business. Apart from being attractive i n itself, the venture offers Sasol a market for additional ethylene. The pro posed merger will allow the new company - to be owned 60 per cent by Sasol a nd 40 per cent by AECI - to embark on a project converting AECI's PVC from c arbide feedstock to ethylene feedstock. Sasol produces feedstocks such as et hylene, propylene and polypropylene which are used in the production of down stream products such as chlor-alkali, PVC, polyethylene and cyanide by AECI. Mr Kruger said the deal was not anti-competitive as the two companies were not in competition. It was 'a combination of strengths, not a combination of products to eliminate competition in the market place'. AECI confirmed yest erday that discussions were under way, following the ICI/Zeneca demerger, 't o review ICI's position in the businesses operated by AECI with a view to al igning ICI's interest in AECI more closely with ICI's international business strategy.' Companies:- AECI. Sasol. C ountries:- ZAZ South Africa, Africa. Industries:- P2911 Petroleum Refining. P2899 Chemical Preparations, NEC. Types:- COMP Mergers & acquisitions. The Financia l Times London Page 28 ============= Transaction # 36 ============================================== Transaction #: 36 Transaction Code: 14 (Search Results Displayed) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:29:43 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 33 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 9 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 37 ============================================== Transaction #: 37 Transaction Code: 23 (Saved Recs. Viewed) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:30:11 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 38 ============================================== Transaction #: 38 Transaction Code: 2 (New Disp. Format Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:30:16 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 39 ============================================== Transaction #: 39 Transaction Code: 26 (Saved Recs. Cleared) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:32:10 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 40 ============================================== Transaction #: 40 Transaction Code: 15 (Terms Cleared) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:32:14 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 41 ============================================== Transaction #: 41 Transaction Code: 6 (Direct Rank Search) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 09:32:43 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 16:00:00 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 1 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: zfind "(topic @ {robotics})" ============= Transaction # 42 ============================================== Transaction #: 42 Transaction Code: 14 (Search Results Displayed) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:32:45 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 284 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 12 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 43 ============================================== Transaction #: 43 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:32:55 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT922-4414 _AN-CFEA9AEEFT 9206 05 FT 05 JUN 92 / Survey of Vehicle Manufacturing Techno logy (6): Machines are now used for tasks beyond spot welding - Robots By ANDREW BAXTER ROBOTS have become an e stablished part of the vehicle manufacturing scene over the past 15 years. T he motor industry accounts for as much as 40 per cent of the 450,000 install ed industrial robots worldwide but their use is changing and applications ar e expanding. The traditional picture of long lines of robots each making bil lions of spot welds on car bodies in a working life of eight to 10 years is still true, but only half the story. Those same welding robots are as likely to be grouped in flexible manufacturing cells and capable of handling a wid e range of models in quick succession. At the same time, smaller robots are increasingly being used in engine assembly, where their ability to do qualit y, repetitive work with a precision of 1/100th of a millimetre is much in de mand. Robots are being used in final assembly work and paint spraying, and s uppliers hope to be able to develop these markets now that the technology ha s been proven. There is an emerging trend for robots to be used in automotiv e sub-contracting, prompted by the vehicle manufacturers' need to be as conf ident in the consistency and quality of out-sourced components as for their own work. The shorter lives of car models, prompted by increased competition in the industry and the Japanese producers' early efforts to reduce product development times, are changing the use and design of robots. The tradition al practice of replacing a robot after two model cycles may have been approp riate when each car model was lasting six to eight years. But with model liv es reduced to three to four years, users want to keep their robots for furth er models, and thus want increased flexibility, according to Dr Axel Gerhard t, a senior board member at the holding company for Kuka, Germany's largest robot supplier. Many of the latest trends in the use of robotics originated in Japan where labour shortages have spurred much greater penetration of rob ots into industry overall compared with Europe and the US. But robot supplie rs such as ABB Robotics, the largest in Europe, believe the European automot ive industry is as enthusiastic a user of robotic automation as its Japanese counterpart. However, some of the more recent applications of robots are le ss prevalent in Europe, giving an opportunity to suppliers if they can convi nce producers of the economic benefits. There are national variations too: t he UK is a long way behind the US and the rest of Europe in the use of robot s in the paint shop, says Mr Mike Wilson, UK sales and marketing director at GMFanuc Robotics. The versatility of modern industrial robots for tasks tha t go beyond spot welding is illustrated by Kuka's involvement in final assem bly of the Citroen XM. Following painting, robots dismount the doors and tai lgate, with the aid of sensors, for completion on separate trim lines; the c ockpit is picked up by robot from an automatic guided vehicle, inserted thro ugh the door and then bolted to the body by a second robot. Robots are used for applying the adhesive sealants and for fitting the glass exactly into th e body aperture with the aid of ultrasonic scanners; seats are inserted by r obot after measuring the exact position of the body by means of tactile sens ors, wheels are mounted and doors and tailgate refitted. Some of these tasks are difficult for robots because of the nature of final assembly. Robots ar e having to operate in a less structured environment, says Mr Wilson, and de al with less defined objects such as seats. Another problem, at least outsid e Japan, is that labour is available and costs less than in skilled manufact uring areas. So robot suppliers have to find applications that create added value, says Mr Stelio Demark, head of ABB Robotics. There are still opportun ities for greater use of robots further up the production line. Relatively n ew processes such as laser-cutting and water-jet cutting are likely to becom e more prevalent, in association with robots, especially for working with pl astics and new advanced composites. Mr Demark sees a substantial increase in automated arc-welding in the automotive industry and sub-suppliers. And Com au, the Italian robotics and systems group, expects some interesting investm ents in the body area, prompted by the increased need for new models, accord ing to Mr Massimo Mattucci, vice-president for engineering and marketing. In paint spraying, says Mr Demark, robots have hardly scratched the surface. L ast year, ABB strengthened its position in the robotic painting market with the acquisition of Graco in the US, but GMFanuc, a US/Japanese concern, and Behr of Germany have strong positions. The flexibility of robots to handle m odel changes will be the key to their further implementation in the car body area. In engine and transmission production, robots are becoming better est ablished, and Mr Mattucci suggests a new generation of engines prompted by t ougher environmental regulations could be the spur to further investment in robots. However, an increasing portion of business for robot suppliers seems likely to come from refurbishment of existing robots rather than new purcha ses as customers seek maximum value from their manufacturing investments. In the past three or four years, this has been a growing trend of robot refitt ing and modification in the motor industry, carried out during model changeo vers and restoring robots to previous levels of accuracy and productivity. < /TEXT> The Financial Times London Page III ============= Transaction # 44 ============================================== Transaction #: 44 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:33:22 Selec. Rec. #: 3 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT944-18195 _AN-EJED5AA3FT 941 005 FT 05 OCT 94 / Industrial robots 'set to soar by one third': Potential for expansion enormous, says report By FRANCES WILLIAMS GENEVA The world's industrial robot population is forecast to soar by more than a thir d over the four years to 1997, according to a report published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the International Federation of Robotics yesterday.* The report, the first in an annual series, says sagging growth in robot investment bottomed out in 1993 and numbers are set to jump from 610,000 at the end of last year to more than 830,000 by the end of 199 7. Annual sales are predicted to rise from about 54,000 units in 1993 to mor e than 103,000 units in 1997. Japan accounts for more than half the world's robot stock, equivalent to 325 robots for every 10,000 manufacturing workers . It is followed by Singapore (109), Sweden (73), Italy (70) and Germany (62 ). Use of robots is most widespread in the motor vehicle industry, which acc ounts for between a third and more than one-half of robots in use in countri es such as France, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and Britain. Tho ugh Japan now has the highest number of robots in the electrical and electro nic industry, it remains the world leader by far in the use of robots for ve hicle manufacture. In the transport equipment sector, which includes motor v ehicles, Japan has 1,000 robots for every 10,000 workers, compared with 167 in Sweden, 110 in France and 63 in Britain. In most countries, especially th ose with big motor vehicle industries, robots are used most frequently for w elding. But in some countries machining is the most common application. In J apan 40 per cent of the robot stock is used for assembly, reflecting the lar ge-scale use of robots in the electronic sector. The potential for expansion of robotics is enormous. Numbers would explode if other industrialised coun tries were to reach Japan's robot densities and if industry in general were to reach only half the robot density of the motor vehicle sector. If all ind ustries in France and Britain had half as many robots as the motor industry in these countries, the robot stock would more than double. If it reached ha lf the density of the Japanese motor vehicle industry, it would increase mor e than 20-fold. *World Industrial Robots 1994: Statistics 1983-93 and foreca sts to 1997. Sales No. GV. E94.0.24, UN Sales section, Palais des Nations, C H-1211 Geneva 10, Dollars 120. Countries:- CHZ Switz erland, West Europe. Industries:- P3569 General Industr ial Machinery, NEC. P3548 Welding Apparatus. Types:- MKTS Market shares. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Financia l Times London Page 4 ============= Transaction # 45 ============================================== Transaction #: 45 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:33:41 Selec. Rec. #: 5 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT941-1242 _AN-ECYC5AHGFT 9403 25 FT 25 MAR 94 / Ingenuity - The FT Engineering Review (2): Untouched by human hands - Intelligent machines are a familiar sight on motor production lines. Now they are expected to turn their 'hands' to the high-speed packing of food and drink / Robots By JOH N DUNN A PLATOON of raw recruits drafted in to the French a rmy to pack combat rations are having to look lively. Up to 10 different men us are needed each month. Each ration consists of 18 items ranging from a pa ck of biscuits and a tin of meat to purification tablets and a miniature sto ve. In order to keep the fighting troops fed, the new recruits have to pack rations at the rate of 24 a minute. The luckless legionnaires are 13 industr ial robots, part of a FFr25m automated packaging and palletising line built for the army by ABB Robotics. Three robots unload boxes of goodies from pall ets on to a conveyor which delivers them to the ration packing station. Here another nine machines, using videos cameras to recognise the right items, p ack them into ration boxes in just 2.5 seconds. The 13 robots stack the rati on boxes on to a pallet for delivery to the barracks. Five different menus c an be put on one pallet to match a barracks' order. David Marshall, responsi ble for customer training at ABB Robotics in Milton Keynes, fervently hopes that the food, drinks and confectionery industry - including even army ratio ns - will become the next big market for robots. 'The whole robot industry h as depended on the automotive industry since day one. Look at the figures - 80 per cent of the world market for robots is in the automotive and automoti ve supply industry. We are looking to the food industry to perform as well a s the automotive industry.' The reason for his optimism is that industrial r obots have become more attractive to the food industry for packing and handl ing, particularly in the light of new health and safety regulations restrict ing the weight of loads that can be lifted manually. They have become faster , reliable, more accurate, and easier to incorporate into a production line. Better motor control software has allowed ABB, for example, to squeeze 25 p er cent more performance out of the same robot. Robots are also simpler to p rogram, operate and maintain. And they can lift bigger loads. They can also be washed down with a hosepipe. And prices are coming down to a level where paybacks are acceptable to the food industry. 'The food, drink and confectio nery industry is surviving on low-cost female labour. Despite their flexibil ity, using people to pack those army rations would have been a nightmare,' s ays Marshall. Also, the industry is looking to cut costs. Although robots ar e flexible and reliable, so far they have been too slow and too expensive, s ays Marshall. But what is good for the food and drinks makers is good for ma nufacturing industry. Mike Wilson, marketing manager at Fanuc Robotics in Co ventry, says of the improvements in robot performance: 'Our new ARC Mate wel ding robot, for example, is 30 per cent cheaper in real terms than a similar model three years ago. And it is 20 per cent faster. A spot welding robot c an now do one spot weld every 1.5 seconds.' Ten years ago, says Wilson, it w ould have taken three. Some of the gain has come from the improved mechanica l performance of robots -faster acceleration and deceleration and better ov ershoot behaviour. And some has come from better integration of the robot in to the process, says Wilson. 'The spot welding gun will begin to close befor e it gets to the weld, for instance.' The load capacity and accuracy of robo ts has come on in leaps and bounds, too. 'The biggest robot we do carries 30 0kg. That was unheard of 10 years ago for an electric robot,' says Wilson. R eliability has also greatly improved, he says. An example is the arc welding robot. Weld wires occasionally get stuck in the solidified weld pool at the end of a weld. A few years ago, as the robot moved away it would rip the we lding torch off the arm. Today, says Wilson, 'wire-stick' sensors prevent th is and automatically send a pulse of current down the wire to burn it free. A similar example of improved capability is 'scratch start'. If a bead of si lica from the flux gets left on the end of the welding wire, it will not str ike an arc and has to be snipped off manually. Today's robot will sense this and scratch the tip of the wire along the component to rub the bead off. It will then go back to the correct place on the weld and start welding. Overa ll, says Wilson, the cost-to-performance ratio of robots today is considerab ly better than a few years ago. Most people now buy a robot 'package' which includes some process engineering expertise and an application software pack age. 'This avoids a lot of programming and makes them quicker to install and easier to operate.' When Vauxhall bought 120 Fanuc welding robots for its n ew Astra line at the Ellesmere Port plant a couple of years ago, it handed t hem on to six companies building the welding lines. 'We designed a software package for Vauxhall that would interface the robots with all the hardware a nd provide an operator interface. That forced all the line builders to use t he robots in the same way. It made maintenance a lot simpler and saved money . We only had to write the software once and copy it six times. Each line bu ilder would have had to develop their own.' Yet despite the advances in robo t technology, Britain has one of the smallest robot populations of all the i ndustrialised nations, around 7,600, compared with Germany's 39,000 and Japa n's staggering 350,000. Even the former USSR has more robots per employee in manufacturing industry than Britain. The problem is the 18 month to two yea r paybacks demanded in Britain, says Wilson, compared with as long as five y ears in Japan. 'It is very difficult to justify any capital expenditure on a n 18 month payback.' John Dunn is deputy editor of The Engineer Countries:- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P3569 General Industrial Machinery, NEC. P3556 Food Products Machi nery. Types:- TECH Products & Product use. CMMT C omment & Analysis. The Financial Times London Page IV ============= Transaction # 46 ============================================== Transaction #: 46 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:33:43 Selec. Rec. #: 6 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT934-9399 _AN-DKOCBAFRFT 9311 10 FT 10 NOV 93 / ABB enters robot venture with Renault By JOHN RIDDING PARIS ASEA Brown Boveri, the Swedish-Swiss engineering group, yesterd ay strengthened its position in the market for industrial robots, by agreein g to acquire the robotics operations of Renault and form a joint venture in automated vehicle assembly with the French car group. The two companies said the 50-50 venture would employ about 290 people and have annual sales of ab out Dollars 80m. After the acquisition of Renault's robotic operations, ABB' s French robotic operations will have annual sales of about Dollars 60m and employ about 200 people. Mr Stelio Demark, managing director of ABB Robotics , said that the deals with Renault were a central element in the company's s trategy of shifting from a product supplier to a partner of industrial group s in the design and manufacture of automated systems. He said that the joint venture, which will centre on 'body in white' activities - where cars are a ssembled and welded together - would give ABB access to Renault's production line expertise and enable it to offer higher value-added products and servi ces. The proposals, which require final approval by Renault employees, would give ABB its first joint venture project with a carmaker, the biggest marke t for robotics, and its first direct participation in the assembly stage of the production line. Mr Demark said that prices for industrial robots had fa llen by between 25 and 30 per cent over the past few years, prompting the Re nault sale. Renault's robotics operation, the largest in France, accounts fo r about 12 per cent of total sales of FFr1.4bn (Dollars 238m) from its autom ation division. The French group will retain management control of the separ ate joint venture for at least two years. According to Mr Demark, the market for industrial robots has strong growth potential, in spite of the fall in prices. He said that while in Japan there are 25 robots for every 1,000 manu facturing workers, the ratio is lower in Europe: in France, there are three robots per 1,000 workers. ABB estimates that it has about 20 per cent of the world market for robots with more than 33,000 currently in operation. Last year, ABB's robot division achieved sales of about Dollars 350m. ABB has wor ked with Renault on several automation projects, including the Twingo and Cl io cars. It also supplies Volvo, with which Renault is planning to merge. Companies:- Asea Brown Boveri. Renault. ABB Rob otics. Countries:- CHZ Switzerland, West Europe. S EZ Sweden, West Europe. FRZ France, EC. Industries:- P3569 General Industrial Machinery, NEC. Types:- CO MP Mergers & acquisitions. The Financial Times Int ernational Page 17 ============= Transaction # 47 ============================================== Transaction #: 47 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:33:59 Selec. Rec. #: 7 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT924-1130 _AN-CLTALAC0FT 9212 19 FT 19 DEC 92 / International Company News: ABB acquir es ESAB robotic welding unit By ROBERT TAYLOR STOCKHOLM THE robotics division of Asea Brown Boveri, the Swedish-Swiss engineering group has acquired the robotise d arc welding business of ESAB, the Swedish welding company. The deal will s trengthen ABB's position as a leading robot manufacturer in Europe and North America. It is estimated that ABB Robotics' annual turnover will grow by 30 per cent to Dollars 450m as a result of the acquisition. The cost of the ac quisition was not disclosed. The two companies have worked closely together since 1974 in the development of the welding robotics market. ESAB has provi ded a delivery service for about 5,000 ABB-designed robots. ABB Robotics and ESAB have operated separate organisations for production, research and deve lopment, as well as sales and service. Mr Stelio Demark, ABB Robotics presid ent said yesterday that both companies saw a substantial business opportunit y to increase market share and volume in combining their operations. ESAB sa id the deal would provide cost advantages through more integrated production and administration as well as better market coverage. The company said its disposal of its robotics welding business would have a substantial impact on its financial results. It added that ESAB's financial resources would be he lped by the agreement so that it could improve its core business of welding product sales in Asia and eastern Europe. The Financial Times < /PUB> London Page 10 ============= Transaction # 48 ============================================== Transaction #: 48 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:34:07 Selec. Rec. #: 8 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT923-4774 _AN-CIEASADWFT 9209 04 FT 04 SEP 92 / Technology: Heavies move in - After ye ars of work in mass production, robots are taking on bigger jobs By ANDREW BAXTER The drive for competitiveness and low-cost production may have made the car industry the natural home for the world's robot population, but Karlheinz Langner and his colleagues at I GM Robotersysteme have other ideas. Langner, a managing board member at Aust ria's only robotics company, has his sights set on industry's heavy brigade. Less visibly than their counterparts in the car industry, but with increasi ng urgency, manufacturers of heavy equipment - anything from excavators to s teel bridge sections - want to improve their product quality and reduce cycl e times, increase their manufacturing flexibility and clean up their workpla ce. All these issues, in varying degrees, have been tackled successfully by the mass-production car industry with the use of robots, but heavy industry is very different. In recent years, many heavy engineering companies have be en reticent about robots. They may have been put off by the robot suppliers' sales patter or unconvinced that a robot can cope with welding, for example , a crane boom or bulk handling container, particularly if each item to be w elded might be slightly different from the previous one. Or they might simpl y have jibbed at the expense - as much as Dollars 350,000 (Pounds 175,000) f or a sophisticated system with one or more robots, slides, gantries and devi ces to rotate a workpiece that could weigh as much as 15 tonnes. And having purchased a system, some customers have had to solve software problems thems elves to get the robot working correctly. But companies such as IGM, which c elebrates its silver jubilee this year, are spending heavily to find new sol utions for the use of robots in heavy industry, and that, in turn, broadens the market for the robot suppliers. Some sectors such as shipbuilding, for i nstance, are only now waking up to the opportunities for using robots, which were simply not available five years ago. Anybody who has visited a modern car factory cannot fail to be impressed by the serried ranks of robots spot welding body sections or inserting dashboards. Such machines, however, are w orlds apart from those produced by IGM, which specialises in arc or continuo us path welding and some cutting robots, and its rivals at the heavy end of the welding equipment industry such as Esab of Sweden and Cloos of Germany. A continuous weld is the norm in construction equipment, for example, to cop e with the immense stresses to which plant will be subjected during its work ing life, and demands for high-quality welding are increasing. Grappling wit h the welding of an excavator boom could require up to 16 axes of movement f rom the robot and its surrounding equipment, putting pressure on the robot s upplier not only to design the system correctly in mechanical terms but to e nsure that the software and sensor systems are sufficiently sophisticated an d fast to cope. In such a market, says Langner, understanding the customer's needs is of vital importance. But when almost every customer has a differen t problem that may require a customised solution, the challenge could be too great for a small company such as IGM, without the years of experience that produces a clear product strategy. Each robot supplier has a different appr oach, but IGM's is based on two vital elements, says Langner: a modular desi gn system to allow the company to respond to individual customers' needs wit hout having to reinvent the wheel, and the decision to keep all control syst ems development in-house. Broadening the appeal of robots to heavy industry requires a combination of developing the business end of the system (the wel ding itself), taking the robot's mechanical engineering to the limits, and c onstantly updating and improving the control systems. IGM develops welding s ystems together with Fronius, an Austrian welding equipment company - for th e customer, after all, the quality of the weld is the proof of the pudding. The robot supplier recently introduced a new high-performance welding techni que known as Time (transferred ionised molten energy), developed originally by a Canadian metallurgical expert. IGM has also developed an automatic head change facility, allowing welding to be followed by flame cutting in one co ntinuous cycle. This is being used by a UK customer for welding steel bridge sections. As in machine tools, however, while mechanical developments near their limit it is the brains of the robot system - its software and sensors, and the programming - that is receiving the lion's share of attention. This is where the acronyms really begin to proliferate. So-called off-line progr amming, where the robot is set up for the next job without disturbing its pr esent task, is particularly important when it could take many hours, if not days, to start up a new component on a welding robot. IGM's latest contribut ion is IOPS, which uses computer-aided simulation of production cells and ma nufacturing lines to get the best configuration of the welding cell for each workpiece. Another important result of the company's R&D work is ISIP, a ne w optoelectronic camera system for measuring weld grooves. This uses optical sensors to determine the position and geometry of the fabrication, underlin ing the growing importance of vision systems as the 'eyes' in an increasingl y complex 'eyes-brain-hand' environment. Perhaps the most significant develo pment at IGM, however, lies at the heart of the robot software. In a few wee ks' time, the company will have running a prototype of a new robot controlle r based on the transputer, the Inmos superchip. IGM had realised some five y ears ago that it needed to have a more powerful control system, says Langner , and the new controller will increase control speeds by a factor of 10. The new control should be on IGM's robots by next year, but Langner also sees a pplications for the control outside robotics, with initial demand of about 5 00-1,000 units a year, compared with the 150-200 IGM will need each year for its robots. 'But we will not market it by ourselves,' Langner stresses. The Financial Times London Page 15 ============= Transaction # 49 ============================================== Transaction #: 49 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:34:21 Selec. Rec. #: 10 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT922-9444 _AN-CEGBFAFXFT 9205 07 FT 07 MAY 92 / Technology: Androids on the march - Af ter years on the breadline, modern robots are finding gainful employment in Europe By ANDREW BAXTER In the US f ashion industry they call it 'localised abrasion' - the pre-worn look for de nim jeans produced by applying potassium permanganate solution to the knee, thigh and seat areas. The faded effect has traditionally been achieved throu gh manual spraying, but consistency and quality control have been hard to ac hieve. Now GMFanuc Robotics has perfected a robotic solution that is three t imes faster than manual spraying, can reproduce a spray pattern to an accura cy of 0.03 inch, and can be programmed easily to handle a wide range of garm ents. The system is a relatively simple example of recent trends in the indu strial robotics industry, which is trying to reduce its dependence on compar atively mature automotive markets and find new applications elsewhere. It is a trend that is particularly important for robot suppliers in the European market, where the overall penetration of robots into industry is much lower than in Japan, and where a potentially huge market for non-automotive applic ations remains untapped. According to Massimo Mattucci, vice president for e ngineering and marketing at Comau of Italy, around 50 per cent of industrial robots installed in Europe are in use in the automotive industry and 20 per cent in electronics -the reverse of the situation in Japan. 'The automotiv e industry has more or less understood the potential of robots,' says Stelio Demark, head of ABB Robotics, Europe's largest producer, although he stress es, along with other robot industry executives, the potential of robots in t he paint-spraying and final assembly area of European vehicle manufacturing. The inherent flexibility of modern robots, and the advances made in control systems and mechanics that have increased their speed and reliability, ough t to increase their suitability for small-batch manufacturing in Europe, whe re model changes are frequent. Demark sees new opportunities for robots emer ging in the European food, packaging, pharmaceutical and white goods industr ies. But the pace at which European industry accepts robots will depend part ly on suppliers' ability to counter the mistrust caused by the hype of the 1 970s and early 1980s, when the robot industry appeared to be carried away by euphoria over business prospects. There are other obstacles, too, for suppl iers to surmount. In Japan, one of the driving forces behind the growth in t he industrial robot population to 274,210 in 1990 - nearly 10 times the popu lation in the former West Germany -has been labour shortages. 'Everything h as to come back to economic considerations,' says Axel Gerhardt, an executiv e board member of IWKA, the holding company for Kuka, Germany's largest robo t supplier. 'In Europe robots are used where it is economical to do so. In J apan the question is often whether to produce with a robot or not to produce there at all.' Mistakes have also been made in the installation of robots, for which the suppliers and customers have to share the blame. 'People have tended to put in a robot, then have an operator standing by watching,' says Demark. 'This is a half-way house that I wouldn't recommend.' Increasingly, robot suppliers are realising that if they are to make inroads into the smal l- and medium-sized businesses that still dominate European industry - espec ially outside the automotive sector - they have to understand better the cu stomer's needs and worries. 'You have to enter into an economic calculation with the customer and demonstrate the ability to find a solution,' says Matt ucci. That could mean being paid only for a feasibility study that comes dow n against the use of robots. But in the long run this approach makes more se nse for an industry that wants to broaden its customer base and maintain its reputation. Comau, which sells most of its robots as part of an integrated automation package, is around 90 per cent dependent on the vehicle industry. Mattucci wants to expand the remaining 10 per cent of the business to 30 pe r cent over the next five years by exploiting the group's strengths in robot ics for body-welding, mechanical assembly and difficult handling operations. The Italian company's most ambitious step away from the automotive sector i s its involvement in the Columbus Automation and robotics Testbed (Cat) prog ramme financed by the European Space Agency. The ground testbed for the auto mation and robotics on board the projected Columbus Space Station will incor porate a new Comau robot using advanced materials such as aeronautical alloy s and composites. A more-down-to earth approach to broadening the customer b ase is in evidence at GMFanuc, the US/Japanese concern which is the world's second biggest supplier. The jean-spraying robot, developed in the US and no w available in the UK, offers a high return on investment with a payback of less than a year, says Mike Wilson, the UK sales and marketing manager. Robo tics are also in their infancy in the European food industry, partly because it has hitherto been difficult to turn a hose on to a robot to clean it wit hout ruining its electrical circuits. In January, GMFanuc launched its 'Wash down' robot to conform to the strict hygiene requirements of the food indust ry and withstand all the chemical substances likely to be used in washdown o r wipedown procedures. In the European electronics industry, robots are more frequent but applications are still developing. Data Packaging, an Irish su pplier of plastic moulded components for the computer industry, recently ins talled an ABB Robotics painting cell to handle metallic paints used to provi de an attractive finish, and assist in electrical shielding, on parts for th e Apple Macintosh. Metallic paints are hard to handle because they block sup ply lines if not kept flowing continuously. The ABB system programs the robo t to fire the spray gun if the system lays dormant for a given length of tim e. Advances such as these are often based on techniques originally developed for the automotive industry, which is not being neglected in suppliers' has te to exploit other markets. A number of fairly recent technologies have rel evance to the use of robots in automotive and non-automotive fields. Laser w elding, says Wilson, is attracting interest in a number of industries, inclu ding aerospace, because of its precision and speed. Unlike conventional spot welding, the robot does not have to reach both sides of the part to be weld ed. Another emerging technology, especially when combined with robotics, is water-jet cutting, which is likely to become increasingly important for cutt ing plastics quickly and cleanly. It is already being used in the automotive industry for cutting carpets, door panels and instrument panels. In both ar eas robot suppliers are forming partnerships with companies which have devel oped the technologies so that they can exploit the opportunities quicker. Co mau has a co-operation agreement with Trumpf, the German machine tool builde r best-known for its laser-cutting machines, while last year ABB Robotics fo rmed a joint venture with Ingersoll-Rand of the US to develop and market a r obotised water-jet cutting system in Europe. The search for a broader Europe an customer base coincides with a much more price-conscious attitude over th e past two to three years among customers, due as much to general business c onditions as to scepticism about the early claims made by robot suppliers. S uppliers are rationalising their product ranges to give customers what they want and no more, but using developments in control systems to increase the applications available from each model. These conditions give advantages and disadvantages in more or less equal measure to European suppliers and Japan ese/US importers, which control one third of the market. Demark and Mattucci strongly believe that the European suppliers benefit from a approach based on solutions rather than products. 'The Japanese do not have the solutions f or European needs,' says Mattucci flatly. This is a view strongly disputed b y the Japanese producers, but in a price-sensitive market the the Japanese d o have the advantage of size - investment in control systems, in particular, can be spread over a bigger sales base. Ultimately, though, all the robot s uppliers could benefit if they can persuade more European companies of the b enefits of robots. And that is likely to be a gradual process where technolo gy is only one factor in the equation. The Financial Times London Page 18 ============= Transaction # 50 ============================================== Transaction #: 50 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:34:40 Selec. Rec. #: 11 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT911-129 _AN-BENBQAC6FT 91051 4 FT 14 MAY 91 / Survey of Computers in Manufacturing (1 1): Search for new applications - Robotics, still on the fringe of the indus trial sector By ANDREW BAXTER FOR a ll the hype over the past 20 years about how robots would transform manufact uring industry, they still remain on the fringes of the industrial scene - w ith the notable exception of manufacturing in Japan. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the world industrial robot populati on stood at 388,000 units at the end of 1989, of which 220,000 were in Japan , 56,000 in western Europe, 37,000 in the US and -very roughly - 75,000 els ewhere. There are a number of interconnected reasons for this situation. In the past, there has been considerable hostility from trade unions to their i ntroduction and managements have taken a lot of convincing about the cost be nefits. Dr Kevin Clarke, manager of manufacturing engineering at PA Consulti ng Group, says that, in many instances, robots have not delivered the cost e ffectiveness they have promised. Robot manufacturers, he says, have not deve loped their products technologically as fast as they might have. 'There's ve ry little innovation, because the market isn't there,' he says. However, the evidence of the past two years suggests that things may be changing. Those 388,000 units represented an increase of 20 per cent from the end of 1988, a nd in 1990 US-based robotics companies won record new orders of Dollars 517. 4m. The robotics industry was in deep gloom during 1986 and 1987, and especi ally in the US where it had become far too dependent on the motor industry - which took about 40 to 50 per cent of sales. Mr Donald Vincent, executive v ice-president of the US Robotic Industries Association, recalls that 'when t he automotive industry quit buying in 1986 and 1987, it sent robotics into a deep spin.' This decline had two results. First, it encouraged a much-neede d concentration among robot producers. In the middle of the 1980s there were some 300, according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). Now, it says, there are probably fewer than 100 true producers, led by ABB Robot ics, part of the Swiss-Swedish Asea Brown Boveri, GMF Robotics, a joint vent ure between Fanuc of Japan and General Motors of the US, and Yaskawa of Japa n. Secondly, the downturn prompted an urgent search for new applications for robots away from the motor industry and its inherent cyclicality. Dr Clarke singles out 'clean room' applications for robots in health care and precisi on engineering, while Mr Vincent is hopeful of new applications in the food industry, materials handling and packaging. The wellspring for this diversif ication into new markets, which has already begun, is computer power. In mec hanical terms, robots are relatively simple beasts, and robotic technology h as always been based on the use of computers to overcome mechanical limitati ons. Mr Kenneth Waldron, a robotics expert at Ohio State University, says 't he major theme which will direct commercial applications of new research in robotics will be that of taking advantage of the huge increases in computing power which have become available as a result of the development of advance d microprocessors.' Mr Waldron notes that most current industrial robot syst ems offer only incremental improvements over what was possible with the firs t generation of microcomputer controllers. Current research is looking at ar eas such as greater use of sensing - of the robot's environment and internal state - more sophisticated control techniques offering greater speed and ac curacy, robotic mobility and improved control of the interface between the r obot and the workpiece. Given these trends, there has inevitably been consid erable interest in industrial vision systems for robots, which could radical ly change many applications, particularly in assembly where robots have so f ar failed to make their mark. Previous forecasts for the population of visio n-equipped robots have not been realised, but it is reasonable to predict, a s the IFR has, that the continuous reduction in prices of computers and sens ors, and their greater speed and reliability, will gradually remove the tech nological and economic barriers. Many of the business trends in robotics ove r the past few years are illustrated by developments at ABB Robotics, which claims to be the world's biggest supplier - a title which the Japanese manuf acturers might dispute. ABB's purchase last year of Cincinnati Milacron's ro botics business was an important step in the consolidation of the industry a round leading European and Japanese suppliers. Mr Stelio Demark, head of ABB Robotics, says the Cincinnati business brought with it a tremendous US cust omer base and undoubted expertise in spot-welding robotics. The nature of AB B's customer base has also been changing, and over the past five years it ha s reduced its dependence on the automotive industry from 70-75 per cent of s ales to 50 per cent. ABB is attracting new business from small and medium-si zed companies which had previously not bought robots. 'We may be supplying o nes and twos, but it's growing very quickly,' says Mr Demark. New markets in clude glass making, different kinds of process applications, and palletising . This effort is backed up by spending on research and development - 10 per cent of revenues - that is almost on a par with that of the pharmaceutical i ndustry. Meanwhile the falling cost of electronics is allowing ABB to build more capability and flexibility into its robots. ABB's latest product, the I RB 6000, was officially launched last month with claims of much greater flex ibility and capability than rival products. Because of these developments, M r Demark is optimistic about future growth prospects for ABB and the industr y. The view is shared by independent observers. In a report about to be publ ished by Frost & Sullivan, the international market research publishers, tot al world robot sales are forecast to rise from Dollars 2.15bn in 1990 to Dol lars 3.41bn in 1996. The relatively small size of the industry at the end of the 1980s is a reflection of many of the factors mentioned above. F & S see s the Japanese market's share of world robot sales falling from 65 per cent last year to 45 per cent in 1996, while Europe's share will rise from 15 to 20 per cent, the US will mark time at about 6 per cent and the rest of the w orld will jump from 14 per cent to just under 30 per cent. The biggest growt h area is Asia, which is good news for the Japanese producers, but Europe, s ays Mr Demark, is also 'very interesting,' and the company's home base. F & S sees the European market rising from Dollars 330m in 1990 to Dollars 687m in 1996, with Germany leading the way. Looking specifically at the European market, F & S comments that the 'supplier capable of marketing a complete pa ckage including sensors, user-friendly software and simple training and inst allation will achieve the best sales penetration.' ABB is probably justified in claiming that it offers more service and support to European buyers than the more product-based approach of the Japanese, but Dr Clarke wonders whet her this will still be true in two years' time. On the other hand Europe, he says, is probably not one of the Japanese producers' priorities, given the better growth prospects in the Asia Pacific region. As for the balance of po wer in the industry, both ABB and the Japanese are growing stronger, the big producers are getting bigger, and the smaller robotics companies, particula rly in the US and UK, are concentrating on niches and ancillary services. If the big producers can keep up with development in computing, the 1990s coul d well bring the rewards that proved so elusive for much fo the 1980s. The Financial Times London Page VI Photograph (Omitted ). Photograph ABB robot IRB6000 in a spot welding application (left). Demark (right): important consolidations (Omitted). ============= Transaction # 51 ============================================== Transaction #: 51 Transaction Code: 2 (New Disp. Format Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:34:54 Selec. 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Rec. #: 12 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT943-11018 _AN-EHBDUACKFT 940 802 FT 02 AUG 94 / Technology: Robots get the dirty work - Japan is developing intelligent systems to help an ageing population By ANDREW FISHER A nifty little robot d arts down a street, picks up the rubbish and puts it into a truck. Inside a power station, another robot carries out vital maintenance work. A hard-pres sed nurse uses robotic help to move beds and patients. Hard to imagine thoug h it may be, Japanese research experts are working on such applications - an d on robots for the home - although it will probably not be until well into the next century that they can be put into practice. Labour will be in short supply in coming years. The 125m population is ageing and will slowly decli ne as the birth rate falls. 'Such systems are necessary for coming generatio ns in Japan,' says Kazuo Asakawa, head of the intelligent systems laboratory at Fujitsu, the Japanese computer group. 'We have to develop intelligent sy stems to replace young people.' Most people do not want to do the so-called '3K' jobs - denoting the Japanese words for 'dirty, difficult and dangerous' - such as working in hospitals, collecting rubbish, maintaining power stati ons and cleaning. Asakawa foresees robots also being used in the office, for handling mail and other straightforward tasks and eventually in the home. T he key to such developments will be neural networks - complex computer syste ms that can learn to recognise patterns and react accordingly. The robots wi ll be equipped with an array of sensors that will enable them to adapt to th eir surroundings. 'In 10 years, we hope to develop autonomous systems using neural networks,' says Asakawa. In the view of Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, president of the University of Tokyo, robots could be the answer to many of Japan's e conomic and social problems. 'It is necessary to use Japan's highly educated labour force to invent these kinds of things.' He believes that Japanese in dustry must look ahead to new products such as these to prepare for a future in which over-production and over-capacity will inhibit industrial growth. Japan's car industry is already plagued by over-capacity, as well as high co sts; the surge in the yen is eating further into export profits. In common w ith other academics and industrialists, Yoshikawa warns of the danger of 'ho llowing-out' as lower-cost countries in Asia and elsewhere take up productio n of goods which have become too expensive to make in Japan. The electronics companies are already big producers in south-east Asia and car makers have been expanding their overseas operations. 'We must change the direction of e ndeavour,' adds Yoshikawa, a specialist in engineering design theory. He thi nks industry should lean towards more automation of services such as healthc are and cleaning. He talks of the need for greater 'amplification of service s', with intelligent, computer-controlled machines doing much of the awkward and dirty work now done by humans. In other countries, where unemployment i s high, this is less of an issue. But Japan's unemployment rate is less than 3 per cent, kept low by the tradition of lifetime employment and the high l evel of consensus and discipline in Japanese society. This is despite the re cession after the bursting of the 'bubble' economy of the late 1980s. Japane se companies already use robots far more widely than the rest of the world. In 1992, there were 350,000 robots in Japan, of which more than 280,000 were advanced (operating in different axes, or with sensors or learning controls ), according to latest statistics from the United Nations and the Internatio nal Federation of Robotics. This compared with 47,000 (42,000 advanced) in t he US and 39,000 (35,500) in Germany. The electronics industry is the bigges t user of robots in Japan, followed by cars. But the advanced applications e nvisaged by Asakawa, Yoshikawa and others are still at the pilot stage. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry supports some of them. Work is progessing on robots to take the backache out of nurses' lifting work and on micromachines to help doctors operate and even to carry tiny doses of medic ine to certain parts of the body. The rubbish-collecting robots described by Yoshikawa - he calls them 'social robots' - are still at the basic research stage. 'I can't say when they will be ready. The direction of research is t o invent new robotics for use on the roads and streets of a city. I hope thi s will be completed in five to 10 years.' A programme to develop robots to e nter the containment vessels of nuclear power plants and carry out maintenan ce work began in 1978, he says. The first prototype was too heavy at 400kg. Toshiba then made a more sophisticated one, which was suitable for the work. But power companies are reluctant to rely on robots rather than humans for work in which safety and reliability is essential. 'My idea is first mainten ance, then social and then home robots,' says Yoshikawa. All these areas, he feels, are ripe for 'amplification' through intelligent automation. Ultimat ely, the home could be the biggest market for robots. But to do household cl eaning and other work, they must be made of softer materials than metal and have more flexible gear systems to fit in with the random pattern of life in the home. Yoshikawa says there are no prototypes of the home robot yet. But he adds that robot manufacturers such as Fuji Machine and Matsushita have s hown considerable interest. Asakawa says Fujitsu is also working on computer programs for domestic use. Thus, sometime around 2010, robots could be scur rying around Japanese streets, homes, offices and hospitals doing routine jo bs and taking some of the strain out of daily life. Countries:- JPZ Japan, Asia. Industries:- P3569 General Industrial Machinery, NEC. Types:- CMMT Comment & Ana lysis. TECH Products & Product use. MGMT Management & Marketing. < /TP> The Financial Times London Page 11 ============= Transaction # 53 ============================================== Transaction #: 53 Transaction Code: 2 (New Disp. Format Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:39:09 Selec. 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Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 284 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 12 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 55 ============================================== Transaction #: 55 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:39:22 Selec. Rec. #: 13 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT942-5669 _AN-EFCDVAC3FT 9406 03 FT 03 JUN 94 / Technology: Robot lifts the load BY MAX GLASKIN A robot fork lift truck t hat carries loads between lorry trailer and factory floor could extend autom ation to the loading bay. A prototype now being tested maps its surroundings continuously and plots its routes. 'There is no system in the world that lo ads and unloads conventional trailers fully autonomously,' says Malcolm Robe rts, director of Guidance Control Systems of the UK. 'We built a system four years ago that relied on mirrors in the trailers to reflect positioning las ers but now we don't need them.' Drivers of trailers up to 16m long cannot p ark them accurately enough for a fixed robot loader to work. The GCS robot c opes with such variables and also detects changes in its surroundings - for instance, when a pallet is in its path. A central computer communicates the tasks by radio to the robot, which is otherwise autonomous. The robot uses a variety of sensors to detect its own location and the trailer. A laser syst em scans ahead up to 25m; for local positioning, ultrasound is accurate for between 20cm and 2m. The ultrasound data is interpreted quickly by an off-th e-shelf transputer but an infra-red sensor cuts in when data of a higher res olution is needed - to cope with an odd-shaped load, for example. The robot analyses when it has nudged up close to a load using a force sensor and torq ue measurement on each wheel. More sensors control the sideways movement of the forks so that loads are deposited hard up against the trailer wall. 'A f ork-lift truck driver can unload a trailer in half an hour with relative eas e and our prototype hasn't yet shown it can work so quickly. We expect to be there later this year,' says Roberts. However, time is not the only cost fa ctor as robots are not so prone to accidental damage to loads. Countries:- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P3537 Industrial Trucks and Tractors. Types:- TECH Products & Product use. The Financial Times Londo n Page 14 ============= Transaction # 56 ============================================== Transaction #: 56 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:39:33 Selec. Rec. #: 18 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT932-769 _AN-DF0AKAD0FT 93062 6 FT 26 JUN 93 / Calling Dr Dalek - your patient is wait ing: A revolution in surgery where robots are taking an increased role in th e operating theatre By CLIVE COOKSON YOU ARE about to have the anaesthetic before an operation to remove a brai n tumour. Would you feel happier knowing that the most delicate part of the procedure was to be carried out by the gently trembling hand of the world's most skilful surgeon - or by a rock-steady robot? That question will soon be more than a fantasy because surgery is in the early stages of a technical r evolution. The first step has been the spread of 'keyhole' operations over t he past five years. Instead of cutting open the patient, the surgeon uses in struments guided by telescope through tiny incisions. Soon, it will be possi ble to work by remote control on patients thousands of miles away, using a c ombination of telecommunications and virtual reality. The most striking sign of change, though, is the way surgeons are starting to welcome robotic assi stants into their operating theatres. Within the past few months, robots hav e helped to carry out hip replacements in California, prostate operations in London and brain surgery in Grenoble, France. Later this year, gall bladder removal, hernia repair and a variety of other abdominal operations will be added to the list of robotic accomplishments. Despite this, even the most en thusiastic surgeons say it is likely to be several years before they would c onsider leaving a robot to operate on its own. The late Hap Paul, chief inve ntor of California's Robodoc, cautioned: 'We have to move very slowly and ca refully because one false move by a surgical robot - and this whole technolo gy is set back by many years.' Robodoc is the world's largest and best-finan ced project in medical robotics. Since November, 10 patients at Sutter gener al hospital in Sacramento have had hip replacements with the aid of Robodoc, a 250 lb automaton programmed to carve the cavity for an implant in the thi gh bone. Although Paul died two months ago (at only 44), Integrated Surgical Systems, the company he founded with financial and scientific backing from IBM, is forging ahead. It is waiting for approval from the Food and Drug Adm inistration to carry out a clinical trial of Robodoc with 300 patients in th ree US hospitals. Why should a patient trust a robotic tool rather than the skilled hands of a human specialist? The most important reason is that an el ectronic arm is capable of precision well beyond that of the steadiest and b est-trained surgeon. ISS hopes to prove this through its trial, in which pat ients will be allocated at random into one group treated by Robodoc and anot her receiving conventional hip replacements. Surgical robots promise more th an improvements in existing procedures, says Patrick Finlay, managing direct or of Armstrong Projects, a fledgling UK medical robotics company based at B eaconsfield near London. 'The reduced collateral damage and greater precisio n of the robot will make it possible to do operations that would otherwise b e too risky to contemplate. For example, a tumour very close to the optic ne rve can be tackled without making the patient blind.' Several different type s of surgical robot are under development around the world. Robodoc is an 'a ctive' robot that actually cuts human tissue. 'Orthopaedic work is an attrac tive application because the robot is working on hard tissue that doesn't mo ve if you prod it,' notes Brian Davies, an engineer specialising in medical robotics at Imperial College, London. Most operations, however, involve cutt ing soft tissues - a task that is more delicate than carving bone. So far, o nly 'passive' robots have been used for this type of surgery. They may move instruments inside the patient, under the surgeon's direction, but they do n ot yet wield a scalpel or laser beam. An example is Laparobot, which Armstro ng Projects is developing with Mark Ornstein, a surgeon at the London Clinic . Laparobot will give someone carrying out keyhole surgery the impression of 'walking around' inside the patient's body, using tele-presence techniques. A keyhole surgeon views the operating site with a miniature video camera at the end of a thin optical tube, inserted into the body through a puncture h ole (typically, in the tummy button). This instrument, called a laparoscope, projects the scene on to a TV screen above the patient. Normally, an assist ant has to hold the laparoscope and move it when the surgeon needs a differe nt view. But Laparobot itself senses the position of the surgeon's head and moves the image accordingly. If the surgeon pushes a foot button and moves h is head to the left, the robot will change the view inside the patient's bod y. For this year's initial trials at the London Clinic, Laparobot will work with an existing TV monitor - but the next stage will be for the surgeon to wear a helmet-mounted display which will give the impression of being immers ed in the operating environment. As he looks around, the scene will change a s though he were actually inside the abdominal cavity. Further in the future lies the prospect of linking the surgeon's finger movements to the control of micro-instruments within the body. 'Laparobot will make the surgery more efficient - less stressful for the surgeon, faster and more accurate, and wi th less risk of damage to the patient,' says Ornstein. Armstrong is also wor king with Professor David Thomas, of London's National Hospital for Neurolog y, to develop Neurobot, a system for carrying out brain surgery. By the end of this year, they hope to have demonstrated an 'image-guided robot' that wi ll help the surgeon position his instruments at the correct point in the bra in to perform the operation. The next stage will be for Neurobot itself to i nsert the instruments. A surgical robot is given as much prior information a s possible about relevant parts of the patient's body - usually, from a CT o r MRI scan. Its computer converts this into a digital model of the patient. Although the surgeon works out in advance the path of the operation, based o n the computer model, the system must be flexible enough to respond to unexp ected events. Neurobot, for example, will have a sensor inside the patient's head. If it detects the presence of an unexpected blood vessel, it will pro mpt the surgeon for advice. Its software might propose a modified route, tak ing the new information into account, but the robot will not go ahead until the surgeon has signalled his approval. Finlay says a good indicator of prog ress in surgical robotics will be the increasing amount of freedom given to the robot. 'Although the surgeon will never cease to participate, it is real istic to envisage a situation similar to the relationship between an airline r captain and his autopilot, in which the human provides a supervisory and m onitoring role and is available to take over the critical manoeuvres,' he sa ys. The consultant need not be in the operating theatre with the patient. In tele-surgery projects under way in the US and France, an experienced surgeo n uses a video link to supervise a junior doctor in a hospital hundreds of m iles away. The surgeon could equally well supervise a distant robot, althoug h local medical and nursing staff would still have to be present in case the system crashed. Everyone involved in medical robotics is obsessed with safe ty. Yet, as Davies points out, there are no agreed safety standards for robo ts operating on people, whereas regulations require industrial robots to wor k in metal cages. (The fact that two workers in Japan have been killed by fa ctory robots going out of control shows the need for such rules). 'There are two views on safety,' says Davies. 'One is that it's acceptable to start ou t with an industrial robot provided you put in a top-level software system t o bring the thing to a halt in the event of some failure. But, in my view, t hat's not safe enough. I think you need to re-develop the robot from the bas ic servo level upwards, building in safety at every level.' That means givin g the surgical robot the equivalent of a metal cage, with duplicated softwar e and hardware constraints to prevent it moving beyond pre-defined limits. A nd it must move slowly enough for the supervising surgeon's hand to hit the stop button in time to avoid damage if all the safety systems fail. Demonstr ating safety is not enough, though. Growing concerns about the financial cos ts of medical care are forcing both public health authorities and private ho spitals to demand evidence that new technology will deliver benefits that ou tweigh its expense. Drugs have long had to justify their effectiveness in la rge-scale clinical trials but, until now, new surgical procedures and medica l equipment have been introduced with remarkably little systematic assessmen t. A report on medical research earlier this year by the UK government's Adv isory Council on Science and Technology (Acost) pointed out: 'With the excep tion of pharmaceuticals, demands for evaluation have been questioned because it 'stands to reason' that the new techniques will be 'better'.' Peter Doyl e, research director of ICI and chairman of Acost's medical research committ ee, gives keyhole surgery as an example of a procedure that has been introdu ced 'haphazardly' without proper evaluation. The report says the National He alth Service should require all new medical devices to be assessed under con trolled conditions, and their cost effectiveness measured. Miles Irving, pro fessor of surgery at Manchester University's Hope Hospital, says that such a ssessment is all the more necessary 'because surgeons face strong consumer p ressure to introduce new procedures before they have been properly evaluated .' Hap Paul felt that pressure when he was looking for sites to test Robodoc . 'Tertiary care centres in the US - the big university hospitals - see this as an advance that will help them attract patients,' he said. 'So, we have to be very careful in choosing our sites, to make sure it's not just a publi city stunt for them.' Indeed, says John Hutton, a health economist at York U niversity, US experience shows that patients regard hi-tech equipment in its elf as an indicator of quality, whether or not there is any clinical evidenc e to prove its superiority. Therefore, hospitals compete by buying more and more flashy machines - and their charges shoot up far faster than inflation. The introduction of an internal market in the NHS is likely to lead to simi lar competitive pressures in the UK. ISS believes its clinical trial will en able orthopaedic hospitals to justify buying a Dollars 750,000 Robodoc, doin g 400 hip replacements a year, on the basis that implants from robotic opera tions last longer than those inserted manually and so save money in the long run. But the recent history of medical research and technology, from antibi otics to diagnostic scanners, shows that while each development can be justi fied in isolation as being cost-effective, the overall result is to add subs tantially to the financial burden of health care by creating new demand from patients and adding to the number of elderly people in the population. Two decades from now, only second-class patients will choose to have a purely ma nual operation. But, in contrast to labour-saving robots in a car factory, s urgical robots can only make the process more expensive. Enthusiastic medica l technologists can answer any question except one: how will we pay for it? Companies:- Armstrong Projects. Imperial Chemical Industries. Countries:- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P3841 Surgical and Medical Instruments. P38 42 Surgical Appliances and Supplies. P8099 Health and Allied Services, N EC. P2834 Pharmaceutical Preparations. Types:- TECH Products & Product use. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Finan cial Times London Page I ============= Transaction # 57 ============================================== Transaction #: 57 Transaction Code: 38 (Record Deselected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:40:07 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT922-4414 _AN-CFEA9AEEFT 9206 05 FT 05 JUN 92 / Survey of Vehicle Manufacturing Techno logy (6): Machines are now used for tasks beyond spot welding - Robots By ANDREW BAXTER ROBOTS have become an e stablished part of the vehicle manufacturing scene over the past 15 years. T he motor industry accounts for as much as 40 per cent of the 450,000 install ed industrial robots worldwide but their use is changing and applications ar e expanding. The traditional picture of long lines of robots each making bil lions of spot welds on car bodies in a working life of eight to 10 years is still true, but only half the story. Those same welding robots are as likely to be grouped in flexible manufacturing cells and capable of handling a wid e range of models in quick succession. At the same time, smaller robots are increasingly being used in engine assembly, where their ability to do qualit y, repetitive work with a precision of 1/100th of a millimetre is much in de mand. Robots are being used in final assembly work and paint spraying, and s uppliers hope to be able to develop these markets now that the technology ha s been proven. There is an emerging trend for robots to be used in automotiv e sub-contracting, prompted by the vehicle manufacturers' need to be as conf ident in the consistency and quality of out-sourced components as for their own work. The shorter lives of car models, prompted by increased competition in the industry and the Japanese producers' early efforts to reduce product development times, are changing the use and design of robots. The tradition al practice of replacing a robot after two model cycles may have been approp riate when each car model was lasting six to eight years. But with model liv es reduced to three to four years, users want to keep their robots for furth er models, and thus want increased flexibility, according to Dr Axel Gerhard t, a senior board member at the holding company for Kuka, Germany's largest robot supplier. Many of the latest trends in the use of robotics originated in Japan where labour shortages have spurred much greater penetration of rob ots into industry overall compared with Europe and the US. But robot supplie rs such as ABB Robotics, the largest in Europe, believe the European automot ive industry is as enthusiastic a user of robotic automation as its Japanese counterpart. However, some of the more recent applications of robots are le ss prevalent in Europe, giving an opportunity to suppliers if they can convi nce producers of the economic benefits. There are national variations too: t he UK is a long way behind the US and the rest of Europe in the use of robot s in the paint shop, says Mr Mike Wilson, UK sales and marketing director at GMFanuc Robotics. The versatility of modern industrial robots for tasks tha t go beyond spot welding is illustrated by Kuka's involvement in final assem bly of the Citroen XM. Following painting, robots dismount the doors and tai lgate, with the aid of sensors, for completion on separate trim lines; the c ockpit is picked up by robot from an automatic guided vehicle, inserted thro ugh the door and then bolted to the body by a second robot. Robots are used for applying the adhesive sealants and for fitting the glass exactly into th e body aperture with the aid of ultrasonic scanners; seats are inserted by r obot after measuring the exact position of the body by means of tactile sens ors, wheels are mounted and doors and tailgate refitted. Some of these tasks are difficult for robots because of the nature of final assembly. Robots ar e having to operate in a less structured environment, says Mr Wilson, and de al with less defined objects such as seats. Another problem, at least outsid e Japan, is that labour is available and costs less than in skilled manufact uring areas. So robot suppliers have to find applications that create added value, says Mr Stelio Demark, head of ABB Robotics. There are still opportun ities for greater use of robots further up the production line. Relatively n ew processes such as laser-cutting and water-jet cutting are likely to becom e more prevalent, in association with robots, especially for working with pl astics and new advanced composites. Mr Demark sees a substantial increase in automated arc-welding in the automotive industry and sub-suppliers. And Com au, the Italian robotics and systems group, expects some interesting investm ents in the body area, prompted by the increased need for new models, accord ing to Mr Massimo Mattucci, vice-president for engineering and marketing. In paint spraying, says Mr Demark, robots have hardly scratched the surface. L ast year, ABB strengthened its position in the robotic painting market with the acquisition of Graco in the US, but GMFanuc, a US/Japanese concern, and Behr of Germany have strong positions. The flexibility of robots to handle m odel changes will be the key to their further implementation in the car body area. In engine and transmission production, robots are becoming better est ablished, and Mr Mattucci suggests a new generation of engines prompted by t ougher environmental regulations could be the spur to further investment in robots. However, an increasing portion of business for robot suppliers seems likely to come from refurbishment of existing robots rather than new purcha ses as customers seek maximum value from their manufacturing investments. In the past three or four years, this has been a growing trend of robot refitt ing and modification in the motor industry, carried out during model changeo vers and restoring robots to previous levels of accuracy and productivity. < /TEXT> The Financial Times London Page III ============= Transaction # 58 ============================================== Transaction #: 58 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:40:35 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT922-4414 _AN-CFEA9AEEFT 9206 05 FT 05 JUN 92 / Survey of Vehicle Manufacturing Techno logy (6): Machines are now used for tasks beyond spot welding - Robots By ANDREW BAXTER ROBOTS have become an e stablished part of the vehicle manufacturing scene over the past 15 years. T he motor industry accounts for as much as 40 per cent of the 450,000 install ed industrial robots worldwide but their use is changing and applications ar e expanding. The traditional picture of long lines of robots each making bil lions of spot welds on car bodies in a working life of eight to 10 years is still true, but only half the story. Those same welding robots are as likely to be grouped in flexible manufacturing cells and capable of handling a wid e range of models in quick succession. At the same time, smaller robots are increasingly being used in engine assembly, where their ability to do qualit y, repetitive work with a precision of 1/100th of a millimetre is much in de mand. Robots are being used in final assembly work and paint spraying, and s uppliers hope to be able to develop these markets now that the technology ha s been proven. There is an emerging trend for robots to be used in automotiv e sub-contracting, prompted by the vehicle manufacturers' need to be as conf ident in the consistency and quality of out-sourced components as for their own work. The shorter lives of car models, prompted by increased competition in the industry and the Japanese producers' early efforts to reduce product development times, are changing the use and design of robots. The tradition al practice of replacing a robot after two model cycles may have been approp riate when each car model was lasting six to eight years. But with model liv es reduced to three to four years, users want to keep their robots for furth er models, and thus want increased flexibility, according to Dr Axel Gerhard t, a senior board member at the holding company for Kuka, Germany's largest robot supplier. Many of the latest trends in the use of robotics originated in Japan where labour shortages have spurred much greater penetration of rob ots into industry overall compared with Europe and the US. But robot supplie rs such as ABB Robotics, the largest in Europe, believe the European automot ive industry is as enthusiastic a user of robotic automation as its Japanese counterpart. However, some of the more recent applications of robots are le ss prevalent in Europe, giving an opportunity to suppliers if they can convi nce producers of the economic benefits. There are national variations too: t he UK is a long way behind the US and the rest of Europe in the use of robot s in the paint shop, says Mr Mike Wilson, UK sales and marketing director at GMFanuc Robotics. The versatility of modern industrial robots for tasks tha t go beyond spot welding is illustrated by Kuka's involvement in final assem bly of the Citroen XM. Following painting, robots dismount the doors and tai lgate, with the aid of sensors, for completion on separate trim lines; the c ockpit is picked up by robot from an automatic guided vehicle, inserted thro ugh the door and then bolted to the body by a second robot. Robots are used for applying the adhesive sealants and for fitting the glass exactly into th e body aperture with the aid of ultrasonic scanners; seats are inserted by r obot after measuring the exact position of the body by means of tactile sens ors, wheels are mounted and doors and tailgate refitted. Some of these tasks are difficult for robots because of the nature of final assembly. Robots ar e having to operate in a less structured environment, says Mr Wilson, and de al with less defined objects such as seats. Another problem, at least outsid e Japan, is that labour is available and costs less than in skilled manufact uring areas. So robot suppliers have to find applications that create added value, says Mr Stelio Demark, head of ABB Robotics. There are still opportun ities for greater use of robots further up the production line. Relatively n ew processes such as laser-cutting and water-jet cutting are likely to becom e more prevalent, in association with robots, especially for working with pl astics and new advanced composites. Mr Demark sees a substantial increase in automated arc-welding in the automotive industry and sub-suppliers. And Com au, the Italian robotics and systems group, expects some interesting investm ents in the body area, prompted by the increased need for new models, accord ing to Mr Massimo Mattucci, vice-president for engineering and marketing. In paint spraying, says Mr Demark, robots have hardly scratched the surface. L ast year, ABB strengthened its position in the robotic painting market with the acquisition of Graco in the US, but GMFanuc, a US/Japanese concern, and Behr of Germany have strong positions. The flexibility of robots to handle m odel changes will be the key to their further implementation in the car body area. In engine and transmission production, robots are becoming better est ablished, and Mr Mattucci suggests a new generation of engines prompted by t ougher environmental regulations could be the spur to further investment in robots. However, an increasing portion of business for robot suppliers seems likely to come from refurbishment of existing robots rather than new purcha ses as customers seek maximum value from their manufacturing investments. In the past three or four years, this has been a growing trend of robot refitt ing and modification in the motor industry, carried out during model changeo vers and restoring robots to previous levels of accuracy and productivity. < /TEXT> The Financial Times London Page III ============= Transaction # 59 ============================================== Transaction #: 59 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:40:37 Selec. Rec. #: 3 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT944-18195 _AN-EJED5AA3FT 941 005 FT 05 OCT 94 / Industrial robots 'set to soar by one third': Potential for expansion enormous, says report By FRANCES WILLIAMS GENEVA The world's industrial robot population is forecast to soar by more than a thir d over the four years to 1997, according to a report published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the International Federation of Robotics yesterday.* The report, the first in an annual series, says sagging growth in robot investment bottomed out in 1993 and numbers are set to jump from 610,000 at the end of last year to more than 830,000 by the end of 199 7. Annual sales are predicted to rise from about 54,000 units in 1993 to mor e than 103,000 units in 1997. Japan accounts for more than half the world's robot stock, equivalent to 325 robots for every 10,000 manufacturing workers . It is followed by Singapore (109), Sweden (73), Italy (70) and Germany (62 ). Use of robots is most widespread in the motor vehicle industry, which acc ounts for between a third and more than one-half of robots in use in countri es such as France, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and Britain. Tho ugh Japan now has the highest number of robots in the electrical and electro nic industry, it remains the world leader by far in the use of robots for ve hicle manufacture. In the transport equipment sector, which includes motor v ehicles, Japan has 1,000 robots for every 10,000 workers, compared with 167 in Sweden, 110 in France and 63 in Britain. In most countries, especially th ose with big motor vehicle industries, robots are used most frequently for w elding. But in some countries machining is the most common application. In J apan 40 per cent of the robot stock is used for assembly, reflecting the lar ge-scale use of robots in the electronic sector. The potential for expansion of robotics is enormous. Numbers would explode if other industrialised coun tries were to reach Japan's robot densities and if industry in general were to reach only half the robot density of the motor vehicle sector. If all ind ustries in France and Britain had half as many robots as the motor industry in these countries, the robot stock would more than double. If it reached ha lf the density of the Japanese motor vehicle industry, it would increase mor e than 20-fold. *World Industrial Robots 1994: Statistics 1983-93 and foreca sts to 1997. Sales No. GV. E94.0.24, UN Sales section, Palais des Nations, C H-1211 Geneva 10, Dollars 120. Countries:- CHZ Switz erland, West Europe. Industries:- P3569 General Industr ial Machinery, NEC. P3548 Welding Apparatus. Types:- MKTS Market shares. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Financia l Times London Page 4 ============= Transaction # 60 ============================================== Transaction #: 60 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:40:37 Selec. Rec. #: 5 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT941-1242 _AN-ECYC5AHGFT 9403 25 FT 25 MAR 94 / Ingenuity - The FT Engineering Review (2): Untouched by human hands - Intelligent machines are a familiar sight on motor production lines. Now they are expected to turn their 'hands' to the high-speed packing of food and drink / Robots By JOH N DUNN A PLATOON of raw recruits drafted in to the French a rmy to pack combat rations are having to look lively. Up to 10 different men us are needed each month. Each ration consists of 18 items ranging from a pa ck of biscuits and a tin of meat to purification tablets and a miniature sto ve. In order to keep the fighting troops fed, the new recruits have to pack rations at the rate of 24 a minute. The luckless legionnaires are 13 industr ial robots, part of a FFr25m automated packaging and palletising line built for the army by ABB Robotics. Three robots unload boxes of goodies from pall ets on to a conveyor which delivers them to the ration packing station. Here another nine machines, using videos cameras to recognise the right items, p ack them into ration boxes in just 2.5 seconds. The 13 robots stack the rati on boxes on to a pallet for delivery to the barracks. Five different menus c an be put on one pallet to match a barracks' order. David Marshall, responsi ble for customer training at ABB Robotics in Milton Keynes, fervently hopes that the food, drinks and confectionery industry - including even army ratio ns - will become the next big market for robots. 'The whole robot industry h as depended on the automotive industry since day one. Look at the figures - 80 per cent of the world market for robots is in the automotive and automoti ve supply industry. We are looking to the food industry to perform as well a s the automotive industry.' The reason for his optimism is that industrial r obots have become more attractive to the food industry for packing and handl ing, particularly in the light of new health and safety regulations restrict ing the weight of loads that can be lifted manually. They have become faster , reliable, more accurate, and easier to incorporate into a production line. Better motor control software has allowed ABB, for example, to squeeze 25 p er cent more performance out of the same robot. Robots are also simpler to p rogram, operate and maintain. And they can lift bigger loads. They can also be washed down with a hosepipe. And prices are coming down to a level where paybacks are acceptable to the food industry. 'The food, drink and confectio nery industry is surviving on low-cost female labour. Despite their flexibil ity, using people to pack those army rations would have been a nightmare,' s ays Marshall. Also, the industry is looking to cut costs. Although robots ar e flexible and reliable, so far they have been too slow and too expensive, s ays Marshall. But what is good for the food and drinks makers is good for ma nufacturing industry. Mike Wilson, marketing manager at Fanuc Robotics in Co ventry, says of the improvements in robot performance: 'Our new ARC Mate wel ding robot, for example, is 30 per cent cheaper in real terms than a similar model three years ago. And it is 20 per cent faster. A spot welding robot c an now do one spot weld every 1.5 seconds.' Ten years ago, says Wilson, it w ould have taken three. Some of the gain has come from the improved mechanica l performance of robots -faster acceleration and deceleration and better ov ershoot behaviour. And some has come from better integration of the robot in to the process, says Wilson. 'The spot welding gun will begin to close befor e it gets to the weld, for instance.' The load capacity and accuracy of robo ts has come on in leaps and bounds, too. 'The biggest robot we do carries 30 0kg. That was unheard of 10 years ago for an electric robot,' says Wilson. R eliability has also greatly improved, he says. An example is the arc welding robot. Weld wires occasionally get stuck in the solidified weld pool at the end of a weld. A few years ago, as the robot moved away it would rip the we lding torch off the arm. Today, says Wilson, 'wire-stick' sensors prevent th is and automatically send a pulse of current down the wire to burn it free. A similar example of improved capability is 'scratch start'. If a bead of si lica from the flux gets left on the end of the welding wire, it will not str ike an arc and has to be snipped off manually. Today's robot will sense this and scratch the tip of the wire along the component to rub the bead off. It will then go back to the correct place on the weld and start welding. Overa ll, says Wilson, the cost-to-performance ratio of robots today is considerab ly better than a few years ago. Most people now buy a robot 'package' which includes some process engineering expertise and an application software pack age. 'This avoids a lot of programming and makes them quicker to install and easier to operate.' When Vauxhall bought 120 Fanuc welding robots for its n ew Astra line at the Ellesmere Port plant a couple of years ago, it handed t hem on to six companies building the welding lines. 'We designed a software package for Vauxhall that would interface the robots with all the hardware a nd provide an operator interface. That forced all the line builders to use t he robots in the same way. It made maintenance a lot simpler and saved money . We only had to write the software once and copy it six times. Each line bu ilder would have had to develop their own.' Yet despite the advances in robo t technology, Britain has one of the smallest robot populations of all the i ndustrialised nations, around 7,600, compared with Germany's 39,000 and Japa n's staggering 350,000. Even the former USSR has more robots per employee in manufacturing industry than Britain. The problem is the 18 month to two yea r paybacks demanded in Britain, says Wilson, compared with as long as five y ears in Japan. 'It is very difficult to justify any capital expenditure on a n 18 month payback.' John Dunn is deputy editor of The Engineer Countries:- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P3569 General Industrial Machinery, NEC. P3556 Food Products Machi nery. Types:- TECH Products & Product use. CMMT C omment & Analysis. The Financial Times London Page IV ============= Transaction # 61 ============================================== Transaction #: 61 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:40:37 Selec. Rec. #: 6 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT934-9399 _AN-DKOCBAFRFT 9311 10 FT 10 NOV 93 / ABB enters robot venture with Renault By JOHN RIDDING PARIS ASEA Brown Boveri, the Swedish-Swiss engineering group, yesterd ay strengthened its position in the market for industrial robots, by agreein g to acquire the robotics operations of Renault and form a joint venture in automated vehicle assembly with the French car group. The two companies said the 50-50 venture would employ about 290 people and have annual sales of ab out Dollars 80m. After the acquisition of Renault's robotic operations, ABB' s French robotic operations will have annual sales of about Dollars 60m and employ about 200 people. Mr Stelio Demark, managing director of ABB Robotics , said that the deals with Renault were a central element in the company's s trategy of shifting from a product supplier to a partner of industrial group s in the design and manufacture of automated systems. He said that the joint venture, which will centre on 'body in white' activities - where cars are a ssembled and welded together - would give ABB access to Renault's production line expertise and enable it to offer higher value-added products and servi ces. The proposals, which require final approval by Renault employees, would give ABB its first joint venture project with a carmaker, the biggest marke t for robotics, and its first direct participation in the assembly stage of the production line. Mr Demark said that prices for industrial robots had fa llen by between 25 and 30 per cent over the past few years, prompting the Re nault sale. Renault's robotics operation, the largest in France, accounts fo r about 12 per cent of total sales of FFr1.4bn (Dollars 238m) from its autom ation division. The French group will retain management control of the separ ate joint venture for at least two years. According to Mr Demark, the market for industrial robots has strong growth potential, in spite of the fall in prices. He said that while in Japan there are 25 robots for every 1,000 manu facturing workers, the ratio is lower in Europe: in France, there are three robots per 1,000 workers. ABB estimates that it has about 20 per cent of the world market for robots with more than 33,000 currently in operation. Last year, ABB's robot division achieved sales of about Dollars 350m. ABB has wor ked with Renault on several automation projects, including the Twingo and Cl io cars. It also supplies Volvo, with which Renault is planning to merge. Companies:- Asea Brown Boveri. Renault. ABB Rob otics. Countries:- CHZ Switzerland, West Europe. S EZ Sweden, West Europe. FRZ France, EC. Industries:- P3569 General Industrial Machinery, NEC. Types:- CO MP Mergers & acquisitions. The Financial Times Int ernational Page 17 ============= Transaction # 62 ============================================== Transaction #: 62 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:40:37 Selec. Rec. #: 7 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT924-1130 _AN-CLTALAC0FT 9212 19 FT 19 DEC 92 / International Company News: ABB acquir es ESAB robotic welding unit By ROBERT TAYLOR STOCKHOLM THE robotics division of Asea Brown Boveri, the Swedish-Swiss engineering group has acquired the robotise d arc welding business of ESAB, the Swedish welding company. The deal will s trengthen ABB's position as a leading robot manufacturer in Europe and North America. It is estimated that ABB Robotics' annual turnover will grow by 30 per cent to Dollars 450m as a result of the acquisition. The cost of the ac quisition was not disclosed. The two companies have worked closely together since 1974 in the development of the welding robotics market. ESAB has provi ded a delivery service for about 5,000 ABB-designed robots. ABB Robotics and ESAB have operated separate organisations for production, research and deve lopment, as well as sales and service. Mr Stelio Demark, ABB Robotics presid ent said yesterday that both companies saw a substantial business opportunit y to increase market share and volume in combining their operations. ESAB sa id the deal would provide cost advantages through more integrated production and administration as well as better market coverage. The company said its disposal of its robotics welding business would have a substantial impact on its financial results. It added that ESAB's financial resources would be he lped by the agreement so that it could improve its core business of welding product sales in Asia and eastern Europe. The Financial Times < /PUB> London Page 10 ============= Transaction # 63 ============================================== Transaction #: 63 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:40:37 Selec. Rec. #: 8 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT923-4774 _AN-CIEASADWFT 9209 04 FT 04 SEP 92 / Technology: Heavies move in - After ye ars of work in mass production, robots are taking on bigger jobs By ANDREW BAXTER The drive for competitiveness and low-cost production may have made the car industry the natural home for the world's robot population, but Karlheinz Langner and his colleagues at I GM Robotersysteme have other ideas. Langner, a managing board member at Aust ria's only robotics company, has his sights set on industry's heavy brigade. Less visibly than their counterparts in the car industry, but with increasi ng urgency, manufacturers of heavy equipment - anything from excavators to s teel bridge sections - want to improve their product quality and reduce cycl e times, increase their manufacturing flexibility and clean up their workpla ce. All these issues, in varying degrees, have been tackled successfully by the mass-production car industry with the use of robots, but heavy industry is very different. In recent years, many heavy engineering companies have be en reticent about robots. They may have been put off by the robot suppliers' sales patter or unconvinced that a robot can cope with welding, for example , a crane boom or bulk handling container, particularly if each item to be w elded might be slightly different from the previous one. Or they might simpl y have jibbed at the expense - as much as Dollars 350,000 (Pounds 175,000) f or a sophisticated system with one or more robots, slides, gantries and devi ces to rotate a workpiece that could weigh as much as 15 tonnes. And having purchased a system, some customers have had to solve software problems thems elves to get the robot working correctly. But companies such as IGM, which c elebrates its silver jubilee this year, are spending heavily to find new sol utions for the use of robots in heavy industry, and that, in turn, broadens the market for the robot suppliers. Some sectors such as shipbuilding, for i nstance, are only now waking up to the opportunities for using robots, which were simply not available five years ago. Anybody who has visited a modern car factory cannot fail to be impressed by the serried ranks of robots spot welding body sections or inserting dashboards. Such machines, however, are w orlds apart from those produced by IGM, which specialises in arc or continuo us path welding and some cutting robots, and its rivals at the heavy end of the welding equipment industry such as Esab of Sweden and Cloos of Germany. A continuous weld is the norm in construction equipment, for example, to cop e with the immense stresses to which plant will be subjected during its work ing life, and demands for high-quality welding are increasing. Grappling wit h the welding of an excavator boom could require up to 16 axes of movement f rom the robot and its surrounding equipment, putting pressure on the robot s upplier not only to design the system correctly in mechanical terms but to e nsure that the software and sensor systems are sufficiently sophisticated an d fast to cope. In such a market, says Langner, understanding the customer's needs is of vital importance. But when almost every customer has a differen t problem that may require a customised solution, the challenge could be too great for a small company such as IGM, without the years of experience that produces a clear product strategy. Each robot supplier has a different appr oach, but IGM's is based on two vital elements, says Langner: a modular desi gn system to allow the company to respond to individual customers' needs wit hout having to reinvent the wheel, and the decision to keep all control syst ems development in-house. Broadening the appeal of robots to heavy industry requires a combination of developing the business end of the system (the wel ding itself), taking the robot's mechanical engineering to the limits, and c onstantly updating and improving the control systems. IGM develops welding s ystems together with Fronius, an Austrian welding equipment company - for th e customer, after all, the quality of the weld is the proof of the pudding. The robot supplier recently introduced a new high-performance welding techni que known as Time (transferred ionised molten energy), developed originally by a Canadian metallurgical expert. IGM has also developed an automatic head change facility, allowing welding to be followed by flame cutting in one co ntinuous cycle. This is being used by a UK customer for welding steel bridge sections. As in machine tools, however, while mechanical developments near their limit it is the brains of the robot system - its software and sensors, and the programming - that is receiving the lion's share of attention. This is where the acronyms really begin to proliferate. So-called off-line progr amming, where the robot is set up for the next job without disturbing its pr esent task, is particularly important when it could take many hours, if not days, to start up a new component on a welding robot. IGM's latest contribut ion is IOPS, which uses computer-aided simulation of production cells and ma nufacturing lines to get the best configuration of the welding cell for each workpiece. Another important result of the company's R&D work is ISIP, a ne w optoelectronic camera system for measuring weld grooves. This uses optical sensors to determine the position and geometry of the fabrication, underlin ing the growing importance of vision systems as the 'eyes' in an increasingl y complex 'eyes-brain-hand' environment. Perhaps the most significant develo pment at IGM, however, lies at the heart of the robot software. In a few wee ks' time, the company will have running a prototype of a new robot controlle r based on the transputer, the Inmos superchip. IGM had realised some five y ears ago that it needed to have a more powerful control system, says Langner , and the new controller will increase control speeds by a factor of 10. The new control should be on IGM's robots by next year, but Langner also sees a pplications for the control outside robotics, with initial demand of about 5 00-1,000 units a year, compared with the 150-200 IGM will need each year for its robots. 'But we will not market it by ourselves,' Langner stresses. The Financial Times London Page 15 ============= Transaction # 64 ============================================== Transaction #: 64 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:40:37 Selec. Rec. #: 10 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT922-9444 _AN-CEGBFAFXFT 9205 07 FT 07 MAY 92 / Technology: Androids on the march - Af ter years on the breadline, modern robots are finding gainful employment in Europe By ANDREW BAXTER In the US f ashion industry they call it 'localised abrasion' - the pre-worn look for de nim jeans produced by applying potassium permanganate solution to the knee, thigh and seat areas. The faded effect has traditionally been achieved throu gh manual spraying, but consistency and quality control have been hard to ac hieve. Now GMFanuc Robotics has perfected a robotic solution that is three t imes faster than manual spraying, can reproduce a spray pattern to an accura cy of 0.03 inch, and can be programmed easily to handle a wide range of garm ents. The system is a relatively simple example of recent trends in the indu strial robotics industry, which is trying to reduce its dependence on compar atively mature automotive markets and find new applications elsewhere. It is a trend that is particularly important for robot suppliers in the European market, where the overall penetration of robots into industry is much lower than in Japan, and where a potentially huge market for non-automotive applic ations remains untapped. According to Massimo Mattucci, vice president for e ngineering and marketing at Comau of Italy, around 50 per cent of industrial robots installed in Europe are in use in the automotive industry and 20 per cent in electronics -the reverse of the situation in Japan. 'The automotiv e industry has more or less understood the potential of robots,' says Stelio Demark, head of ABB Robotics, Europe's largest producer, although he stress es, along with other robot industry executives, the potential of robots in t he paint-spraying and final assembly area of European vehicle manufacturing. The inherent flexibility of modern robots, and the advances made in control systems and mechanics that have increased their speed and reliability, ough t to increase their suitability for small-batch manufacturing in Europe, whe re model changes are frequent. Demark sees new opportunities for robots emer ging in the European food, packaging, pharmaceutical and white goods industr ies. But the pace at which European industry accepts robots will depend part ly on suppliers' ability to counter the mistrust caused by the hype of the 1 970s and early 1980s, when the robot industry appeared to be carried away by euphoria over business prospects. There are other obstacles, too, for suppl iers to surmount. In Japan, one of the driving forces behind the growth in t he industrial robot population to 274,210 in 1990 - nearly 10 times the popu lation in the former West Germany -has been labour shortages. 'Everything h as to come back to economic considerations,' says Axel Gerhardt, an executiv e board member of IWKA, the holding company for Kuka, Germany's largest robo t supplier. 'In Europe robots are used where it is economical to do so. In J apan the question is often whether to produce with a robot or not to produce there at all.' Mistakes have also been made in the installation of robots, for which the suppliers and customers have to share the blame. 'People have tended to put in a robot, then have an operator standing by watching,' says Demark. 'This is a half-way house that I wouldn't recommend.' Increasingly, robot suppliers are realising that if they are to make inroads into the smal l- and medium-sized businesses that still dominate European industry - espec ially outside the automotive sector - they have to understand better the cu stomer's needs and worries. 'You have to enter into an economic calculation with the customer and demonstrate the ability to find a solution,' says Matt ucci. That could mean being paid only for a feasibility study that comes dow n against the use of robots. But in the long run this approach makes more se nse for an industry that wants to broaden its customer base and maintain its reputation. Comau, which sells most of its robots as part of an integrated automation package, is around 90 per cent dependent on the vehicle industry. Mattucci wants to expand the remaining 10 per cent of the business to 30 pe r cent over the next five years by exploiting the group's strengths in robot ics for body-welding, mechanical assembly and difficult handling operations. The Italian company's most ambitious step away from the automotive sector i s its involvement in the Columbus Automation and robotics Testbed (Cat) prog ramme financed by the European Space Agency. The ground testbed for the auto mation and robotics on board the projected Columbus Space Station will incor porate a new Comau robot using advanced materials such as aeronautical alloy s and composites. A more-down-to earth approach to broadening the customer b ase is in evidence at GMFanuc, the US/Japanese concern which is the world's second biggest supplier. The jean-spraying robot, developed in the US and no w available in the UK, offers a high return on investment with a payback of less than a year, says Mike Wilson, the UK sales and marketing manager. Robo tics are also in their infancy in the European food industry, partly because it has hitherto been difficult to turn a hose on to a robot to clean it wit hout ruining its electrical circuits. In January, GMFanuc launched its 'Wash down' robot to conform to the strict hygiene requirements of the food indust ry and withstand all the chemical substances likely to be used in washdown o r wipedown procedures. In the European electronics industry, robots are more frequent but applications are still developing. Data Packaging, an Irish su pplier of plastic moulded components for the computer industry, recently ins talled an ABB Robotics painting cell to handle metallic paints used to provi de an attractive finish, and assist in electrical shielding, on parts for th e Apple Macintosh. Metallic paints are hard to handle because they block sup ply lines if not kept flowing continuously. The ABB system programs the robo t to fire the spray gun if the system lays dormant for a given length of tim e. Advances such as these are often based on techniques originally developed for the automotive industry, which is not being neglected in suppliers' has te to exploit other markets. A number of fairly recent technologies have rel evance to the use of robots in automotive and non-automotive fields. Laser w elding, says Wilson, is attracting interest in a number of industries, inclu ding aerospace, because of its precision and speed. Unlike conventional spot welding, the robot does not have to reach both sides of the part to be weld ed. Another emerging technology, especially when combined with robotics, is water-jet cutting, which is likely to become increasingly important for cutt ing plastics quickly and cleanly. It is already being used in the automotive industry for cutting carpets, door panels and instrument panels. In both ar eas robot suppliers are forming partnerships with companies which have devel oped the technologies so that they can exploit the opportunities quicker. Co mau has a co-operation agreement with Trumpf, the German machine tool builde r best-known for its laser-cutting machines, while last year ABB Robotics fo rmed a joint venture with Ingersoll-Rand of the US to develop and market a r obotised water-jet cutting system in Europe. The search for a broader Europe an customer base coincides with a much more price-conscious attitude over th e past two to three years among customers, due as much to general business c onditions as to scepticism about the early claims made by robot suppliers. S uppliers are rationalising their product ranges to give customers what they want and no more, but using developments in control systems to increase the applications available from each model. These conditions give advantages and disadvantages in more or less equal measure to European suppliers and Japan ese/US importers, which control one third of the market. Demark and Mattucci strongly believe that the European suppliers benefit from a approach based on solutions rather than products. 'The Japanese do not have the solutions f or European needs,' says Mattucci flatly. This is a view strongly disputed b y the Japanese producers, but in a price-sensitive market the the Japanese d o have the advantage of size - investment in control systems, in particular, can be spread over a bigger sales base. Ultimately, though, all the robot s uppliers could benefit if they can persuade more European companies of the b enefits of robots. And that is likely to be a gradual process where technolo gy is only one factor in the equation. The Financial Times London Page 18 ============= Transaction # 65 ============================================== Transaction #: 65 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:40:37 Selec. Rec. #: 11 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT911-129 _AN-BENBQAC6FT 91051 4 FT 14 MAY 91 / Survey of Computers in Manufacturing (1 1): Search for new applications - Robotics, still on the fringe of the indus trial sector By ANDREW BAXTER FOR a ll the hype over the past 20 years about how robots would transform manufact uring industry, they still remain on the fringes of the industrial scene - w ith the notable exception of manufacturing in Japan. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the world industrial robot populati on stood at 388,000 units at the end of 1989, of which 220,000 were in Japan , 56,000 in western Europe, 37,000 in the US and -very roughly - 75,000 els ewhere. There are a number of interconnected reasons for this situation. In the past, there has been considerable hostility from trade unions to their i ntroduction and managements have taken a lot of convincing about the cost be nefits. Dr Kevin Clarke, manager of manufacturing engineering at PA Consulti ng Group, says that, in many instances, robots have not delivered the cost e ffectiveness they have promised. Robot manufacturers, he says, have not deve loped their products technologically as fast as they might have. 'There's ve ry little innovation, because the market isn't there,' he says. However, the evidence of the past two years suggests that things may be changing. Those 388,000 units represented an increase of 20 per cent from the end of 1988, a nd in 1990 US-based robotics companies won record new orders of Dollars 517. 4m. The robotics industry was in deep gloom during 1986 and 1987, and especi ally in the US where it had become far too dependent on the motor industry - which took about 40 to 50 per cent of sales. Mr Donald Vincent, executive v ice-president of the US Robotic Industries Association, recalls that 'when t he automotive industry quit buying in 1986 and 1987, it sent robotics into a deep spin.' This decline had two results. First, it encouraged a much-neede d concentration among robot producers. In the middle of the 1980s there were some 300, according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). Now, it says, there are probably fewer than 100 true producers, led by ABB Robot ics, part of the Swiss-Swedish Asea Brown Boveri, GMF Robotics, a joint vent ure between Fanuc of Japan and General Motors of the US, and Yaskawa of Japa n. Secondly, the downturn prompted an urgent search for new applications for robots away from the motor industry and its inherent cyclicality. Dr Clarke singles out 'clean room' applications for robots in health care and precisi on engineering, while Mr Vincent is hopeful of new applications in the food industry, materials handling and packaging. The wellspring for this diversif ication into new markets, which has already begun, is computer power. In mec hanical terms, robots are relatively simple beasts, and robotic technology h as always been based on the use of computers to overcome mechanical limitati ons. Mr Kenneth Waldron, a robotics expert at Ohio State University, says 't he major theme which will direct commercial applications of new research in robotics will be that of taking advantage of the huge increases in computing power which have become available as a result of the development of advance d microprocessors.' Mr Waldron notes that most current industrial robot syst ems offer only incremental improvements over what was possible with the firs t generation of microcomputer controllers. Current research is looking at ar eas such as greater use of sensing - of the robot's environment and internal state - more sophisticated control techniques offering greater speed and ac curacy, robotic mobility and improved control of the interface between the r obot and the workpiece. Given these trends, there has inevitably been consid erable interest in industrial vision systems for robots, which could radical ly change many applications, particularly in assembly where robots have so f ar failed to make their mark. Previous forecasts for the population of visio n-equipped robots have not been realised, but it is reasonable to predict, a s the IFR has, that the continuous reduction in prices of computers and sens ors, and their greater speed and reliability, will gradually remove the tech nological and economic barriers. Many of the business trends in robotics ove r the past few years are illustrated by developments at ABB Robotics, which claims to be the world's biggest supplier - a title which the Japanese manuf acturers might dispute. ABB's purchase last year of Cincinnati Milacron's ro botics business was an important step in the consolidation of the industry a round leading European and Japanese suppliers. Mr Stelio Demark, head of ABB Robotics, says the Cincinnati business brought with it a tremendous US cust omer base and undoubted expertise in spot-welding robotics. The nature of AB B's customer base has also been changing, and over the past five years it ha s reduced its dependence on the automotive industry from 70-75 per cent of s ales to 50 per cent. ABB is attracting new business from small and medium-si zed companies which had previously not bought robots. 'We may be supplying o nes and twos, but it's growing very quickly,' says Mr Demark. New markets in clude glass making, different kinds of process applications, and palletising . This effort is backed up by spending on research and development - 10 per cent of revenues - that is almost on a par with that of the pharmaceutical i ndustry. Meanwhile the falling cost of electronics is allowing ABB to build more capability and flexibility into its robots. ABB's latest product, the I RB 6000, was officially launched last month with claims of much greater flex ibility and capability than rival products. Because of these developments, M r Demark is optimistic about future growth prospects for ABB and the industr y. The view is shared by independent observers. In a report about to be publ ished by Frost & Sullivan, the international market research publishers, tot al world robot sales are forecast to rise from Dollars 2.15bn in 1990 to Dol lars 3.41bn in 1996. The relatively small size of the industry at the end of the 1980s is a reflection of many of the factors mentioned above. F & S see s the Japanese market's share of world robot sales falling from 65 per cent last year to 45 per cent in 1996, while Europe's share will rise from 15 to 20 per cent, the US will mark time at about 6 per cent and the rest of the w orld will jump from 14 per cent to just under 30 per cent. The biggest growt h area is Asia, which is good news for the Japanese producers, but Europe, s ays Mr Demark, is also 'very interesting,' and the company's home base. F & S sees the European market rising from Dollars 330m in 1990 to Dollars 687m in 1996, with Germany leading the way. Looking specifically at the European market, F & S comments that the 'supplier capable of marketing a complete pa ckage including sensors, user-friendly software and simple training and inst allation will achieve the best sales penetration.' ABB is probably justified in claiming that it offers more service and support to European buyers than the more product-based approach of the Japanese, but Dr Clarke wonders whet her this will still be true in two years' time. On the other hand Europe, he says, is probably not one of the Japanese producers' priorities, given the better growth prospects in the Asia Pacific region. As for the balance of po wer in the industry, both ABB and the Japanese are growing stronger, the big producers are getting bigger, and the smaller robotics companies, particula rly in the US and UK, are concentrating on niches and ancillary services. If the big producers can keep up with development in computing, the 1990s coul d well bring the rewards that proved so elusive for much fo the 1980s. The Financial Times London Page VI Photograph (Omitted ). Photograph ABB robot IRB6000 in a spot welding application (left). Demark (right): important consolidations (Omitted). ============= Transaction # 66 ============================================== Transaction #: 66 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:40:37 Selec. Rec. #: 12 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT943-11018 _AN-EHBDUACKFT 940 802 FT 02 AUG 94 / Technology: Robots get the dirty work - Japan is developing intelligent systems to help an ageing population By ANDREW FISHER A nifty little robot d arts down a street, picks up the rubbish and puts it into a truck. Inside a power station, another robot carries out vital maintenance work. A hard-pres sed nurse uses robotic help to move beds and patients. Hard to imagine thoug h it may be, Japanese research experts are working on such applications - an d on robots for the home - although it will probably not be until well into the next century that they can be put into practice. Labour will be in short supply in coming years. The 125m population is ageing and will slowly decli ne as the birth rate falls. 'Such systems are necessary for coming generatio ns in Japan,' says Kazuo Asakawa, head of the intelligent systems laboratory at Fujitsu, the Japanese computer group. 'We have to develop intelligent sy stems to replace young people.' Most people do not want to do the so-called '3K' jobs - denoting the Japanese words for 'dirty, difficult and dangerous' - such as working in hospitals, collecting rubbish, maintaining power stati ons and cleaning. Asakawa foresees robots also being used in the office, for handling mail and other straightforward tasks and eventually in the home. T he key to such developments will be neural networks - complex computer syste ms that can learn to recognise patterns and react accordingly. The robots wi ll be equipped with an array of sensors that will enable them to adapt to th eir surroundings. 'In 10 years, we hope to develop autonomous systems using neural networks,' says Asakawa. In the view of Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, president of the University of Tokyo, robots could be the answer to many of Japan's e conomic and social problems. 'It is necessary to use Japan's highly educated labour force to invent these kinds of things.' He believes that Japanese in dustry must look ahead to new products such as these to prepare for a future in which over-production and over-capacity will inhibit industrial growth. Japan's car industry is already plagued by over-capacity, as well as high co sts; the surge in the yen is eating further into export profits. In common w ith other academics and industrialists, Yoshikawa warns of the danger of 'ho llowing-out' as lower-cost countries in Asia and elsewhere take up productio n of goods which have become too expensive to make in Japan. The electronics companies are already big producers in south-east Asia and car makers have been expanding their overseas operations. 'We must change the direction of e ndeavour,' adds Yoshikawa, a specialist in engineering design theory. He thi nks industry should lean towards more automation of services such as healthc are and cleaning. He talks of the need for greater 'amplification of service s', with intelligent, computer-controlled machines doing much of the awkward and dirty work now done by humans. In other countries, where unemployment i s high, this is less of an issue. But Japan's unemployment rate is less than 3 per cent, kept low by the tradition of lifetime employment and the high l evel of consensus and discipline in Japanese society. This is despite the re cession after the bursting of the 'bubble' economy of the late 1980s. Japane se companies already use robots far more widely than the rest of the world. In 1992, there were 350,000 robots in Japan, of which more than 280,000 were advanced (operating in different axes, or with sensors or learning controls ), according to latest statistics from the United Nations and the Internatio nal Federation of Robotics. This compared with 47,000 (42,000 advanced) in t he US and 39,000 (35,500) in Germany. The electronics industry is the bigges t user of robots in Japan, followed by cars. But the advanced applications e nvisaged by Asakawa, Yoshikawa and others are still at the pilot stage. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry supports some of them. Work is progessing on robots to take the backache out of nurses' lifting work and on micromachines to help doctors operate and even to carry tiny doses of medic ine to certain parts of the body. The rubbish-collecting robots described by Yoshikawa - he calls them 'social robots' - are still at the basic research stage. 'I can't say when they will be ready. The direction of research is t o invent new robotics for use on the roads and streets of a city. I hope thi s will be completed in five to 10 years.' A programme to develop robots to e nter the containment vessels of nuclear power plants and carry out maintenan ce work began in 1978, he says. The first prototype was too heavy at 400kg. Toshiba then made a more sophisticated one, which was suitable for the work. But power companies are reluctant to rely on robots rather than humans for work in which safety and reliability is essential. 'My idea is first mainten ance, then social and then home robots,' says Yoshikawa. All these areas, he feels, are ripe for 'amplification' through intelligent automation. Ultimat ely, the home could be the biggest market for robots. But to do household cl eaning and other work, they must be made of softer materials than metal and have more flexible gear systems to fit in with the random pattern of life in the home. Yoshikawa says there are no prototypes of the home robot yet. But he adds that robot manufacturers such as Fuji Machine and Matsushita have s hown considerable interest. Asakawa says Fujitsu is also working on computer programs for domestic use. Thus, sometime around 2010, robots could be scur rying around Japanese streets, homes, offices and hospitals doing routine jo bs and taking some of the strain out of daily life. Countries:- JPZ Japan, Asia. Industries:- P3569 General Industrial Machinery, NEC. Types:- CMMT Comment & Ana lysis. TECH Products & Product use. MGMT Management & Marketing. < /TP> The Financial Times London Page 11 ============= Transaction # 67 ============================================== Transaction #: 67 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:40:37 Selec. Rec. #: 13 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT942-5669 _AN-EFCDVAC3FT 9406 03 FT 03 JUN 94 / Technology: Robot lifts the load BY MAX GLASKIN A robot fork lift truck t hat carries loads between lorry trailer and factory floor could extend autom ation to the loading bay. A prototype now being tested maps its surroundings continuously and plots its routes. 'There is no system in the world that lo ads and unloads conventional trailers fully autonomously,' says Malcolm Robe rts, director of Guidance Control Systems of the UK. 'We built a system four years ago that relied on mirrors in the trailers to reflect positioning las ers but now we don't need them.' Drivers of trailers up to 16m long cannot p ark them accurately enough for a fixed robot loader to work. The GCS robot c opes with such variables and also detects changes in its surroundings - for instance, when a pallet is in its path. A central computer communicates the tasks by radio to the robot, which is otherwise autonomous. The robot uses a variety of sensors to detect its own location and the trailer. A laser syst em scans ahead up to 25m; for local positioning, ultrasound is accurate for between 20cm and 2m. The ultrasound data is interpreted quickly by an off-th e-shelf transputer but an infra-red sensor cuts in when data of a higher res olution is needed - to cope with an odd-shaped load, for example. The robot analyses when it has nudged up close to a load using a force sensor and torq ue measurement on each wheel. More sensors control the sideways movement of the forks so that loads are deposited hard up against the trailer wall. 'A f ork-lift truck driver can unload a trailer in half an hour with relative eas e and our prototype hasn't yet shown it can work so quickly. We expect to be there later this year,' says Roberts. However, time is not the only cost fa ctor as robots are not so prone to accidental damage to loads. Countries:- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P3537 Industrial Trucks and Tractors. Types:- TECH Products & Product use. The Financial Times Londo n Page 14 ============= Transaction # 68 ============================================== Transaction #: 68 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:40:37 Selec. Rec. #: 18 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT932-769 _AN-DF0AKAD0FT 93062 6 FT 26 JUN 93 / Calling Dr Dalek - your patient is wait ing: A revolution in surgery where robots are taking an increased role in th e operating theatre By CLIVE COOKSON YOU ARE about to have the anaesthetic before an operation to remove a brai n tumour. Would you feel happier knowing that the most delicate part of the procedure was to be carried out by the gently trembling hand of the world's most skilful surgeon - or by a rock-steady robot? That question will soon be more than a fantasy because surgery is in the early stages of a technical r evolution. The first step has been the spread of 'keyhole' operations over t he past five years. Instead of cutting open the patient, the surgeon uses in struments guided by telescope through tiny incisions. Soon, it will be possi ble to work by remote control on patients thousands of miles away, using a c ombination of telecommunications and virtual reality. The most striking sign of change, though, is the way surgeons are starting to welcome robotic assi stants into their operating theatres. Within the past few months, robots hav e helped to carry out hip replacements in California, prostate operations in London and brain surgery in Grenoble, France. Later this year, gall bladder removal, hernia repair and a variety of other abdominal operations will be added to the list of robotic accomplishments. Despite this, even the most en thusiastic surgeons say it is likely to be several years before they would c onsider leaving a robot to operate on its own. The late Hap Paul, chief inve ntor of California's Robodoc, cautioned: 'We have to move very slowly and ca refully because one false move by a surgical robot - and this whole technolo gy is set back by many years.' Robodoc is the world's largest and best-finan ced project in medical robotics. Since November, 10 patients at Sutter gener al hospital in Sacramento have had hip replacements with the aid of Robodoc, a 250 lb automaton programmed to carve the cavity for an implant in the thi gh bone. Although Paul died two months ago (at only 44), Integrated Surgical Systems, the company he founded with financial and scientific backing from IBM, is forging ahead. It is waiting for approval from the Food and Drug Adm inistration to carry out a clinical trial of Robodoc with 300 patients in th ree US hospitals. Why should a patient trust a robotic tool rather than the skilled hands of a human specialist? The most important reason is that an el ectronic arm is capable of precision well beyond that of the steadiest and b est-trained surgeon. ISS hopes to prove this through its trial, in which pat ients will be allocated at random into one group treated by Robodoc and anot her receiving conventional hip replacements. Surgical robots promise more th an improvements in existing procedures, says Patrick Finlay, managing direct or of Armstrong Projects, a fledgling UK medical robotics company based at B eaconsfield near London. 'The reduced collateral damage and greater precisio n of the robot will make it possible to do operations that would otherwise b e too risky to contemplate. For example, a tumour very close to the optic ne rve can be tackled without making the patient blind.' Several different type s of surgical robot are under development around the world. Robodoc is an 'a ctive' robot that actually cuts human tissue. 'Orthopaedic work is an attrac tive application because the robot is working on hard tissue that doesn't mo ve if you prod it,' notes Brian Davies, an engineer specialising in medical robotics at Imperial College, London. Most operations, however, involve cutt ing soft tissues - a task that is more delicate than carving bone. So far, o nly 'passive' robots have been used for this type of surgery. They may move instruments inside the patient, under the surgeon's direction, but they do n ot yet wield a scalpel or laser beam. An example is Laparobot, which Armstro ng Projects is developing with Mark Ornstein, a surgeon at the London Clinic . Laparobot will give someone carrying out keyhole surgery the impression of 'walking around' inside the patient's body, using tele-presence techniques. A keyhole surgeon views the operating site with a miniature video camera at the end of a thin optical tube, inserted into the body through a puncture h ole (typically, in the tummy button). This instrument, called a laparoscope, projects the scene on to a TV screen above the patient. Normally, an assist ant has to hold the laparoscope and move it when the surgeon needs a differe nt view. But Laparobot itself senses the position of the surgeon's head and moves the image accordingly. If the surgeon pushes a foot button and moves h is head to the left, the robot will change the view inside the patient's bod y. For this year's initial trials at the London Clinic, Laparobot will work with an existing TV monitor - but the next stage will be for the surgeon to wear a helmet-mounted display which will give the impression of being immers ed in the operating environment. As he looks around, the scene will change a s though he were actually inside the abdominal cavity. Further in the future lies the prospect of linking the surgeon's finger movements to the control of micro-instruments within the body. 'Laparobot will make the surgery more efficient - less stressful for the surgeon, faster and more accurate, and wi th less risk of damage to the patient,' says Ornstein. Armstrong is also wor king with Professor David Thomas, of London's National Hospital for Neurolog y, to develop Neurobot, a system for carrying out brain surgery. By the end of this year, they hope to have demonstrated an 'image-guided robot' that wi ll help the surgeon position his instruments at the correct point in the bra in to perform the operation. The next stage will be for Neurobot itself to i nsert the instruments. A surgical robot is given as much prior information a s possible about relevant parts of the patient's body - usually, from a CT o r MRI scan. Its computer converts this into a digital model of the patient. Although the surgeon works out in advance the path of the operation, based o n the computer model, the system must be flexible enough to respond to unexp ected events. Neurobot, for example, will have a sensor inside the patient's head. If it detects the presence of an unexpected blood vessel, it will pro mpt the surgeon for advice. Its software might propose a modified route, tak ing the new information into account, but the robot will not go ahead until the surgeon has signalled his approval. Finlay says a good indicator of prog ress in surgical robotics will be the increasing amount of freedom given to the robot. 'Although the surgeon will never cease to participate, it is real istic to envisage a situation similar to the relationship between an airline r captain and his autopilot, in which the human provides a supervisory and m onitoring role and is available to take over the critical manoeuvres,' he sa ys. The consultant need not be in the operating theatre with the patient. In tele-surgery projects under way in the US and France, an experienced surgeo n uses a video link to supervise a junior doctor in a hospital hundreds of m iles away. The surgeon could equally well supervise a distant robot, althoug h local medical and nursing staff would still have to be present in case the system crashed. Everyone involved in medical robotics is obsessed with safe ty. Yet, as Davies points out, there are no agreed safety standards for robo ts operating on people, whereas regulations require industrial robots to wor k in metal cages. (The fact that two workers in Japan have been killed by fa ctory robots going out of control shows the need for such rules). 'There are two views on safety,' says Davies. 'One is that it's acceptable to start ou t with an industrial robot provided you put in a top-level software system t o bring the thing to a halt in the event of some failure. But, in my view, t hat's not safe enough. I think you need to re-develop the robot from the bas ic servo level upwards, building in safety at every level.' That means givin g the surgical robot the equivalent of a metal cage, with duplicated softwar e and hardware constraints to prevent it moving beyond pre-defined limits. A nd it must move slowly enough for the supervising surgeon's hand to hit the stop button in time to avoid damage if all the safety systems fail. Demonstr ating safety is not enough, though. Growing concerns about the financial cos ts of medical care are forcing both public health authorities and private ho spitals to demand evidence that new technology will deliver benefits that ou tweigh its expense. Drugs have long had to justify their effectiveness in la rge-scale clinical trials but, until now, new surgical procedures and medica l equipment have been introduced with remarkably little systematic assessmen t. A report on medical research earlier this year by the UK government's Adv isory Council on Science and Technology (Acost) pointed out: 'With the excep tion of pharmaceuticals, demands for evaluation have been questioned because it 'stands to reason' that the new techniques will be 'better'.' Peter Doyl e, research director of ICI and chairman of Acost's medical research committ ee, gives keyhole surgery as an example of a procedure that has been introdu ced 'haphazardly' without proper evaluation. The report says the National He alth Service should require all new medical devices to be assessed under con trolled conditions, and their cost effectiveness measured. Miles Irving, pro fessor of surgery at Manchester University's Hope Hospital, says that such a ssessment is all the more necessary 'because surgeons face strong consumer p ressure to introduce new procedures before they have been properly evaluated .' Hap Paul felt that pressure when he was looking for sites to test Robodoc . 'Tertiary care centres in the US - the big university hospitals - see this as an advance that will help them attract patients,' he said. 'So, we have to be very careful in choosing our sites, to make sure it's not just a publi city stunt for them.' Indeed, says John Hutton, a health economist at York U niversity, US experience shows that patients regard hi-tech equipment in its elf as an indicator of quality, whether or not there is any clinical evidenc e to prove its superiority. Therefore, hospitals compete by buying more and more flashy machines - and their charges shoot up far faster than inflation. The introduction of an internal market in the NHS is likely to lead to simi lar competitive pressures in the UK. ISS believes its clinical trial will en able orthopaedic hospitals to justify buying a Dollars 750,000 Robodoc, doin g 400 hip replacements a year, on the basis that implants from robotic opera tions last longer than those inserted manually and so save money in the long run. But the recent history of medical research and technology, from antibi otics to diagnostic scanners, shows that while each development can be justi fied in isolation as being cost-effective, the overall result is to add subs tantially to the financial burden of health care by creating new demand from patients and adding to the number of elderly people in the population. Two decades from now, only second-class patients will choose to have a purely ma nual operation. But, in contrast to labour-saving robots in a car factory, s urgical robots can only make the process more expensive. Enthusiastic medica l technologists can answer any question except one: how will we pay for it? Companies:- Armstrong Projects. Imperial Chemical Industries. Countries:- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P3841 Surgical and Medical Instruments. P38 42 Surgical Appliances and Supplies. P8099 Health and Allied Services, N EC. P2834 Pharmaceutical Preparations. Types:- TECH Products & Product use. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Finan cial Times London Page I ============= Transaction # 69 ============================================== Transaction #: 69 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:40:37 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT922-4414 _AN-CFEA9AEEFT 9206 05 FT 05 JUN 92 / Survey of Vehicle Manufacturing Techno logy (6): Machines are now used for tasks beyond spot welding - Robots By ANDREW BAXTER ROBOTS have become an e stablished part of the vehicle manufacturing scene over the past 15 years. T he motor industry accounts for as much as 40 per cent of the 450,000 install ed industrial robots worldwide but their use is changing and applications ar e expanding. The traditional picture of long lines of robots each making bil lions of spot welds on car bodies in a working life of eight to 10 years is still true, but only half the story. Those same welding robots are as likely to be grouped in flexible manufacturing cells and capable of handling a wid e range of models in quick succession. At the same time, smaller robots are increasingly being used in engine assembly, where their ability to do qualit y, repetitive work with a precision of 1/100th of a millimetre is much in de mand. Robots are being used in final assembly work and paint spraying, and s uppliers hope to be able to develop these markets now that the technology ha s been proven. There is an emerging trend for robots to be used in automotiv e sub-contracting, prompted by the vehicle manufacturers' need to be as conf ident in the consistency and quality of out-sourced components as for their own work. The shorter lives of car models, prompted by increased competition in the industry and the Japanese producers' early efforts to reduce product development times, are changing the use and design of robots. The tradition al practice of replacing a robot after two model cycles may have been approp riate when each car model was lasting six to eight years. But with model liv es reduced to three to four years, users want to keep their robots for furth er models, and thus want increased flexibility, according to Dr Axel Gerhard t, a senior board member at the holding company for Kuka, Germany's largest robot supplier. Many of the latest trends in the use of robotics originated in Japan where labour shortages have spurred much greater penetration of rob ots into industry overall compared with Europe and the US. But robot supplie rs such as ABB Robotics, the largest in Europe, believe the European automot ive industry is as enthusiastic a user of robotic automation as its Japanese counterpart. However, some of the more recent applications of robots are le ss prevalent in Europe, giving an opportunity to suppliers if they can convi nce producers of the economic benefits. There are national variations too: t he UK is a long way behind the US and the rest of Europe in the use of robot s in the paint shop, says Mr Mike Wilson, UK sales and marketing director at GMFanuc Robotics. The versatility of modern industrial robots for tasks tha t go beyond spot welding is illustrated by Kuka's involvement in final assem bly of the Citroen XM. Following painting, robots dismount the doors and tai lgate, with the aid of sensors, for completion on separate trim lines; the c ockpit is picked up by robot from an automatic guided vehicle, inserted thro ugh the door and then bolted to the body by a second robot. Robots are used for applying the adhesive sealants and for fitting the glass exactly into th e body aperture with the aid of ultrasonic scanners; seats are inserted by r obot after measuring the exact position of the body by means of tactile sens ors, wheels are mounted and doors and tailgate refitted. Some of these tasks are difficult for robots because of the nature of final assembly. Robots ar e having to operate in a less structured environment, says Mr Wilson, and de al with less defined objects such as seats. Another problem, at least outsid e Japan, is that labour is available and costs less than in skilled manufact uring areas. So robot suppliers have to find applications that create added value, says Mr Stelio Demark, head of ABB Robotics. There are still opportun ities for greater use of robots further up the production line. Relatively n ew processes such as laser-cutting and water-jet cutting are likely to becom e more prevalent, in association with robots, especially for working with pl astics and new advanced composites. Mr Demark sees a substantial increase in automated arc-welding in the automotive industry and sub-suppliers. And Com au, the Italian robotics and systems group, expects some interesting investm ents in the body area, prompted by the increased need for new models, accord ing to Mr Massimo Mattucci, vice-president for engineering and marketing. In paint spraying, says Mr Demark, robots have hardly scratched the surface. L ast year, ABB strengthened its position in the robotic painting market with the acquisition of Graco in the US, but GMFanuc, a US/Japanese concern, and Behr of Germany have strong positions. The flexibility of robots to handle m odel changes will be the key to their further implementation in the car body area. In engine and transmission production, robots are becoming better est ablished, and Mr Mattucci suggests a new generation of engines prompted by t ougher environmental regulations could be the spur to further investment in robots. However, an increasing portion of business for robot suppliers seems likely to come from refurbishment of existing robots rather than new purcha ses as customers seek maximum value from their manufacturing investments. In the past three or four years, this has been a growing trend of robot refitt ing and modification in the motor industry, carried out during model changeo vers and restoring robots to previous levels of accuracy and productivity. < /TEXT> The Financial Times London Page III ============= Transaction # 70 ============================================== Transaction #: 70 Transaction Code: 23 (Saved Recs. 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Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 72 ============================================== Transaction #: 72 Transaction Code: 38 (Record Deselected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:40:57 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT922-4414 _AN-CFEA9AEEFT 9206 05 FT 05 JUN 92 / Survey of Vehicle Manufacturing Techno logy (6): Machines are now used for tasks beyond spot welding - Robots By ANDREW BAXTER ROBOTS have become an e stablished part of the vehicle manufacturing scene over the past 15 years. T he motor industry accounts for as much as 40 per cent of the 450,000 install ed industrial robots worldwide but their use is changing and applications ar e expanding. The traditional picture of long lines of robots each making bil lions of spot welds on car bodies in a working life of eight to 10 years is still true, but only half the story. Those same welding robots are as likely to be grouped in flexible manufacturing cells and capable of handling a wid e range of models in quick succession. At the same time, smaller robots are increasingly being used in engine assembly, where their ability to do qualit y, repetitive work with a precision of 1/100th of a millimetre is much in de mand. Robots are being used in final assembly work and paint spraying, and s uppliers hope to be able to develop these markets now that the technology ha s been proven. There is an emerging trend for robots to be used in automotiv e sub-contracting, prompted by the vehicle manufacturers' need to be as conf ident in the consistency and quality of out-sourced components as for their own work. The shorter lives of car models, prompted by increased competition in the industry and the Japanese producers' early efforts to reduce product development times, are changing the use and design of robots. The tradition al practice of replacing a robot after two model cycles may have been approp riate when each car model was lasting six to eight years. But with model liv es reduced to three to four years, users want to keep their robots for furth er models, and thus want increased flexibility, according to Dr Axel Gerhard t, a senior board member at the holding company for Kuka, Germany's largest robot supplier. Many of the latest trends in the use of robotics originated in Japan where labour shortages have spurred much greater penetration of rob ots into industry overall compared with Europe and the US. But robot supplie rs such as ABB Robotics, the largest in Europe, believe the European automot ive industry is as enthusiastic a user of robotic automation as its Japanese counterpart. However, some of the more recent applications of robots are le ss prevalent in Europe, giving an opportunity to suppliers if they can convi nce producers of the economic benefits. There are national variations too: t he UK is a long way behind the US and the rest of Europe in the use of robot s in the paint shop, says Mr Mike Wilson, UK sales and marketing director at GMFanuc Robotics. The versatility of modern industrial robots for tasks tha t go beyond spot welding is illustrated by Kuka's involvement in final assem bly of the Citroen XM. Following painting, robots dismount the doors and tai lgate, with the aid of sensors, for completion on separate trim lines; the c ockpit is picked up by robot from an automatic guided vehicle, inserted thro ugh the door and then bolted to the body by a second robot. Robots are used for applying the adhesive sealants and for fitting the glass exactly into th e body aperture with the aid of ultrasonic scanners; seats are inserted by r obot after measuring the exact position of the body by means of tactile sens ors, wheels are mounted and doors and tailgate refitted. Some of these tasks are difficult for robots because of the nature of final assembly. Robots ar e having to operate in a less structured environment, says Mr Wilson, and de al with less defined objects such as seats. Another problem, at least outsid e Japan, is that labour is available and costs less than in skilled manufact uring areas. So robot suppliers have to find applications that create added value, says Mr Stelio Demark, head of ABB Robotics. There are still opportun ities for greater use of robots further up the production line. Relatively n ew processes such as laser-cutting and water-jet cutting are likely to becom e more prevalent, in association with robots, especially for working with pl astics and new advanced composites. Mr Demark sees a substantial increase in automated arc-welding in the automotive industry and sub-suppliers. And Com au, the Italian robotics and systems group, expects some interesting investm ents in the body area, prompted by the increased need for new models, accord ing to Mr Massimo Mattucci, vice-president for engineering and marketing. In paint spraying, says Mr Demark, robots have hardly scratched the surface. L ast year, ABB strengthened its position in the robotic painting market with the acquisition of Graco in the US, but GMFanuc, a US/Japanese concern, and Behr of Germany have strong positions. The flexibility of robots to handle m odel changes will be the key to their further implementation in the car body area. In engine and transmission production, robots are becoming better est ablished, and Mr Mattucci suggests a new generation of engines prompted by t ougher environmental regulations could be the spur to further investment in robots. However, an increasing portion of business for robot suppliers seems likely to come from refurbishment of existing robots rather than new purcha ses as customers seek maximum value from their manufacturing investments. In the past three or four years, this has been a growing trend of robot refitt ing and modification in the motor industry, carried out during model changeo vers and restoring robots to previous levels of accuracy and productivity. < /TEXT> The Financial Times London Page III ============= Transaction # 73 ============================================== Transaction #: 73 Transaction Code: 38 (Record Deselected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:41:05 Selec. Rec. #: 3 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT944-18195 _AN-EJED5AA3FT 941 005 FT 05 OCT 94 / Industrial robots 'set to soar by one third': Potential for expansion enormous, says report By FRANCES WILLIAMS GENEVA The world's industrial robot population is forecast to soar by more than a thir d over the four years to 1997, according to a report published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the International Federation of Robotics yesterday.* The report, the first in an annual series, says sagging growth in robot investment bottomed out in 1993 and numbers are set to jump from 610,000 at the end of last year to more than 830,000 by the end of 199 7. Annual sales are predicted to rise from about 54,000 units in 1993 to mor e than 103,000 units in 1997. Japan accounts for more than half the world's robot stock, equivalent to 325 robots for every 10,000 manufacturing workers . It is followed by Singapore (109), Sweden (73), Italy (70) and Germany (62 ). Use of robots is most widespread in the motor vehicle industry, which acc ounts for between a third and more than one-half of robots in use in countri es such as France, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and Britain. Tho ugh Japan now has the highest number of robots in the electrical and electro nic industry, it remains the world leader by far in the use of robots for ve hicle manufacture. In the transport equipment sector, which includes motor v ehicles, Japan has 1,000 robots for every 10,000 workers, compared with 167 in Sweden, 110 in France and 63 in Britain. In most countries, especially th ose with big motor vehicle industries, robots are used most frequently for w elding. But in some countries machining is the most common application. In J apan 40 per cent of the robot stock is used for assembly, reflecting the lar ge-scale use of robots in the electronic sector. The potential for expansion of robotics is enormous. Numbers would explode if other industrialised coun tries were to reach Japan's robot densities and if industry in general were to reach only half the robot density of the motor vehicle sector. If all ind ustries in France and Britain had half as many robots as the motor industry in these countries, the robot stock would more than double. If it reached ha lf the density of the Japanese motor vehicle industry, it would increase mor e than 20-fold. *World Industrial Robots 1994: Statistics 1983-93 and foreca sts to 1997. Sales No. GV. E94.0.24, UN Sales section, Palais des Nations, C H-1211 Geneva 10, Dollars 120. Countries:- CHZ Switz erland, West Europe. Industries:- P3569 General Industr ial Machinery, NEC. P3548 Welding Apparatus. Types:- MKTS Market shares. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Financia l Times London Page 4 ============= Transaction # 74 ============================================== Transaction #: 74 Transaction Code: 38 (Record Deselected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:41:13 Selec. Rec. #: 5 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT941-1242 _AN-ECYC5AHGFT 9403 25 FT 25 MAR 94 / Ingenuity - The FT Engineering Review (2): Untouched by human hands - Intelligent machines are a familiar sight on motor production lines. Now they are expected to turn their 'hands' to the high-speed packing of food and drink / Robots By JOH N DUNN A PLATOON of raw recruits drafted in to the French a rmy to pack combat rations are having to look lively. Up to 10 different men us are needed each month. Each ration consists of 18 items ranging from a pa ck of biscuits and a tin of meat to purification tablets and a miniature sto ve. In order to keep the fighting troops fed, the new recruits have to pack rations at the rate of 24 a minute. The luckless legionnaires are 13 industr ial robots, part of a FFr25m automated packaging and palletising line built for the army by ABB Robotics. Three robots unload boxes of goodies from pall ets on to a conveyor which delivers them to the ration packing station. Here another nine machines, using videos cameras to recognise the right items, p ack them into ration boxes in just 2.5 seconds. The 13 robots stack the rati on boxes on to a pallet for delivery to the barracks. Five different menus c an be put on one pallet to match a barracks' order. David Marshall, responsi ble for customer training at ABB Robotics in Milton Keynes, fervently hopes that the food, drinks and confectionery industry - including even army ratio ns - will become the next big market for robots. 'The whole robot industry h as depended on the automotive industry since day one. Look at the figures - 80 per cent of the world market for robots is in the automotive and automoti ve supply industry. We are looking to the food industry to perform as well a s the automotive industry.' The reason for his optimism is that industrial r obots have become more attractive to the food industry for packing and handl ing, particularly in the light of new health and safety regulations restrict ing the weight of loads that can be lifted manually. They have become faster , reliable, more accurate, and easier to incorporate into a production line. Better motor control software has allowed ABB, for example, to squeeze 25 p er cent more performance out of the same robot. Robots are also simpler to p rogram, operate and maintain. And they can lift bigger loads. They can also be washed down with a hosepipe. And prices are coming down to a level where paybacks are acceptable to the food industry. 'The food, drink and confectio nery industry is surviving on low-cost female labour. Despite their flexibil ity, using people to pack those army rations would have been a nightmare,' s ays Marshall. Also, the industry is looking to cut costs. Although robots ar e flexible and reliable, so far they have been too slow and too expensive, s ays Marshall. But what is good for the food and drinks makers is good for ma nufacturing industry. Mike Wilson, marketing manager at Fanuc Robotics in Co ventry, says of the improvements in robot performance: 'Our new ARC Mate wel ding robot, for example, is 30 per cent cheaper in real terms than a similar model three years ago. And it is 20 per cent faster. A spot welding robot c an now do one spot weld every 1.5 seconds.' Ten years ago, says Wilson, it w ould have taken three. Some of the gain has come from the improved mechanica l performance of robots -faster acceleration and deceleration and better ov ershoot behaviour. And some has come from better integration of the robot in to the process, says Wilson. 'The spot welding gun will begin to close befor e it gets to the weld, for instance.' The load capacity and accuracy of robo ts has come on in leaps and bounds, too. 'The biggest robot we do carries 30 0kg. That was unheard of 10 years ago for an electric robot,' says Wilson. R eliability has also greatly improved, he says. An example is the arc welding robot. Weld wires occasionally get stuck in the solidified weld pool at the end of a weld. A few years ago, as the robot moved away it would rip the we lding torch off the arm. Today, says Wilson, 'wire-stick' sensors prevent th is and automatically send a pulse of current down the wire to burn it free. A similar example of improved capability is 'scratch start'. If a bead of si lica from the flux gets left on the end of the welding wire, it will not str ike an arc and has to be snipped off manually. Today's robot will sense this and scratch the tip of the wire along the component to rub the bead off. It will then go back to the correct place on the weld and start welding. Overa ll, says Wilson, the cost-to-performance ratio of robots today is considerab ly better than a few years ago. Most people now buy a robot 'package' which includes some process engineering expertise and an application software pack age. 'This avoids a lot of programming and makes them quicker to install and easier to operate.' When Vauxhall bought 120 Fanuc welding robots for its n ew Astra line at the Ellesmere Port plant a couple of years ago, it handed t hem on to six companies building the welding lines. 'We designed a software package for Vauxhall that would interface the robots with all the hardware a nd provide an operator interface. That forced all the line builders to use t he robots in the same way. It made maintenance a lot simpler and saved money . We only had to write the software once and copy it six times. Each line bu ilder would have had to develop their own.' Yet despite the advances in robo t technology, Britain has one of the smallest robot populations of all the i ndustrialised nations, around 7,600, compared with Germany's 39,000 and Japa n's staggering 350,000. Even the former USSR has more robots per employee in manufacturing industry than Britain. The problem is the 18 month to two yea r paybacks demanded in Britain, says Wilson, compared with as long as five y ears in Japan. 'It is very difficult to justify any capital expenditure on a n 18 month payback.' John Dunn is deputy editor of The Engineer Countries:- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P3569 General Industrial Machinery, NEC. P3556 Food Products Machi nery. Types:- TECH Products & Product use. CMMT C omment & Analysis. The Financial Times London Page IV ============= Transaction # 75 ============================================== Transaction #: 75 Transaction Code: 38 (Record Deselected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:41:16 Selec. Rec. #: 6 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT934-9399 _AN-DKOCBAFRFT 9311 10 FT 10 NOV 93 / ABB enters robot venture with Renault By JOHN RIDDING PARIS ASEA Brown Boveri, the Swedish-Swiss engineering group, yesterd ay strengthened its position in the market for industrial robots, by agreein g to acquire the robotics operations of Renault and form a joint venture in automated vehicle assembly with the French car group. The two companies said the 50-50 venture would employ about 290 people and have annual sales of ab out Dollars 80m. After the acquisition of Renault's robotic operations, ABB' s French robotic operations will have annual sales of about Dollars 60m and employ about 200 people. Mr Stelio Demark, managing director of ABB Robotics , said that the deals with Renault were a central element in the company's s trategy of shifting from a product supplier to a partner of industrial group s in the design and manufacture of automated systems. He said that the joint venture, which will centre on 'body in white' activities - where cars are a ssembled and welded together - would give ABB access to Renault's production line expertise and enable it to offer higher value-added products and servi ces. The proposals, which require final approval by Renault employees, would give ABB its first joint venture project with a carmaker, the biggest marke t for robotics, and its first direct participation in the assembly stage of the production line. Mr Demark said that prices for industrial robots had fa llen by between 25 and 30 per cent over the past few years, prompting the Re nault sale. Renault's robotics operation, the largest in France, accounts fo r about 12 per cent of total sales of FFr1.4bn (Dollars 238m) from its autom ation division. The French group will retain management control of the separ ate joint venture for at least two years. According to Mr Demark, the market for industrial robots has strong growth potential, in spite of the fall in prices. He said that while in Japan there are 25 robots for every 1,000 manu facturing workers, the ratio is lower in Europe: in France, there are three robots per 1,000 workers. ABB estimates that it has about 20 per cent of the world market for robots with more than 33,000 currently in operation. Last year, ABB's robot division achieved sales of about Dollars 350m. ABB has wor ked with Renault on several automation projects, including the Twingo and Cl io cars. It also supplies Volvo, with which Renault is planning to merge. Companies:- Asea Brown Boveri. Renault. ABB Rob otics. Countries:- CHZ Switzerland, West Europe. S EZ Sweden, West Europe. FRZ France, EC. Industries:- P3569 General Industrial Machinery, NEC. Types:- CO MP Mergers & acquisitions. The Financial Times Int ernational Page 17 ============= Transaction # 76 ============================================== Transaction #: 76 Transaction Code: 2 (New Disp. Format Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:41:27 Selec. 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Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 99 ============================================== Transaction #: 99 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Short Time Cmd Complete: 09:54:56 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT941-6348 _AN-ECBDOADYFT 9403 02 FT 02 MAR 94 / Business and the Environment: Politics ahead of science - The debate surrounding waste disposal around the world, in the first of a series By BRONWEN MADDOX Disposing of mounting piles of waste is one of the hardest environme ntal problems for governments to get right. Few have yet done so. The issue causes political pitfalls. In many industrialised countries, recycling is on e of the few 'green' issues which reliably stirs up public passion even when recession has muted other concerns about the environment. It gives economis ts headaches: are taxes or regulation the best tools, and how tough should t hey be? These debates also take place against a backdrop of scientific contr oversy about which disposal methods harm the environment least, a debate han dicapped by a shortage of thorough research. 'Much recycling does not make e conomic sense - and some of it uses more energy than it saves,' says Steve W ebb, policy director of the UK's National Association of Waste Disposal Cont ractors (NAWDC). Industrialised countries are now grappling with attempts to improve the control of solid waste from every part of their economies, from households and industry to agriculture and mining. The European Union is wo rking on a new directive to insist that a majority of packaging is recycled. More than 70 countries worldwide - with the notable exception of Russia - a greed last month to ban dumping of radioactive material at sea. North Atlant ic countries have signed a similar, tighter, treaty restricting many kinds o f industrial dumping at sea. Meanwhile, the US Superfund legislation on clea ning up contaminated land, one of the most ambitious pieces of environmental regulation yet passed, is soon due for re-authorisation. Superfund's critic s argue that full compliance could cost the private sector Dollars 500bn (Po unds 342bn) and the government's defence and energy departments, and that ov erhaul of the rules is urgently needed. This legislative effort on solid was te tends to be greatest in developed countries. For these parts of the world , air and water pollution can seem more pressing - a ranking of priorities a cknowledged by the Chinese environment ministry, for example. Yet although m uch regulation has been in the pipeline for years, recession in industrialis ed countries has made industry more reluctant to pay. It has stimulated ques tions as to whether the rules will really protect the environment and whethe r the price being asked is too high. Putting numbers on the size of the worl d's waste problem is difficult, partly because defining waste is no trivial question. Proponents of waste-to-energy - incineration of rubbish to extract heat - argue that much household rubbish can be regarded as a raw material. What is waste at one time can be re-exploited later - witness the growing p ractice of washing east European slag heaps to extract more coal. Occasional ly problems of definition lead to farce. Polish steel makers have suffered s hortages of steel scrap to melt down because Polish scrap has been exported to earn hard currency, but imports of scrap have been restricted because it was defined as waste, steel industry companies say. Nevertheless, OECD figur es suggest that municipal waste grew at between 1-2 per cent a year during t he 1980s, slightly behind growth in GDP. Recession slowed that growth, but E uropean waste companies expect the rate soon to resume to that of the last d ecade. Figures also point to a second problem: the growing proportion of pla stics, which contain complex chemicals, sometimes toxic, that make them hard to recycle. In the past 15 years, the proportion of municipal waste made up of plastics has risen by several per cent in most OECD countries to between 8 per cent and 15 per cent, largely at the expense of glass. Countries are now weighing up a range of solutions for tackling these trends. One vocal lo bby says that waste disposal costs (and energy costs) should rise steeply to encourage companies to use resources more efficiently. Companies acknowledg e that this works: ICI, the international chemicals group, says that its pai nts division has cut its waste by more than half in the past four years beca use of tighter regulation. But economists, such as Dieter Helm, director of Oxera, the Oxford-based forecasting group, argue that measures like these si mply produce a one-off shift in behaviour, and avoid longer term questions o f picking the right waste strategy. The main options, once the waste exists, are recycling, incineration, burying it or dumping in rivers and the sea. T he tendency of regulation in the past few years has been to encourage each c ountry - sometimes each company or town - to deal with its own waste. In par ticular, that has cut down the opportunities for dumping at sea, one of the cheapest outlets. But many argue that these strategic decisions have not bee n taken on the basis of scientific evidence. The UK government, which last m onth signed the London Convention against dumping radioactive waste at sea b ecause of 'the weight of international pressure', argued that 'scientific ev idence shows that dumping at sea under controlled conditions causes no harm to the marine environment'. However, at home, its own enthusiasm for recycli ng has come under similar attack. NAWDC argues that while recycling aluminiu m cans saves energy, recycling plastics does not - a conclusion which Dow Ch emicals supports. According to Webb: 'Politicians concentrate on household w aste because people like to be told to recycle.' But household waste makes u p only 20m tonnes - around a seventh - of the total, including industrial an d commercial waste. The consequences of shaping complex regulation with too little regard to the underlying science are serious, however: an extra burde n on industrial costs that could harm competitiveness. True, the sharp diffe rences in landfill costs between countries (see table) are partly the result of local geography. In the Netherlands, fears of polluting the water table mean that landfills are scarce while in the UK, geology and extensive quarry ing for building materials have left a large number of suitable holes to be filled in, and landfill absorbs around 85 per cent of waste. But the dispari ties are also due to the strictness of regulation. Waste companies this week warned the UK government that its proposed waste management rules could add a third to landfill costs, and proposals for a EU landfill directive would have an even greater impact. Perhaps the best example of the difficulty of j udging the impact of waste regulation is the German packaging recycling sche me. The mandatory recycling targets pushed Duales System Deutschland, the sc heme operator, into near-bankruptcy and mounds of unwanted paper and plastic s were sent across the German borders. Politicians have appeared tolerant of the environmental lobbies, which have gradually ruled out cheap ways of dis posing of waste. But the enthusiasm for recycling in particular shows how th eir impulses can too easily lead to rules which are expensive and even envir onmentally damaging. David Pearce, a leading environmental economist and for mer adviser to the UK government, points out adeptly in his recent book, Blu eprint 3 - measuring sustainable development, that waste disposal is an area where governments have been particularly poor in weighing up costs and bene fits. The risk, he warns, is that their strategies lead to inefficiency and a waste of resources. Some of the legislation in the pipeline - in particula r the EU packaging directive - offers a chance to remedy those flaws. But in general, waste management is a case of politics running too far ahead of ec onomics and science. Next week's article focuses on Japan. ---------------- ----------------------------- LANDFILL PRICING (per tonne)* --------------- ------------------------------ Country Range (Pounds) --------------------------------------------- France 20-36 Germany 40-60 It aly 40-60 Finland 14-29 Neth s 26-70 UK 6-18 Spain 2-10 Sweden 10-43 Australi a 3.50-12 New Zealand 12-18 US 10-44 Latin America 2-4 SE Asia 1.50-5 --------------------------------------------- * Mu nicipal solid waste --------------------------------------------- -------- --------------------------------------------------------------- COMPOSITION OF MUNICIPAL WASTE 1990 (%) ----------------------------------------------- ------------------------ Paper and Plastics Glass Meta ls Food and Other paperboard garden ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------ US 38 8 7 8 25 14 Japan 38 11 7 6 32 6 F rance 31 10 12 6 25 16 Spain 20 7 8 4 49 12 Sweden 44 7 8 2 30 9 UK 37 10 9 7 19 18 Hungary 22 5 6 5 - 61 -------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Source: OECD/Industry es timates ------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Countries:- XAZ World. Industries:- P9511 Air, Water, and Solid Waste Management. Types:- < /XX> RES Pollution. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Financ ial Times London Page 20 ============= Transaction # 100 ============================================== Transaction #: 100 Transaction Code: 2 (New Disp. Format Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:55:15 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 101 ============================================== Transaction #: 101 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:55:42 Selec. Rec. #: 2 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT943-7475 _AN-EHWDLAC1FT 9408 23 FT 23 AUG 94 / Germany's nuclear fall-out: A look at the increasingly controversial debate on how best to dispose of the country' s nuclear waste By QUENTIN PEEL Sev enteen years ago, the little village of Gorleben was a forgotten backwater o n the banks of the river Elbe, a stone's throw from East German no-man's lan d. Today its name is synonymous with an impassioned debate over the future o f Germany's nuclear power industry. The fate of Gorleben could decide whethe r nuclear power has a future at all in Germany. It could also have a big inf luence on the attempts by other countries - such as the UK, Sweden, Switzerl and and many others - to find an economic and publicly acceptable way of dis posing of their nuclear waste, most probably underground. In 1977, the villa ge was a depopulated rural retreat in a blighted border area of West Germany , its main roads cut on three sides by the East German frontier. It was the ideal place to put something unpleasant - like a nuclear waste dump. At the time, the government called it a 'nuclear park', and planned to include a hu ge reprocessing plant, employing 5,000 people, as well as excavate a vast un derground cavern in the nearby salt deposit, to dispose of highly radioactiv e waste. It would have been the German equivalent of Britain's Sellafield, o r France's La Hague, with waste disposal thrown in. Seventeen years and inte rminable planning inquiries later, not to mention changes of government both in Bonn and Hanover, capital of the local state of Lower Saxony, and innume rable protests, sit-ins and marches, the reprocessing plant has been abandon ed, and the waste disposal plan is still the subject of furious resistance. A huge interim waste disposal site has been developed behind three-metre-hig h security fences and a rampart of earth. But the biggest storage shed, for containers full of highly radioactive materials, is still standing empty aft er 11 years. On the same site, an extraordinary 'pilot conditioning plant' i s being built, with massive reinforced concrete walls, 1.5 metres thick, whe re the waste has to be repackaged into containers capable of keeping it unde rground for its entire half-life - of 10,000 years or more. Objections to it s construction from the state government and environmental groups have delay ed completion by at least two years already. Over the road, just 1km outside Gorleben village, two deep shafts have been sunk into the salt 'dome', to c arry out exhaustive tests on its quality and consistency to see if it can sa fely be used as a permanent deep storage site for the waste. To complicate m atters, since 1990 Gorleben has been at the heart of reunited Germany, inste ad of on a hostile frontier. The banks of the river Elbe have been designate d as a nature conservation area, and the idea of putting nuclear waste down a salt mine on its doorstep seems incongruous in the extreme. In recent week s, hundreds of demonstrators have blockaded the entrance to the interim wast e disposal site. They built a makeshift village, and tried to tunnel under t he road, to block deliveries of the first cast-iron containers containing nu clear fuel elements to the temporary store. They were forced to move, but an attempt by Mr Klaus Topfer, the (Christian Democrat) federal environment mi nister, to negotiate an agreement on the deliveries last week with Mr Gerhar d Schroder, the (Social Democrat) state premier in Lower Saxony, failed to b reak the latest deadlock. Yet if agreement cannot be reached on the storage plans, it is not only Germany's powerful nuclear industry, with 20 atomic en ergy plants churning out electricity, which will be held to ransom. The iron y is that the opponents of nuclear energy, including a clear majority of the opposition Social Democratic party (SPD) and the whole of the environmental ist Green party, also need to find a waste disposal site somewhere in German y to bring the industry to a halt. If the power stations are to close, somet hing must be done with their waste. 'With nuclear waste, to do nothing is wo rse than doing something, whichever side you are on,' says Dr Rolf Meyer, sp okesman for DBE, the state-owned company responsible for excavating and eval uating the Gorleben salt mine. So both sides know that, really, they have to reach some compromise. For a long time, the anti-nuclear lobby has identifi ed the disposal of nuclear waste as the weak link in the German nuclear chai n, and therefore the best target to attack in trying to force the country to abandon nuclear power altogether. Hitherto, reprocessing of spent nuclear f uel has been the preferred German approach, on the grounds that it would max imise re-use of the original raw material, and minimise the eventual waste f or disposal. Big reprocessing contracts have been signed with France's Cogem a and Britain's BNFL lasting into the next century. The problem is that repr ocessing is very expensive; it produces plutonium, which is dangerous becaus e it can be used for weapons manufacture, and which requires in turn being t ransformed into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel elements to be reused in nuclear powe r stations; and it means that Germany remains committed to nuclear power gen eration for the foreseeable future. On top of that, it still produces a smal l amount of highly radioactive nuclear waste which has to be got rid of some how. The alternative - direct disposal of spent fuel elements - is seen as m uch cheaper, and it does give Germany the option eventually of closing down its nuclear power stations, and switching back to conventional forms of powe r generation. The Greens and the rest of the anti-nuclear lobby have targete d the weak links in the nuclear chain in two ways: they have sought to block approval of Gorleben as a waste disposal site at every stage of the process ; and they have so far successfully blocked a series of building and plannin g licences for Siemens's MOX fuel element plant at Hanau, near Frankfurt, wh ich is standing 95 per cent complete, at a cost to date of DM1.1bn (Pounds 4 61m). The environmental blockade against both plans has proved remarkably su ccessful so far, and has cause great frustration in the nuclear power indust ry. Both the big northern electricity utilities - RWE in Essen, and Veba's P reussenElektra in Hanover - have shown serious signs of being tempted to pul l out of nuclear power generation altogether, although they deny it official ly. They are observing a de facto moratorium on plans for any new nuclear po wer stations. What they want above all else is some sense of certainty about the future of their industry - and about what they are going to do with the ir toxic waste. This month, Siemens won an important legal battle in the sup reme administrative court in Berlin, which rejected challenges to three buil ding licences for the Hanau plant. But complaints are still outstanding agai nst two further building licences, and four licences for the actual process of uranium and plutonium processing. As for Gorleben, even delivery of waste for interim storage still appears to be blocked, most recently thanks to fe ars about the safety of the Castor cast-iron containers being sent across co untry from the Philippsburg power station in Baden-Wurttemberg. In the middl e of a general election campaign, no one can afford to seem complacent. The vast echoing hall built for the high-level waste stands empty. It has the ca pacity to take 420 of the Castor containers, each one separately wired up to monitors, which check that the pressure between their double lids remains c onstant, in case of a leak. Highly radioactive waste will also be delivered from La Hague and Sellafield in vitrified glass containers, the first due fr om France before the end of the year. The containers are supposed to stay th ere for six years at least, while they cool down from their initial 200`C. A fter that, they are supposed to go to the 'conditioning' plant to prepare fo r permanent disposal in the salt mine. 'The building is simply for protectio n from the weather,' says Mr Jurgen Auer of Brennelementlager Gorleben (BLG) , which runs the site. 'The containers are what are supposed to be secure.' The pilot conditioning plant has been built, as Germany's safety laws requir e, strong enough to withstand an earthquake, or the impact of a jet aircraft flown into it at full speed. At its heart is a T-shaped core which will be totally sealed from human entrance, or the escape of radiation inside it. In side the cell, which has stainless steel plates bolted to its walls to be wa shed down for radiation, the Castor containers are to be opened, and the fue l elements compressed by remote control, before being repacked in 65-tonne P ollux containers for permanent disposal. Humans will supervise, watching thr ough massive lead-glass panes. The final stage in the process, if it ever co mes to pass, will be the disposal of the radioactive material underground in the salt mine. The huge deposit goes down to at least 4,000 metres, and the plan is to excavate a complex of tunnels some 14km long, 4km wide, and up t o 3.3km deep. One of the great advantages of salt is that it 'creeps': after being hollowed out, it will gradually close in again on whatever has been s tored. It also conducts heat, allowing the very hot waste to cool, and it do es not conduct water. However, it is not pure, and some forms of salt contai n water in crystalline form: if it gets warm, it could dissolve and flow tow ards the source of the heat. Hence the need for exhaustive checks on the pre cise 'geo-mechanical' properties of the Gorleben salt deposit, conducted wit h legendary German efficiency: so far, 120km of borings have been carried ou t and tested over the past 14 years. Dr Meyer, spokesman for the DBE, is phi losophical about the whole exercise. 'I sometimes wonder how they would ever have built the Pyramids, or the Great Wall of China, if they hadn't had sla ves,' he says. He expects a final decision on whether the project will go ah ead or not after the turn of the century. Then it will take another six year s to prepare - providing storage space for another 70 years. The mining proj ect is being pursued with fanatical attention from the local media. 'If a sp arrow dies here on the mine, the local newspaper will call up to find out wh y,' Dr Meyer says. 'Every single detail of our job is in the public eye.' Bu t the most challenging task of all, he believes, has nothing directly to do with the mining. 'How do you identify a nuclear waste disposal site for 500 years,' he asks, 'let alone for 10,000?' The use of Gorleben as Germany's ma in site for nuclear waste disposal has been a burning political issue in loc al politics, ever since it was first mooted by the Christian Democrat govern ment in Lower Saxony in 1977. Traditionally, the federal government in Bonn, whether SPD or CDU, has tried to push the plan along, and the state governm ent in Hanover has resisted - regardless of political party. Today Mr Gerhar d Schroder, the SPD premier in Hanover, insists that other sites must be inv estigated - preferably in granite deposits in southern Bavaria, the state mo st committed to nuclear power. At the end of the day, the issue does not sim ply divide the country between left and right, between environmentalists and the pro-industry lobby. It also divides the country between north and south . The northerners, including their electricity utilities, RWE and PreussenEl ektra, would not mind giving up nuclear power altogether. They could provide alternative energy from coastal power stations fired by gas or cheap import ed coal. RWE has enormous reserves of relatively cheap brown coal. The south erners, including the third main generator, Viag's Bayernwerk, are far more dependent on nuclear power. They have no coastline and no cheap imported alt ernatives. So they remain firmly committed to the nuclear route. No wonder f ew expect an early resolution of the conflict. The outside chance of a coali tion of left-wing and environmental parties winning the October national ele ction would certainly mean a firm decision to abandon nuclear energy. Ironic ally, because of the need to find some way of disposing of the waste, it wou ld probably mean a relatively swift decision to go ahead with Gorleben, at l east for interim storage. The more likely outcome, either of a continuation of the present conservative-liberal alliance under Chancellor Helmut Kohl, o r a grand coalition of CDU and SPD, could leave a continuing stalemate. Then both sides will be forced to try to negotiate an energy consensus, and reco ncile their differences. What the industry fears is that any such compromise will simply leave it in continuing uncertainty. Countries:- DEZ Germany, EC. Industries:- P9721 Internatio nal Affairs. P2819 Industrial Inorganic Chemicals, NEC. P4911 Electr ic Services. Types:- CMMT Comment & Analysis.

The Financial Times London Page 15 ============= Transaction # 102 ============================================== Transaction #: 102 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:56:42 Selec. Rec. #: 3 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT911-2041 _AN-BEBBRAA5FT 9105 02 FT 02 MAY 91 / Technology: Offshore haven for nuclear waste By DAVID GREEN As plans for an underground radioactive waste repository are drawn up in Britain, enginee rs in Sweden are preparing to build on the early success of a similar projec t. Caverns have been created under the Baltic Sea at a capital cost of Pound s 70m to provide a final resting place for much of the radioactive waste fro m the country's 12 nuclear power reactors. The material going into the caver ns off Forsmark, on Sweden's east coast, about 80 miles north of Stockholm, consists of waste which will be dangerously radioactive for the relatively s hort term, several hundreds of years. Most of it is low-level waste, such as contaminated overalls and gloves but some is intermediate-level waste, incl uding sludges and resins. SKB, the Swedish radioactive waste disposal compan y, is planning to build a much deeper repository for long-lived intermediate -level and high-level wastes which may remain dangerously radioactive for mi llions of years. A short list of sites is expected to be announced next year and the facility could be ready for use by the year 2020. IS Nirex, SKB's e quivalent in Britain, is currently boring into the rock structures at Sellaf ield, in Cumbria, and Dounreay, in Scotland, to check the geology before the announcement of a preferred site for its own deep repository. However, it w ill cater only for low and intermediate-level wastes. Under present proposal s, all high-level waste will continue to be stored on the surface at Sellafi eld, where spent nuclear fuel is re-processed by British Nuclear Fuels. Near by, in the village of Drigg, is British Nuclear Fuels' low-level waste repos itory, expected to be full by the middle of next century. Sellafield is like ly to be the preferred choice for Britain's deep repository, although no for mal announcement is due before October. The Nirex idea is to sink a vertical shaft about 700 metres deep and create a series of caverns running from its base and capable of holding 1.4m cubic metres of waste. It will cost an est imated Pounds 800m to build and a further Pounds 1.6bn to operate over 50 ye ars. In 1994 the UK Government is due to carry out a review of nuclear power economics following its decision two years ago not to finance further stati ons after Sizewell B, in Suffolk. Whether or not nuclear power is allowed to expand, a large amount of radioactive waste has already been created. Much more will arise before the existing stations reach the end of their lifetime s and are dismantled. A public inquiry into the Nirex plan for a deep reposi tory is expected to start in 1993 and last for a year. In the meantime, the company will continue its efforts to try to convince the public that undergr ound waste disposal is practical and safe. Councillors from both Dounreay an d Cumbria have been taken to Sweden to inspect the Forsmark repository, whic h is close to three nuclear power reactors. The repository is approached by two tunnels, each one kilometre long, which slope down through bedrock about 50 metres beneath the sea. The waste from the rest of Sweden's nuclear plan ts, all located on the coast, is brought to Forsmark by ship. All waste arri ving at the facility is already packaged in concrete or steel. It is placed in concrete vaults which are surrounded by bentonite clay. In its first thre e years of operation, the repository has accumulated about 6,000 cubic metre s of waste, one-tenth of its present capacity. When it was opened it was tho ught that additional cavern space would have to be created in order to cater for future operating waste. However, engineers now believe the existing spa ce will suffice, largely because of new compaction techniques being used at the power stations before despatch of the waste to Forsmark. New caverns and an additional silo will be necessary to cope with the low and intermediate- level waste from the dismantling of the reactors at the end of their operati ng lifetimes. SKB, which is owned by the four Swedish nuclear power utilitie s, estimates it will cost Pounds 5bn to de-commission the country's nuclear power stations and dispose of the radioactive waste involved. Operational an d de-commissioning waste is expected to total about 230,000 cubic metres. Th e Swedish parliament decided after a national referendum in 1980 to phase-ou t nuclear power by the year 2010. Three years ago it said plants would begin shutting down in 1995. However, the start of the phase-out has now been pos tponed because of the difficulty in finding acceptable replacement sources o f electricity. Coal and oil have been ruled out because of the problems of g lobal warming and acid rain, while further hydro schemes have also run into environmental opposition. The Financial Times Lon don Page 15 ============= Transaction # 103 ============================================== Transaction #: 103 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:57:41 Selec. Rec. #: 6 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT944-8187 _AN-EKUDAAFIFT 9411 21 FT 21 NOV 94 / Survey of the World Nuclear Industry ( 9): Shortage of options / A look at waste disposal B y BRONWEN MADDOX Where to store nuclear waste: that is perh aps the most difficult question the nuclear industry must answer in making a case for itself. Environmentalists focus on it, seeing it as the weak link in any argument for nuclear power; they argue that it is immoral to leave a form of pollution which will persist for tens of thousands of years for futu re generations to solve. The nuclear industry has traditionally countered th is stance by pointing out that nuclear waste can be neatly contained in barr els, unlike atmospheric pollution from burning fossil fuels, a rival source of energy. But where should the barrels be stored? That question has not yet been answered conclusively. There is some urgency in finding solutions. Eve n though civil nuclear programmes are on hold in many western countries whic h were previously enthusiastic - notably in Germany, the US and Britain - th e operation of existing reactors continues to generate waste which needs dis posal. Moreover, the eventual dismantling of the reactors will produce large volumes of waste, from lightly-contaminated concrete hulks to intensely-rad ioactive reactor rods. Some countries, such as Britain, also have nuclear su bmarines which need to be scrapped. But pressure from public and environment alists is narrowing the range of disposal routes. Under amendments in the pa st two years to international conventions on marine pollution, the option of disposing of even low-level radioactive waste at sea has been suspended for at least a decade. That leaves a variety of land-based techniques, but desp ite their investigation by many different countries, there is no agreement a bout the best option. A decade ago, it seemed that reprocessing used or 'spe nt' nuclear fuel would be the ideal. Reprocessing extracts reusable uranium and plutonium from fuel rods, leaving a much smaller volume of waste. The UK and France, with large civil programmes, began years ago to invest heavily in reprocessing capacity. However, since then the price of uranium has falle n sharply. Concern has also grown internationally that the greater the amoun t of plutonium created, the more likely that some is diverted to bomb-making . Other storage options are cheaper, many have argued, but bring their own p olitical and technical problems. The UK and Germany have investigated perman ent deep storage - depositing the waste hundreds of metres underground -at Sellafield in Cumbria and at the Gorleben salt mines. This option is likely to be cheaper than storage on the surface because it needs little surveillan ce and is secure from terrorist attack. It also has political attractions - it appears to offer a permanent solution rather than leaving it for future g enerations. But in Germany, controversy over the choice of location has wide ned into an impassioned row about the future of the nuclear power industry, which has stalled development of the site. There are also considerable geolo gical problems: it is hard to find a site without fissures or water seepage which will contain the waste safely for the next 10,000 years. Such consider ations have already prolonged the investigations of UK Nirex, the company ch arged by the UK government with finding a deep disposal site for low-level a nd intermediate-level radioactive waste. Such concerns lead many environment alists, such as the pressure group Greenpeace, to back the option of storing waste on the surface. This route is more expensive, but does allow the wast e to be closely monitored, and keeps permanent disposal options open. Others , such as Scottish Nuclear, one of the two UK nuclear generators, favour a h ybrid of the two techniques for accommodating highly radioactive waste. Scot tish Nuclear has vigorously backed 'dry storage' for spent fuel: keeping use d fuel rods on the surface surrounded by inert gas for 50 years until the ra dioactive content and heat fall to a point where the rods can be stored unde rground. Those debates, in which political, economic and scientific consider ations are enmeshed together, are far from resolved. Indeed, in several west ern countries a stalemate has been reached. The only route forwards which ap pears to be acceptable to western publics is to put nuclear waste on sites a lready occupied by nuclear installations - Sellafield is a case in point. If countries cannot resolve the debate about location domestically, they may i nvestigate whether other countries will accept their waste, or at least stor e it temporarily while processing it into a different form. British Nuclear Fuels, owner of the UK's Thorp reprocessing plant in Sellafield, has made no secret of its opinion that the UK should capitalise on its expertise in han dling nuclear waste. The new factor which could ease such stalemates in the west, however, is the Asian embrace of civil nuclear power. Asia is beginnin g to produce large volumes of waste and the next two decades will see the di fferent techniques for treatment and disposal vigorously explored and refine d. That may allow western governments and nuclear industries, from a vantage point uncomplicated by domestic politics, to make a more thorough assessmen t of the answer to nuclear power's trickiest problem. Countries :- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. USZ United States of America. DEZ Germany, EC. Industries:- P2819 Industrial Inorga nic Chemicals, NEC. P4911 Electric Services. Types:- CMMT Comment & Analysis. RES Facilities. The Financial Ti mes London Page IV ============= Transaction # 104 ============================================== Transaction #: 104 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:59:01 Selec. Rec. #: 7 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT943-9990 _AN-EHHDNACUFT 9408 08 FT 08 AUG 94 / Leading Article: The nuclear waste pro blem The government's consultation paper on the disposal of radioactive waste, published last Friday, is central to the UK's review o f nuclear policy for two reasons. It addresses the issue of safety, which is uppermost in the public's mind; and it has a direct bearing on cost, which must ultimately determine whether nuclear power is commercially viable. The most pressing issue is the disposal of intermediate and low-level radioactiv e waste, such as bulky parts from first generation reactors and nuclear subm arines which are now coming to the end of their lives. By contrast, high-lev el waste, such as spent fuel rods, needs 50 years to cool before it can be s tored, making it a problem for the next century. Until last year, it appeare d that the UK planned to dump at least some waste at sea. But it has now sig ned an international treaty which includes a 10-year ban on sea dumping of r adioactive waste. This leaves it with the choice of burying the waste deep u nderground, or storing it in some form on the surface. The UK's provisional plans are to bury intermediate and low-level waste permanently in sealed cha mbers carved out of the rocks half a mile underground. UK Nirex, the industr y's waste disposal company, has been given the task of finding a site, and i s now running geological studies underneath Sellafield, British Nuclear Fuel s' plants in Cumbria. Deep disposal has the backing of the nuclear industry, the Department of Trade and Industry, and a large section of the public. It is cheaper than surface storage because it needs minimal surveillance, and is relatively secure from risks such as terrorist attack. There is also a mo ral argument for opting now for deep disposal, in that many feel it would be wrong to leave the problem of waste disposal for future generations to answ er. Practical questions As things stand, however, deep burial raises a numbe r of practical and other questions. The risk is mainly geological: radioacti vity could leak into the water table. If that happened, it would be extremel y difficult to rectify. These concerns apply particularly to the Sellafield site where Nirex has discovered rock fissures and complex water flows which might cause radioactivity to migrate. Surface storage, by contrast, is more expensive and possibly riskier, but it does keep the waste where it can be c losely monitored. So long as uncertainty exists about the science of nuclear waste disposal, it also keeps options open. Many environmentalists argue th at the permanent solution of deep burial would deprive future generations of using whatever superior disposal methods science eventually comes up with. Deep burial The trouble is that this is an argument without end: the same di lemma would presumably prevent each succeeding generation from settling the waste problem. Decisions about the desirability of nuclear power, in which a ssumptions about the costs of waste disposal are an important part, cannot b e thus indefinitely postponed. The government has made clear its preference for deep burial on economic, safety and moral grounds. There will always be the suspicion, however, that its position is shaped by short-term objectives , particularly the desire to reduce the nuclear industry's costs and improve its chances of privatisation. That would be patently wrong: if there was ev er an issue where safety should be paramount, it is this. Scientific evaluat ion rather than political pressure must determine the choice of disposal met hod. If minimising the impact on the environment and the risk to human healt h is the criterion, the best technique might well be sea disposal: environme ntal pessimists often understate the enormous capacity of the deep oceans to dilute pollution. But with that option now closed, the onus is on the gover nment to build the safest and most palatable alternative method of disposal into its nuclear review calculations. There is no harm in persisting with in vestigations into deep disposal, provided it is recognised that it might tak e years to find a safe site, if one can be found at all. But for now, there may be no alternative to keeping nuclear waste above ground until more of th e uncertainty is removed. Countries:- GBZ United Kin gdom, EC. Industries:- P9511 Air, Water, and Solid Wast e Management. Types:- CMMT Comment & Analysis. TEC H Safety & Standards. The Financial Times London P age 13 ============= Transaction # 105 ============================================== Transaction #: 105 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:01:05 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT941-6348 _AN-ECBDOADYFT 9403 02 FT 02 MAR 94 / Business and the Environment: Politics ahead of science - The debate surrounding waste disposal around the world, in the first of a series By BRONWEN MADDOX Disposing of mounting piles of waste is one of the hardest environme ntal problems for governments to get right. Few have yet done so. The issue causes political pitfalls. In many industrialised countries, recycling is on e of the few 'green' issues which reliably stirs up public passion even when recession has muted other concerns about the environment. It gives economis ts headaches: are taxes or regulation the best tools, and how tough should t hey be? These debates also take place against a backdrop of scientific contr oversy about which disposal methods harm the environment least, a debate han dicapped by a shortage of thorough research. 'Much recycling does not make e conomic sense - and some of it uses more energy than it saves,' says Steve W ebb, policy director of the UK's National Association of Waste Disposal Cont ractors (NAWDC). Industrialised countries are now grappling with attempts to improve the control of solid waste from every part of their economies, from households and industry to agriculture and mining. The European Union is wo rking on a new directive to insist that a majority of packaging is recycled. More than 70 countries worldwide - with the notable exception of Russia - a greed last month to ban dumping of radioactive material at sea. North Atlant ic countries have signed a similar, tighter, treaty restricting many kinds o f industrial dumping at sea. Meanwhile, the US Superfund legislation on clea ning up contaminated land, one of the most ambitious pieces of environmental regulation yet passed, is soon due for re-authorisation. Superfund's critic s argue that full compliance could cost the private sector Dollars 500bn (Po unds 342bn) and the government's defence and energy departments, and that ov erhaul of the rules is urgently needed. This legislative effort on solid was te tends to be greatest in developed countries. For these parts of the world , air and water pollution can seem more pressing - a ranking of priorities a cknowledged by the Chinese environment ministry, for example. Yet although m uch regulation has been in the pipeline for years, recession in industrialis ed countries has made industry more reluctant to pay. It has stimulated ques tions as to whether the rules will really protect the environment and whethe r the price being asked is too high. Putting numbers on the size of the worl d's waste problem is difficult, partly because defining waste is no trivial question. Proponents of waste-to-energy - incineration of rubbish to extract heat - argue that much household rubbish can be regarded as a raw material. What is waste at one time can be re-exploited later - witness the growing p ractice of washing east European slag heaps to extract more coal. Occasional ly problems of definition lead to farce. Polish steel makers have suffered s hortages of steel scrap to melt down because Polish scrap has been exported to earn hard currency, but imports of scrap have been restricted because it was defined as waste, steel industry companies say. Nevertheless, OECD figur es suggest that municipal waste grew at between 1-2 per cent a year during t he 1980s, slightly behind growth in GDP. Recession slowed that growth, but E uropean waste companies expect the rate soon to resume to that of the last d ecade. Figures also point to a second problem: the growing proportion of pla stics, which contain complex chemicals, sometimes toxic, that make them hard to recycle. In the past 15 years, the proportion of municipal waste made up of plastics has risen by several per cent in most OECD countries to between 8 per cent and 15 per cent, largely at the expense of glass. Countries are now weighing up a range of solutions for tackling these trends. One vocal lo bby says that waste disposal costs (and energy costs) should rise steeply to encourage companies to use resources more efficiently. Companies acknowledg e that this works: ICI, the international chemicals group, says that its pai nts division has cut its waste by more than half in the past four years beca use of tighter regulation. But economists, such as Dieter Helm, director of Oxera, the Oxford-based forecasting group, argue that measures like these si mply produce a one-off shift in behaviour, and avoid longer term questions o f picking the right waste strategy. The main options, once the waste exists, are recycling, incineration, burying it or dumping in rivers and the sea. T he tendency of regulation in the past few years has been to encourage each c ountry - sometimes each company or town - to deal with its own waste. In par ticular, that has cut down the opportunities for dumping at sea, one of the cheapest outlets. But many argue that these strategic decisions have not bee n taken on the basis of scientific evidence. The UK government, which last m onth signed the London Convention against dumping radioactive waste at sea b ecause of 'the weight of international pressure', argued that 'scientific ev idence shows that dumping at sea under controlled conditions causes no harm to the marine environment'. However, at home, its own enthusiasm for recycli ng has come under similar attack. NAWDC argues that while recycling aluminiu m cans saves energy, recycling plastics does not - a conclusion which Dow Ch emicals supports. According to Webb: 'Politicians concentrate on household w aste because people like to be told to recycle.' But household waste makes u p only 20m tonnes - around a seventh - of the total, including industrial an d commercial waste. The consequences of shaping complex regulation with too little regard to the underlying science are serious, however: an extra burde n on industrial costs that could harm competitiveness. True, the sharp diffe rences in landfill costs between countries (see table) are partly the result of local geography. In the Netherlands, fears of polluting the water table mean that landfills are scarce while in the UK, geology and extensive quarry ing for building materials have left a large number of suitable holes to be filled in, and landfill absorbs around 85 per cent of waste. But the dispari ties are also due to the strictness of regulation. Waste companies this week warned the UK government that its proposed waste management rules could add a third to landfill costs, and proposals for a EU landfill directive would have an even greater impact. Perhaps the best example of the difficulty of j udging the impact of waste regulation is the German packaging recycling sche me. The mandatory recycling targets pushed Duales System Deutschland, the sc heme operator, into near-bankruptcy and mounds of unwanted paper and plastic s were sent across the German borders. Politicians have appeared tolerant of the environmental lobbies, which have gradually ruled out cheap ways of dis posing of waste. But the enthusiasm for recycling in particular shows how th eir impulses can too easily lead to rules which are expensive and even envir onmentally damaging. David Pearce, a leading environmental economist and for mer adviser to the UK government, points out adeptly in his recent book, Blu eprint 3 - measuring sustainable development, that waste disposal is an area where governments have been particularly poor in weighing up costs and bene fits. The risk, he warns, is that their strategies lead to inefficiency and a waste of resources. Some of the legislation in the pipeline - in particula r the EU packaging directive - offers a chance to remedy those flaws. But in general, waste management is a case of politics running too far ahead of ec onomics and science. Next week's article focuses on Japan. ---------------- ----------------------------- LANDFILL PRICING (per tonne)* --------------- ------------------------------ Country Range (Pounds) --------------------------------------------- France 20-36 Germany 40-60 It aly 40-60 Finland 14-29 Neth s 26-70 UK 6-18 Spain 2-10 Sweden 10-43 Australi a 3.50-12 New Zealand 12-18 US 10-44 Latin America 2-4 SE Asia 1.50-5 --------------------------------------------- * Mu nicipal solid waste --------------------------------------------- -------- --------------------------------------------------------------- COMPOSITION OF MUNICIPAL WASTE 1990 (%) ----------------------------------------------- ------------------------ Paper and Plastics Glass Meta ls Food and Other paperboard garden ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------ US 38 8 7 8 25 14 Japan 38 11 7 6 32 6 F rance 31 10 12 6 25 16 Spain 20 7 8 4 49 12 Sweden 44 7 8 2 30 9 UK 37 10 9 7 19 18 Hungary 22 5 6 5 - 61 -------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Source: OECD/Industry es timates ------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Countries:- XAZ World. Industries:- P9511 Air, Water, and Solid Waste Management. Types:- < /XX> RES Pollution. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Financ ial Times London Page 20 ============= Transaction # 106 ============================================== Transaction #: 106 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:01:05 Selec. Rec. #: 2 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT943-7475 _AN-EHWDLAC1FT 9408 23 FT 23 AUG 94 / Germany's nuclear fall-out: A look at the increasingly controversial debate on how best to dispose of the country' s nuclear waste By QUENTIN PEEL Sev enteen years ago, the little village of Gorleben was a forgotten backwater o n the banks of the river Elbe, a stone's throw from East German no-man's lan d. Today its name is synonymous with an impassioned debate over the future o f Germany's nuclear power industry. The fate of Gorleben could decide whethe r nuclear power has a future at all in Germany. It could also have a big inf luence on the attempts by other countries - such as the UK, Sweden, Switzerl and and many others - to find an economic and publicly acceptable way of dis posing of their nuclear waste, most probably underground. In 1977, the villa ge was a depopulated rural retreat in a blighted border area of West Germany , its main roads cut on three sides by the East German frontier. It was the ideal place to put something unpleasant - like a nuclear waste dump. At the time, the government called it a 'nuclear park', and planned to include a hu ge reprocessing plant, employing 5,000 people, as well as excavate a vast un derground cavern in the nearby salt deposit, to dispose of highly radioactiv e waste. It would have been the German equivalent of Britain's Sellafield, o r France's La Hague, with waste disposal thrown in. Seventeen years and inte rminable planning inquiries later, not to mention changes of government both in Bonn and Hanover, capital of the local state of Lower Saxony, and innume rable protests, sit-ins and marches, the reprocessing plant has been abandon ed, and the waste disposal plan is still the subject of furious resistance. A huge interim waste disposal site has been developed behind three-metre-hig h security fences and a rampart of earth. But the biggest storage shed, for containers full of highly radioactive materials, is still standing empty aft er 11 years. On the same site, an extraordinary 'pilot conditioning plant' i s being built, with massive reinforced concrete walls, 1.5 metres thick, whe re the waste has to be repackaged into containers capable of keeping it unde rground for its entire half-life - of 10,000 years or more. Objections to it s construction from the state government and environmental groups have delay ed completion by at least two years already. Over the road, just 1km outside Gorleben village, two deep shafts have been sunk into the salt 'dome', to c arry out exhaustive tests on its quality and consistency to see if it can sa fely be used as a permanent deep storage site for the waste. To complicate m atters, since 1990 Gorleben has been at the heart of reunited Germany, inste ad of on a hostile frontier. The banks of the river Elbe have been designate d as a nature conservation area, and the idea of putting nuclear waste down a salt mine on its doorstep seems incongruous in the extreme. In recent week s, hundreds of demonstrators have blockaded the entrance to the interim wast e disposal site. They built a makeshift village, and tried to tunnel under t he road, to block deliveries of the first cast-iron containers containing nu clear fuel elements to the temporary store. They were forced to move, but an attempt by Mr Klaus Topfer, the (Christian Democrat) federal environment mi nister, to negotiate an agreement on the deliveries last week with Mr Gerhar d Schroder, the (Social Democrat) state premier in Lower Saxony, failed to b reak the latest deadlock. Yet if agreement cannot be reached on the storage plans, it is not only Germany's powerful nuclear industry, with 20 atomic en ergy plants churning out electricity, which will be held to ransom. The iron y is that the opponents of nuclear energy, including a clear majority of the opposition Social Democratic party (SPD) and the whole of the environmental ist Green party, also need to find a waste disposal site somewhere in German y to bring the industry to a halt. If the power stations are to close, somet hing must be done with their waste. 'With nuclear waste, to do nothing is wo rse than doing something, whichever side you are on,' says Dr Rolf Meyer, sp okesman for DBE, the state-owned company responsible for excavating and eval uating the Gorleben salt mine. So both sides know that, really, they have to reach some compromise. For a long time, the anti-nuclear lobby has identifi ed the disposal of nuclear waste as the weak link in the German nuclear chai n, and therefore the best target to attack in trying to force the country to abandon nuclear power altogether. Hitherto, reprocessing of spent nuclear f uel has been the preferred German approach, on the grounds that it would max imise re-use of the original raw material, and minimise the eventual waste f or disposal. Big reprocessing contracts have been signed with France's Cogem a and Britain's BNFL lasting into the next century. The problem is that repr ocessing is very expensive; it produces plutonium, which is dangerous becaus e it can be used for weapons manufacture, and which requires in turn being t ransformed into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel elements to be reused in nuclear powe r stations; and it means that Germany remains committed to nuclear power gen eration for the foreseeable future. On top of that, it still produces a smal l amount of highly radioactive nuclear waste which has to be got rid of some how. The alternative - direct disposal of spent fuel elements - is seen as m uch cheaper, and it does give Germany the option eventually of closing down its nuclear power stations, and switching back to conventional forms of powe r generation. The Greens and the rest of the anti-nuclear lobby have targete d the weak links in the nuclear chain in two ways: they have sought to block approval of Gorleben as a waste disposal site at every stage of the process ; and they have so far successfully blocked a series of building and plannin g licences for Siemens's MOX fuel element plant at Hanau, near Frankfurt, wh ich is standing 95 per cent complete, at a cost to date of DM1.1bn (Pounds 4 61m). The environmental blockade against both plans has proved remarkably su ccessful so far, and has cause great frustration in the nuclear power indust ry. Both the big northern electricity utilities - RWE in Essen, and Veba's P reussenElektra in Hanover - have shown serious signs of being tempted to pul l out of nuclear power generation altogether, although they deny it official ly. They are observing a de facto moratorium on plans for any new nuclear po wer stations. What they want above all else is some sense of certainty about the future of their industry - and about what they are going to do with the ir toxic waste. This month, Siemens won an important legal battle in the sup reme administrative court in Berlin, which rejected challenges to three buil ding licences for the Hanau plant. But complaints are still outstanding agai nst two further building licences, and four licences for the actual process of uranium and plutonium processing. As for Gorleben, even delivery of waste for interim storage still appears to be blocked, most recently thanks to fe ars about the safety of the Castor cast-iron containers being sent across co untry from the Philippsburg power station in Baden-Wurttemberg. In the middl e of a general election campaign, no one can afford to seem complacent. The vast echoing hall built for the high-level waste stands empty. It has the ca pacity to take 420 of the Castor containers, each one separately wired up to monitors, which check that the pressure between their double lids remains c onstant, in case of a leak. Highly radioactive waste will also be delivered from La Hague and Sellafield in vitrified glass containers, the first due fr om France before the end of the year. The containers are supposed to stay th ere for six years at least, while they cool down from their initial 200`C. A fter that, they are supposed to go to the 'conditioning' plant to prepare fo r permanent disposal in the salt mine. 'The building is simply for protectio n from the weather,' says Mr Jurgen Auer of Brennelementlager Gorleben (BLG) , which runs the site. 'The containers are what are supposed to be secure.' The pilot conditioning plant has been built, as Germany's safety laws requir e, strong enough to withstand an earthquake, or the impact of a jet aircraft flown into it at full speed. At its heart is a T-shaped core which will be totally sealed from human entrance, or the escape of radiation inside it. In side the cell, which has stainless steel plates bolted to its walls to be wa shed down for radiation, the Castor containers are to be opened, and the fue l elements compressed by remote control, before being repacked in 65-tonne P ollux containers for permanent disposal. Humans will supervise, watching thr ough massive lead-glass panes. The final stage in the process, if it ever co mes to pass, will be the disposal of the radioactive material underground in the salt mine. The huge deposit goes down to at least 4,000 metres, and the plan is to excavate a complex of tunnels some 14km long, 4km wide, and up t o 3.3km deep. One of the great advantages of salt is that it 'creeps': after being hollowed out, it will gradually close in again on whatever has been s tored. It also conducts heat, allowing the very hot waste to cool, and it do es not conduct water. However, it is not pure, and some forms of salt contai n water in crystalline form: if it gets warm, it could dissolve and flow tow ards the source of the heat. Hence the need for exhaustive checks on the pre cise 'geo-mechanical' properties of the Gorleben salt deposit, conducted wit h legendary German efficiency: so far, 120km of borings have been carried ou t and tested over the past 14 years. Dr Meyer, spokesman for the DBE, is phi losophical about the whole exercise. 'I sometimes wonder how they would ever have built the Pyramids, or the Great Wall of China, if they hadn't had sla ves,' he says. He expects a final decision on whether the project will go ah ead or not after the turn of the century. Then it will take another six year s to prepare - providing storage space for another 70 years. The mining proj ect is being pursued with fanatical attention from the local media. 'If a sp arrow dies here on the mine, the local newspaper will call up to find out wh y,' Dr Meyer says. 'Every single detail of our job is in the public eye.' Bu t the most challenging task of all, he believes, has nothing directly to do with the mining. 'How do you identify a nuclear waste disposal site for 500 years,' he asks, 'let alone for 10,000?' The use of Gorleben as Germany's ma in site for nuclear waste disposal has been a burning political issue in loc al politics, ever since it was first mooted by the Christian Democrat govern ment in Lower Saxony in 1977. Traditionally, the federal government in Bonn, whether SPD or CDU, has tried to push the plan along, and the state governm ent in Hanover has resisted - regardless of political party. Today Mr Gerhar d Schroder, the SPD premier in Hanover, insists that other sites must be inv estigated - preferably in granite deposits in southern Bavaria, the state mo st committed to nuclear power. At the end of the day, the issue does not sim ply divide the country between left and right, between environmentalists and the pro-industry lobby. It also divides the country between north and south . The northerners, including their electricity utilities, RWE and PreussenEl ektra, would not mind giving up nuclear power altogether. They could provide alternative energy from coastal power stations fired by gas or cheap import ed coal. RWE has enormous reserves of relatively cheap brown coal. The south erners, including the third main generator, Viag's Bayernwerk, are far more dependent on nuclear power. They have no coastline and no cheap imported alt ernatives. So they remain firmly committed to the nuclear route. No wonder f ew expect an early resolution of the conflict. The outside chance of a coali tion of left-wing and environmental parties winning the October national ele ction would certainly mean a firm decision to abandon nuclear energy. Ironic ally, because of the need to find some way of disposing of the waste, it wou ld probably mean a relatively swift decision to go ahead with Gorleben, at l east for interim storage. The more likely outcome, either of a continuation of the present conservative-liberal alliance under Chancellor Helmut Kohl, o r a grand coalition of CDU and SPD, could leave a continuing stalemate. Then both sides will be forced to try to negotiate an energy consensus, and reco ncile their differences. What the industry fears is that any such compromise will simply leave it in continuing uncertainty. Countries:- DEZ Germany, EC. Industries:- P9721 Internatio nal Affairs. P2819 Industrial Inorganic Chemicals, NEC. P4911 Electr ic Services. Types:- CMMT Comment & Analysis.

The Financial Times London Page 15 ============= Transaction # 107 ============================================== Transaction #: 107 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:01:05 Selec. Rec. #: 3 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT911-2041 _AN-BEBBRAA5FT 9105 02 FT 02 MAY 91 / Technology: Offshore haven for nuclear waste By DAVID GREEN As plans for an underground radioactive waste repository are drawn up in Britain, enginee rs in Sweden are preparing to build on the early success of a similar projec t. Caverns have been created under the Baltic Sea at a capital cost of Pound s 70m to provide a final resting place for much of the radioactive waste fro m the country's 12 nuclear power reactors. The material going into the caver ns off Forsmark, on Sweden's east coast, about 80 miles north of Stockholm, consists of waste which will be dangerously radioactive for the relatively s hort term, several hundreds of years. Most of it is low-level waste, such as contaminated overalls and gloves but some is intermediate-level waste, incl uding sludges and resins. SKB, the Swedish radioactive waste disposal compan y, is planning to build a much deeper repository for long-lived intermediate -level and high-level wastes which may remain dangerously radioactive for mi llions of years. A short list of sites is expected to be announced next year and the facility could be ready for use by the year 2020. IS Nirex, SKB's e quivalent in Britain, is currently boring into the rock structures at Sellaf ield, in Cumbria, and Dounreay, in Scotland, to check the geology before the announcement of a preferred site for its own deep repository. However, it w ill cater only for low and intermediate-level wastes. Under present proposal s, all high-level waste will continue to be stored on the surface at Sellafi eld, where spent nuclear fuel is re-processed by British Nuclear Fuels. Near by, in the village of Drigg, is British Nuclear Fuels' low-level waste repos itory, expected to be full by the middle of next century. Sellafield is like ly to be the preferred choice for Britain's deep repository, although no for mal announcement is due before October. The Nirex idea is to sink a vertical shaft about 700 metres deep and create a series of caverns running from its base and capable of holding 1.4m cubic metres of waste. It will cost an est imated Pounds 800m to build and a further Pounds 1.6bn to operate over 50 ye ars. In 1994 the UK Government is due to carry out a review of nuclear power economics following its decision two years ago not to finance further stati ons after Sizewell B, in Suffolk. Whether or not nuclear power is allowed to expand, a large amount of radioactive waste has already been created. Much more will arise before the existing stations reach the end of their lifetime s and are dismantled. A public inquiry into the Nirex plan for a deep reposi tory is expected to start in 1993 and last for a year. In the meantime, the company will continue its efforts to try to convince the public that undergr ound waste disposal is practical and safe. Councillors from both Dounreay an d Cumbria have been taken to Sweden to inspect the Forsmark repository, whic h is close to three nuclear power reactors. The repository is approached by two tunnels, each one kilometre long, which slope down through bedrock about 50 metres beneath the sea. The waste from the rest of Sweden's nuclear plan ts, all located on the coast, is brought to Forsmark by ship. All waste arri ving at the facility is already packaged in concrete or steel. It is placed in concrete vaults which are surrounded by bentonite clay. In its first thre e years of operation, the repository has accumulated about 6,000 cubic metre s of waste, one-tenth of its present capacity. When it was opened it was tho ught that additional cavern space would have to be created in order to cater for future operating waste. However, engineers now believe the existing spa ce will suffice, largely because of new compaction techniques being used at the power stations before despatch of the waste to Forsmark. New caverns and an additional silo will be necessary to cope with the low and intermediate- level waste from the dismantling of the reactors at the end of their operati ng lifetimes. SKB, which is owned by the four Swedish nuclear power utilitie s, estimates it will cost Pounds 5bn to de-commission the country's nuclear power stations and dispose of the radioactive waste involved. Operational an d de-commissioning waste is expected to total about 230,000 cubic metres. Th e Swedish parliament decided after a national referendum in 1980 to phase-ou t nuclear power by the year 2010. Three years ago it said plants would begin shutting down in 1995. However, the start of the phase-out has now been pos tponed because of the difficulty in finding acceptable replacement sources o f electricity. Coal and oil have been ruled out because of the problems of g lobal warming and acid rain, while further hydro schemes have also run into environmental opposition. The Financial Times Lon don Page 15 ============= Transaction # 108 ============================================== Transaction #: 108 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:01:05 Selec. Rec. #: 6 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT944-8187 _AN-EKUDAAFIFT 9411 21 FT 21 NOV 94 / Survey of the World Nuclear Industry ( 9): Shortage of options / A look at waste disposal B y BRONWEN MADDOX Where to store nuclear waste: that is perh aps the most difficult question the nuclear industry must answer in making a case for itself. Environmentalists focus on it, seeing it as the weak link in any argument for nuclear power; they argue that it is immoral to leave a form of pollution which will persist for tens of thousands of years for futu re generations to solve. The nuclear industry has traditionally countered th is stance by pointing out that nuclear waste can be neatly contained in barr els, unlike atmospheric pollution from burning fossil fuels, a rival source of energy. But where should the barrels be stored? That question has not yet been answered conclusively. There is some urgency in finding solutions. Eve n though civil nuclear programmes are on hold in many western countries whic h were previously enthusiastic - notably in Germany, the US and Britain - th e operation of existing reactors continues to generate waste which needs dis posal. Moreover, the eventual dismantling of the reactors will produce large volumes of waste, from lightly-contaminated concrete hulks to intensely-rad ioactive reactor rods. Some countries, such as Britain, also have nuclear su bmarines which need to be scrapped. But pressure from public and environment alists is narrowing the range of disposal routes. Under amendments in the pa st two years to international conventions on marine pollution, the option of disposing of even low-level radioactive waste at sea has been suspended for at least a decade. That leaves a variety of land-based techniques, but desp ite their investigation by many different countries, there is no agreement a bout the best option. A decade ago, it seemed that reprocessing used or 'spe nt' nuclear fuel would be the ideal. Reprocessing extracts reusable uranium and plutonium from fuel rods, leaving a much smaller volume of waste. The UK and France, with large civil programmes, began years ago to invest heavily in reprocessing capacity. However, since then the price of uranium has falle n sharply. Concern has also grown internationally that the greater the amoun t of plutonium created, the more likely that some is diverted to bomb-making . Other storage options are cheaper, many have argued, but bring their own p olitical and technical problems. The UK and Germany have investigated perman ent deep storage - depositing the waste hundreds of metres underground -at Sellafield in Cumbria and at the Gorleben salt mines. This option is likely to be cheaper than storage on the surface because it needs little surveillan ce and is secure from terrorist attack. It also has political attractions - it appears to offer a permanent solution rather than leaving it for future g enerations. But in Germany, controversy over the choice of location has wide ned into an impassioned row about the future of the nuclear power industry, which has stalled development of the site. There are also considerable geolo gical problems: it is hard to find a site without fissures or water seepage which will contain the waste safely for the next 10,000 years. Such consider ations have already prolonged the investigations of UK Nirex, the company ch arged by the UK government with finding a deep disposal site for low-level a nd intermediate-level radioactive waste. Such concerns lead many environment alists, such as the pressure group Greenpeace, to back the option of storing waste on the surface. This route is more expensive, but does allow the wast e to be closely monitored, and keeps permanent disposal options open. Others , such as Scottish Nuclear, one of the two UK nuclear generators, favour a h ybrid of the two techniques for accommodating highly radioactive waste. Scot tish Nuclear has vigorously backed 'dry storage' for spent fuel: keeping use d fuel rods on the surface surrounded by inert gas for 50 years until the ra dioactive content and heat fall to a point where the rods can be stored unde rground. Those debates, in which political, economic and scientific consider ations are enmeshed together, are far from resolved. Indeed, in several west ern countries a stalemate has been reached. The only route forwards which ap pears to be acceptable to western publics is to put nuclear waste on sites a lready occupied by nuclear installations - Sellafield is a case in point. If countries cannot resolve the debate about location domestically, they may i nvestigate whether other countries will accept their waste, or at least stor e it temporarily while processing it into a different form. British Nuclear Fuels, owner of the UK's Thorp reprocessing plant in Sellafield, has made no secret of its opinion that the UK should capitalise on its expertise in han dling nuclear waste. The new factor which could ease such stalemates in the west, however, is the Asian embrace of civil nuclear power. Asia is beginnin g to produce large volumes of waste and the next two decades will see the di fferent techniques for treatment and disposal vigorously explored and refine d. That may allow western governments and nuclear industries, from a vantage point uncomplicated by domestic politics, to make a more thorough assessmen t of the answer to nuclear power's trickiest problem. Countries :- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. USZ United States of America. DEZ Germany, EC. Industries:- P2819 Industrial Inorga nic Chemicals, NEC. P4911 Electric Services. Types:- CMMT Comment & Analysis. RES Facilities. The Financial Ti mes London Page IV ============= Transaction # 109 ============================================== Transaction #: 109 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:01:05 Selec. Rec. #: 7 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT943-9990 _AN-EHHDNACUFT 9408 08 FT 08 AUG 94 / Leading Article: The nuclear waste pro blem The government's consultation paper on the disposal of radioactive waste, published last Friday, is central to the UK's review o f nuclear policy for two reasons. It addresses the issue of safety, which is uppermost in the public's mind; and it has a direct bearing on cost, which must ultimately determine whether nuclear power is commercially viable. The most pressing issue is the disposal of intermediate and low-level radioactiv e waste, such as bulky parts from first generation reactors and nuclear subm arines which are now coming to the end of their lives. By contrast, high-lev el waste, such as spent fuel rods, needs 50 years to cool before it can be s tored, making it a problem for the next century. Until last year, it appeare d that the UK planned to dump at least some waste at sea. But it has now sig ned an international treaty which includes a 10-year ban on sea dumping of r adioactive waste. This leaves it with the choice of burying the waste deep u nderground, or storing it in some form on the surface. The UK's provisional plans are to bury intermediate and low-level waste permanently in sealed cha mbers carved out of the rocks half a mile underground. UK Nirex, the industr y's waste disposal company, has been given the task of finding a site, and i s now running geological studies underneath Sellafield, British Nuclear Fuel s' plants in Cumbria. Deep disposal has the backing of the nuclear industry, the Department of Trade and Industry, and a large section of the public. It is cheaper than surface storage because it needs minimal surveillance, and is relatively secure from risks such as terrorist attack. There is also a mo ral argument for opting now for deep disposal, in that many feel it would be wrong to leave the problem of waste disposal for future generations to answ er. Practical questions As things stand, however, deep burial raises a numbe r of practical and other questions. The risk is mainly geological: radioacti vity could leak into the water table. If that happened, it would be extremel y difficult to rectify. These concerns apply particularly to the Sellafield site where Nirex has discovered rock fissures and complex water flows which might cause radioactivity to migrate. Surface storage, by contrast, is more expensive and possibly riskier, but it does keep the waste where it can be c losely monitored. So long as uncertainty exists about the science of nuclear waste disposal, it also keeps options open. Many environmentalists argue th at the permanent solution of deep burial would deprive future generations of using whatever superior disposal methods science eventually comes up with. Deep burial The trouble is that this is an argument without end: the same di lemma would presumably prevent each succeeding generation from settling the waste problem. Decisions about the desirability of nuclear power, in which a ssumptions about the costs of waste disposal are an important part, cannot b e thus indefinitely postponed. The government has made clear its preference for deep burial on economic, safety and moral grounds. There will always be the suspicion, however, that its position is shaped by short-term objectives , particularly the desire to reduce the nuclear industry's costs and improve its chances of privatisation. That would be patently wrong: if there was ev er an issue where safety should be paramount, it is this. Scientific evaluat ion rather than political pressure must determine the choice of disposal met hod. If minimising the impact on the environment and the risk to human healt h is the criterion, the best technique might well be sea disposal: environme ntal pessimists often understate the enormous capacity of the deep oceans to dilute pollution. But with that option now closed, the onus is on the gover nment to build the safest and most palatable alternative method of disposal into its nuclear review calculations. There is no harm in persisting with in vestigations into deep disposal, provided it is recognised that it might tak e years to find a safe site, if one can be found at all. But for now, there may be no alternative to keeping nuclear waste above ground until more of th e uncertainty is removed. Countries:- GBZ United Kin gdom, EC. Industries:- P9511 Air, Water, and Solid Wast e Management. Types:- CMMT Comment & Analysis. TEC H Safety & Standards. The Financial Times London P age 13 ============= Transaction # 110 ============================================== Transaction #: 110 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:02:39 Selec. Rec. #: 23 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT943-10219 _AN-EHGAUABOFT 940 806 FT 06 AUG 94 / Cost vies with safety in waste dispos al By DAVID LASCELLES The main issu e behind the government's consultation document about nuclear waste disposal is the need for balance between safety and cost. The document makes clear t hat the government prefers using the technique known as vitrification to tra nsform the most dangerous forms of waste into a type of glass which can be s tored virtually indefinitely. Less dangerous waste would be stored in specia l canisters. The question is, where? Since consignment to the seabed or oute r space have been ruled out for legal and practical reasons, the choice is b etween deep burial and special long-term stores on the surface. No large vol umes are involved. The amount of high-level waste awaiting disposal is the e quivalent of a four-bedroom semi-detached house, and the less radioactive in termediate level waste about 10 houses. Surface storage has the advantage of keeping the waste where it can be seen. But it is more vulnerable to terror ists and accidents - and even the onset of a new ice age. It is also more ex pensive because it needs guarding for centuries, and the government feels th at future generations should not have to look after our mess. Deep storage h as the advantage of providing the closest thing to a permanent solution - he nce the government's preference for it. More attractive still, it is cheaper . There was a time when much of the environmental movement also favoured dee p storage, but yesterday the reaction from that quarter was largely hostile. The idea of a nuclear 'dump' is repellent if not terrifying to many people. But among the less emotional criticism of deep storage was the Friends of t he Earth appeal for a more flexible approach. FoE said that the permanence o f deep storage deprived future generations of the option of using a better s olution if one was found. It advocates surface storage with adequate financi ng to fund research into better methods. The nuclear industry welcomed the d ocument. It has always favoured deep storage because of its permanence and r elative cheapness. But the nuclear companies were also pleased to see that t he government is keeping its options open on other key issues. Chief among t hese is the period required to allow nuclear stations to 'cool down' when th eir operating lives are over. Under current policy companies are required to remove the most dangerous materials as soon as possible and leave the stati ons for 100 years before final dismantling. Yesterday's document, however, a cknowledges the nuclear industry's case that it may be better to leave the p ower stations to cool down for longer because they are then less dangerous a nd cheaper to take to bits. Although the document does not propose this as p olicy, it leaves the option open. In another significant statement the docum ent says that nuclear companies may hold spent fuel in a dry store for its 5 0-year cooling-off period if they wish, rather than send it to Sellafield fo r vitrification. This will delight Nuclear Electric and Scottish Nuclear, wh ich have complained about the cost of reprocessing, with the Scottish compan y saying that it could save Pounds 45m a year by using dry store. But the im plication that it may make more commercial sense for nuclear companies to us e dry store rather than reprocessing raises questions about the government's approval last year of the controversial Pounds 2bn Thorp reprocessing plant . ----------------------------------------------------------------- PLANNING FOR THE HALF LIFE ------------------------------------ ----------------------------- CATEGORIES OF NUCLEAR WASTER ---------------- ------------------------------------------------- High level: ------------- ---------------------------------------------------- Mainly spent fuel rods from reactors. Highly radioactive and needs long-term treatment. Can eithe r be vitrified (see below) or held in dry store for 50 years before final di sposal. ----------------------------------------------------------------- I ntermediate level: -------------------------------------------------------- --------- Fuel rod cladding, contaminated water-filters and sludge. This wa ster is encapsulated in concrete or placed in on-site vaults and stored for a period before final disposal. ------------------------------------------- ---------------------- Low level: ----------------------------------------- ------------------------ Clothing and other lightly contaminated equipment. After treatment or a short period of storage much of this can be disposed o f normally, or buried in a low level disposal site. ----------------------- ------------------------------------------ THE OPTIONS FOR DISPOSAL ------- ---------------------------------------------------------- Vitrification: Grinding high level wasters into powder and mixing it with glass- making materi als to form a liquid which hardens inside stai nless steel containers. Then left in a surface store to cool for 50 years before final disposal. --------------------------------------- -------------------------- Dry store: A cheaper alternati ve to vitrification. Spent fuel rods are placed intact in a special surface store and allowed to cook naturally for 50 years. After that they may be vi trified or place in a deep repository. ------ ----------------------------------------------------------- Deep repository: Burial in specially constructed vaults half a mile underground. Nirex, the age ncy owned by the UK nuclear industry, is seeki ng permission to build an experimental site near the Sellafield reprocessing plant in Cumbria. ------------------------------------------ ----------------------- Burial at sea: Ruled out earlier this year when the UK signed an international agre ement banning disposal of radioactive waste at sea. --------------------------------------- -------------------------- Ejection into outer space: An option much favo ured by science fiction writers, but ruled out on practical grounds ----------------------- ------------------------------------------ Companies:- Nuclear Electric. Scottish Nuclear. Countries:- G BZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P4953 Refuse Syste ms. P9199 General Government, NEC. P2819 Industrial Inorganic Chemic als, NEC. Types:- GOVT Government News. TECH Safe ty & Standards. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Financial Times London Page 6 ============= Transaction # 111 ============================================== Transaction #: 111 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:03:38 Selec. Rec. #: 23 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT943-10219 _AN-EHGAUABOFT 940 806 FT 06 AUG 94 / Cost vies with safety in waste dispos al By DAVID LASCELLES The main issu e behind the government's consultation document about nuclear waste disposal is the need for balance between safety and cost. The document makes clear t hat the government prefers using the technique known as vitrification to tra nsform the most dangerous forms of waste into a type of glass which can be s tored virtually indefinitely. Less dangerous waste would be stored in specia l canisters. The question is, where? Since consignment to the seabed or oute r space have been ruled out for legal and practical reasons, the choice is b etween deep burial and special long-term stores on the surface. No large vol umes are involved. The amount of high-level waste awaiting disposal is the e quivalent of a four-bedroom semi-detached house, and the less radioactive in termediate level waste about 10 houses. Surface storage has the advantage of keeping the waste where it can be seen. But it is more vulnerable to terror ists and accidents - and even the onset of a new ice age. It is also more ex pensive because it needs guarding for centuries, and the government feels th at future generations should not have to look after our mess. Deep storage h as the advantage of providing the closest thing to a permanent solution - he nce the government's preference for it. More attractive still, it is cheaper . There was a time when much of the environmental movement also favoured dee p storage, but yesterday the reaction from that quarter was largely hostile. The idea of a nuclear 'dump' is repellent if not terrifying to many people. But among the less emotional criticism of deep storage was the Friends of t he Earth appeal for a more flexible approach. FoE said that the permanence o f deep storage deprived future generations of the option of using a better s olution if one was found. It advocates surface storage with adequate financi ng to fund research into better methods. The nuclear industry welcomed the d ocument. It has always favoured deep storage because of its permanence and r elative cheapness. But the nuclear companies were also pleased to see that t he government is keeping its options open on other key issues. Chief among t hese is the period required to allow nuclear stations to 'cool down' when th eir operating lives are over. Under current policy companies are required to remove the most dangerous materials as soon as possible and leave the stati ons for 100 years before final dismantling. Yesterday's document, however, a cknowledges the nuclear industry's case that it may be better to leave the p ower stations to cool down for longer because they are then less dangerous a nd cheaper to take to bits. Although the document does not propose this as p olicy, it leaves the option open. In another significant statement the docum ent says that nuclear companies may hold spent fuel in a dry store for its 5 0-year cooling-off period if they wish, rather than send it to Sellafield fo r vitrification. This will delight Nuclear Electric and Scottish Nuclear, wh ich have complained about the cost of reprocessing, with the Scottish compan y saying that it could save Pounds 45m a year by using dry store. But the im plication that it may make more commercial sense for nuclear companies to us e dry store rather than reprocessing raises questions about the government's approval last year of the controversial Pounds 2bn Thorp reprocessing plant . ----------------------------------------------------------------- PLANNING FOR THE HALF LIFE ------------------------------------ ----------------------------- CATEGORIES OF NUCLEAR WASTER ---------------- ------------------------------------------------- High level: ------------- ---------------------------------------------------- Mainly spent fuel rods from reactors. Highly radioactive and needs long-term treatment. Can eithe r be vitrified (see below) or held in dry store for 50 years before final di sposal. ----------------------------------------------------------------- I ntermediate level: -------------------------------------------------------- --------- Fuel rod cladding, contaminated water-filters and sludge. This wa ster is encapsulated in concrete or placed in on-site vaults and stored for a period before final disposal. ------------------------------------------- ---------------------- Low level: ----------------------------------------- ------------------------ Clothing and other lightly contaminated equipment. After treatment or a short period of storage much of this can be disposed o f normally, or buried in a low level disposal site. ----------------------- ------------------------------------------ THE OPTIONS FOR DISPOSAL ------- ---------------------------------------------------------- Vitrification: Grinding high level wasters into powder and mixing it with glass- making materi als to form a liquid which hardens inside stai nless steel containers. Then left in a surface store to cool for 50 years before final disposal. --------------------------------------- -------------------------- Dry store: A cheaper alternati ve to vitrification. Spent fuel rods are placed intact in a special surface store and allowed to cook naturally for 50 years. After that they may be vi trified or place in a deep repository. ------ ----------------------------------------------------------- Deep repository: Burial in specially constructed vaults half a mile underground. Nirex, the age ncy owned by the UK nuclear industry, is seeki ng permission to build an experimental site near the Sellafield reprocessing plant in Cumbria. ------------------------------------------ ----------------------- Burial at sea: Ruled out earlier this year when the UK signed an international agre ement banning disposal of radioactive waste at sea. --------------------------------------- -------------------------- Ejection into outer space: An option much favo ured by science fiction writers, but ruled out on practical grounds ----------------------- ------------------------------------------ Companies:- Nuclear Electric. Scottish Nuclear. Countries:- G BZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P4953 Refuse Syste ms. P9199 General Government, NEC. P2819 Industrial Inorganic Chemic als, NEC. Types:- GOVT Government News. TECH Safe ty & Standards. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Financial Times London Page 6 ============= Transaction # 112 ============================================== Transaction #: 112 Transaction Code: 23 (Saved Recs. Viewed) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:04:26 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 113 ============================================== Transaction #: 113 Transaction Code: 26 (Saved Recs. Cleared) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:04:29 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 114 ============================================== Transaction #: 114 Transaction Code: 15 (Terms Cleared) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:04:31 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 115 ============================================== Transaction #: 115 Transaction Code: 6 (Direct Rank Search) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 10:05:14 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 16:00:00 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 3 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: zfind "(topic @ {antarctic exploration invesstigation})" ============= Transaction # 116 ============================================== Transaction #: 116 Transaction Code: 14 (Search Results Displayed) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:05:23 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 4335 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 12 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 117 ============================================== Transaction #: 117 Transaction Code: 6 (Direct Rank Search) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 10:05:28 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 16:00:00 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 3 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: zfind "(topic @ {antarctic exploration investigation})" ============= Transaction # 118 ============================================== Transaction #: 118 Transaction Code: 14 (Search Results Displayed) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:05:32 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 12340 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 12 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 119 ============================================== Transaction #: 119 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:06:02 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT931-9727 _AN-DBLB0ACUFT 9302 12 FT 12 FEB 93 / World News In Brief: Polar explorers a irlifted out Exhausted explorers Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr Michael Stroud ended their attempt to make the first unsupported crossing of the Antarctic from ice shelf to ice shelf when they were airlifted out. Both were suffering from frostbite and exhaustion. Countries:- AQZ Antarctica. Industries:- P7999 Amusement and Recreation, NEC. Types:- PEOP Personnel News. The Financial Times London Page 1 ============= Transaction # 120 ============================================== Transaction #: 120 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:07:23 Selec. Rec. #: 6 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT941-16602 _AN-EAIATAE1FT 940 108 FT 08 JAN 94 / Sport: Antarctic voyage success By RODERIC DUNNETT The crew of the Sir E rnest Shackleton, on a voyage to retrace the rescue mission of the British e xplorer after his ship, Endurance, was crushed by the polar pack ice (FT, De cember 18), landed safely on South Georgia writes Roderic Dunnett. Trevor Po tts and three colleagues left Elephant Island in Antarctica on December 24. The 23ft boat was becalmed at first but made several days' good sailing, hel ped by currents, before hitting 36 hours of gales. By noon on January 3, the party was 100 miles east of South Georgia. Having made landfall, they ran i nto force 8 gales - recalling the harsh lee shore conditions encountered by Shackleton in 1916 - but found shelter in Elsehul, a rocky harbour at the no rth west tip of South Georgia and landed on January 5. The crew plans to cro ss the neck of land known as the Shackleton Gap on foot, tracing, in reverse , part of the route the explorer took on his mountain trek to Stromness, the Norwegian whaling station, where he found help for his marooned companions. Potts' arrival coincided with the start of the International Boat Show, at Earls Court, where Shackleton's boat, the James Caird, is displayed. Countries:- GEZ Georgia, East Europe. Industries :- P99 Nonclassifiable Establishments. Types:- NEWS General News. The Financial Times London Page XV ============= Transaction # 121 ============================================== Transaction #: 121 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:08:19 Selec. Rec. #: 7 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT944-3902 _AN-ELLBEAEGFT 9412 10 FT 10 DEC 94 / Minding Your Own Business: Pole positi on for growth - Why Antarctic explorers make tracks for Tetbury By CLIVE FEWINS When things are at a low ebb in the workshop, the thoughts of Richard Olivier and Roger Daynes turn to the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge, where one of their Nansen sleds lives, much admired, in retirement. It is the veteran of a 3,700-mile inter national trans-Antarctic dog sled expedition in 1989-90 - the longest dog sl ed journey ever made. Snowsled, the company Olivier and Daynes own jointly, supplied the sled, one of three used by the six-man team. The other two were American Greenland-type sleds. When, in mid-transit, the American sleds bro ke up on the crevasse-riven terrain, Snowsled was asked to replace it with a nother of its Nansen models. 'Our sleds gave no problem and we were naturall y very pleased,' said Daynes, a former British Antarctic Survey base command er. Daynes, 52, and Olivier, 44, have been making sleds and other expedition equipment since 1987. The irony is that if they had continued only making s leds they would probably not be in business now. Olivier, a joiner and outdo or pursuits enthusiast, and Daynes met in 1986. Initially, Daynes continued running his carpentry business in North Wales, commuting for part of the wee k to help Olivier in his Gloucestershire workshop. An order worth Pounds 9,0 00 from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in 1987 for two complete Nansen s leds, 130 bridges and many components, convinced the two that their future l ay in making sleds together. Later the same year, Daynes moved house and joi ned Olivier in his workshop - a converted 18th-century barn on Prince Charle s's estate at Highgrove House near Tetbury. 'BAS was bowled over by the work manship in our Nansen sledges,' said Olivier. 'They particularly liked the s trength, the traditional lashings, and the way we had adapted a 3,000-year-o ld design that displays great flexibility and strength when pulled at up to 20mph by snowmobile.' 'Neither of us was really a businessman,' Olivier said . 'We could not see that, although we continued to get orders for very high specification sleds, we were not going to make money unless we diversified.' By 1989, turnover had reached Pounds 50,000, but after the two had drawn Po unds 10,000 each in wages they found there was no profit at the end of the y ear. 'We had an annual order from BAS and also from its American equivalent - about Pounds 30,000 in total,' Daynes said. 'We also had a useful order fr om the sponsors of the 1989 International Trans-Antarctic Expedition for 40 mini-Nansen sledges at Pounds 400 a time, for sale in stores in the US. But still we were struggling to keep going. 'We started to complement the sleds by making glass fibre pulks (lightweight, kit-carrying sleds), but in 1989-9 0 the business was still making no profit and we both drew no wages.' In 199 1, the pair formed a limited company. They borrowed Pounds 20,000 from Lloyd s Bank under a small business loan guarantee scheme and a further Pounds 20, 000 from friends, all of whom have a share option in the company. They also run a Pounds 15,000 Lloyds overdraft. The money helped them to build up stoc k and to begin trading seriously in the Ventile high-performance clothing th ey had been experimenting with for the past two years. Ventile is a highly r esilient cotton fabric. During the second world war, it was found to increas e greatly the life expectancy of pilots who had been shot down over the sea. Early in 1993, Snowsled took on two women full-time to make Ventile clothes . Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Mike Stroud wore Snowsled Ventile clothing crossin g the Antarctic on foot that year. The clothing has the potential for volume production and it was while investigating this that the two felt out of the ir depth. Early in 1994 they commissioned a marketing survey for Pounds 1,00 0. 'Although much of it told us things we already knew, it made it clear whe re our efforts were best placed,' said Olivier. Unfortunately, the report ur ged them to give up manufacturing the dog touring and racing sleds they had enjoyed making since 1988. 'We think they are lovely creations. But we sell them in very small numbers, so now our policy is to make them only to order, ' Olivier said. The other main recommendation of the survey was to place far greater emphasis on marketing - in which they knew they had few skills. 'Ea rly this year we employed a man with a great deal of marketing experience to work for us for three days a month at a fee of Pounds 1,000,' Olivier said. 'After two months he came up with nothing, so we lent on him. He was hurt t o the quick and left. We felt very relieved.' Despite a year in which cutbac ks in their national Antarctic surveys have meant smaller sled orders from t he British and American governments, Snowsled has sold equipment to Japan an d Brazil. However it has been a good year for the Ventile clothing, which is likely to account for between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of this year's ex pected turnover of Pounds 150,000. The two are also optimistic about the fut ure of two survival and protection systems - a vacuum mattress stretcher for spinal injuries and a lightweight rescue stretcher - in which they have inv ested much time. The vacuum mattress is used by 15 of the 40 UK mountain res cue teams. 'We see huge potential, but we are spread so thinly between manuf acturing, sales and a great deal of R and D that we have no time for marketi ng these two products,' Olivier said. 'We are open to offers from anybody wh o could take on the marketing of all our products, and at the same time buy into the business. But it would have to be the right person.' Snowsled Ltd, Street Farm Workshops, Doughton, Tetbury, Glos, GL8 8TP. Tel: 0666-504002. < /TEXT> Companies:- Snowsled. Countries:- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P3949 Sporting a nd Athletic Goods, NEC. Types:- CMMT Comment & Analysi s. The Financial Times London Page II ============= Transaction # 122 ============================================== Transaction #: 122 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:08:54 Selec. Rec. #: 8 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT944-18764 _AN-EJBBDAE6FT 941 001 FT 01 OCT 94 / Travel: Warmed by the glories of the frozen continent - Antarctica fires Nicholas Woodsworth's imagination By NICHOLAS WOODSWORTH 0748 hrs: arrive C uverville Is. Position: Latitude 64 degs 41 mins South / Longitude 62 degs. 37 mins West. Weather: Cloudy, 985 millibars. Temp: 2.50 air, - 0.50 sea. Wi nd: SW 4-5, sea calm. Vessel drifting off NE of Cuverville Is. Gentoo pengui ns, fur seals and 3 humpback whales. There is no getting around it - Peter S kog, chief officer and keeper of the Explorer's log, will never be a Conrad. Is it his Swedish phlegm and unflappability? Is this the new marine minimal ism of the 1990s? Or is there simply not enough space to wax lyrical in each entry? One way or another, Chief Officer Skog's prose style fails to do ful l justice to the Antarctic. Here we are, 75 fully-grown adults, all dressed identically in wellies and bright red parkas, full of hot breakfast and read y to go - as excited as six-year-olds on a school outing. And how does the c hief officer record the moment? He makes a landing on a penguin-teeming, wha le-surrounded, ice-berg-jammed antarctic island sound as thrilling as steppi ng off the No 38 bus on to the Edgware Road. Each time I wander up to the br idge to peek at the log a new literary disappointment awaits me. One dreads to think what calamity it would take to move him to passionate language - a giant tidal wave or a biblical parting of the waters might just do the trick . Rough sea and heavy swell, vessel pitching and rolling he wrote in the log two days ago as we crossed the notorious Drake Passage from Cape Horn to th e Antarctic Peninsula. Good Heavens, in my cabin pitching and rolling was th e least of it - all night long shoes, books, cameras, sets of drawers and an ything else left unsecured whizzed back and forth between cabin door and por thole like things possessed. Not even the toilet paper was left in peace -s omehow an entire roll managed to unwind itself on to the floor in my cabin b athroom. Next morning, still in the heaving Passage, the dining room looked like the charge of the Light Brigade. Others may praise Drake, Magellan and Darwin, all, admittedly, fine sailors of these fearful southern seas. But I praise Alex, our Filipino waiter, who with a loaded tray can make his way fr om a crashing galley across a bucketing floor to a pitching table, all witho ut spilling a drop. But will Skog record that in the log? No. Neither will h e note that Alex is one of the few people on earth to have had his appendix removed in an emergency operation at an antarctic research station. Nor that he never forgets the Tabasco sauce. Are these not all exceptional feats des erving of record? In my honour roll of antarctic heroes, Alex stands somewhe re near the top. Sea temperature -0.50 Skog has written in his passionless, dry-as-dust Nordic hand. Where does he mention that just yesterday some of t he more adventurous souls aboard the Explorer, my own brave self included, w ent swimming in these frigid antarctic waters? Granted, it was Skog, and not I, who knew the secret of volcanic Pendulum Cove and its sand beach, geo-th ermally heated from below. But where does he describe the great steaming and billowing, sloshing and wallowing that followed our landing? Skog might not be impressed, but I was. Pendulum Cove gave me a better bath than I can get from my miserable little hot water geyser in London. Gentoo penguins, fur s eals and 3 humpback whales, writes Skog, as if compiling a shopping list for Sainsbury's supermarket. But I can tell you that meeting these creatures fa ce to face has nothing to do with buying pesto sauce or coffee beans. In the first place, pesto and coffee smell good; colonies of antarctic birds and m ammals do not. Conrad himself would have trouble with the smell of a penguin colony - it is indescribable, but can knock you over at 50 yards. Guano asi de, though, penguins have great attraction - they are cute and cuddly, curio us and comic, and in their nesting thousands, wholly fascinating. In their b lack and white outfits they look much like French waiters, but are far more approachable. Seals are even more impressive - their smell can knock you ove r at 200 yards. And in some ways they are even more like humans than penguin s - a contented, smelly and sociable herd of one-tonne elephant seal bachelo rs lying together in a steaming sea-side wallow puts me in mind of a post-ma tch rugby-team locker room. And what about those cocky, argumentative, testo sterone-driven male fur seals who spend much of their time vying for the fav our of the females? Wind, waves, ice and water aside, I might be in my favou rite local on a busy Saturday night. But like most passengers on the Explore r, I reserve my greatest interest for the whales. Skog can write 3 humpback whales and let it go at that if he likes. When you are in a Zodiac inflatabl e dingy and close enough to be drenched in the fine spray from a whale's blo w-hole it is rather a different matter. There is nothing quite like the comp any of these vast animals as they lazily dive and spout and roll and wave th eir flippers and raise their flukes. Melville wrote hundreds of pages about the great drama between men and whales; you would think the miserable Skog m ight manage more than three words. But no. 1145 hrs: arrive Neumeyer Channel . Position: a spectacular channel, narrow and high sided, grander than any n orthern fjord. Weather: marvellous - crystal clear air, gloriously sunny, fr esh and bracing - the kind of weather that makes you feel happy to be alive. Sea: full of blue curacao-coloured icebergs. Vessel crunching through jig-s aw puzzle pack ice, surrounded by snow-covered mountains plunging steeply to the sea. Could Skog be be responsible for such a loose and fanciful entry? Of course not. Skog wrote nothing at this point. I have written it for him. The chief officer, apparently, does not believe breathtaking beauty worthy o f recording. But while he enjoys measuring millibars, the rest of us enjoyed gazing out from the upper deck at some of the most astounding scenery we ha ve ever seen - great ice cliffs, impossibly tall and pointed peaks, glaciers flowing at infinitesimal speed into the sea, weirdly sculpted icebergs, sea ls basking on sun-washed ice-floes. We were all impressed, and this is sayin g something, for the passengers aboards the Explorer - wealthy, well-travell ed, and for the most part American - have high expectations. For my own part , I had no idea that such a continent existed - in my mind Antarctica was a bleak, desolate and lifeless place of little interest. On the contrary, it i s now for me a place of the greatest interest. 1500 hrs: arrive Port Lockroy . Position: Lat: 64 degs 52 mins S / Long: 6252 W. Weather: partly cloudy, 9 82 millibars. Temp. 50 air, 00 sea. Sea calm. Vessel drifting off Port Lockr oy. Gentoo penguins, leopard seals. Back to dull Skog's ditch-water delivery again. Does he never tire? Has he never stood on the rocks, surrounded by h undreds of clamorsome, roosting shags, and looked down into the waters of Po rt Lockroy as I did? How striking it is to watch penguins, slapstick, waddli ng, inept birds on land, transform themselves into marvels of dynamic design in the water. With just one hop from a rock they become agile, graceful cre atures, as fast as torpedoes as they flash about in search of the fish and s hrimp-like krill that is their prey. One moment of marine game-watching in P ort Lockroy remains with me: that instant when, on a drifting ice-floe not f ive yards distant, a snoozing leopard seal awoke and yawned, showing me a gr eat mouthful of needle-sharp teeth, then slipped silently into the water. Th ere is nothing furry or cute about leopard seals - they can flay a penguin r ight out of its skin with a few tosses of their powerful heads. The moment t hat seal slid below the surface, the hunters became the hunted. But does Sko g appreciate the thrill of the wild, the vitality of life, the inevitability of sudden death? Gentoo penguins, leopard seals is all he can find to write . But then Swedes have always been a squeamish lot when it comes to high dra ma. In their country I have seen dairy cows with rubber bulbs fitted to thei r horns in order that they cause no undue harm or excitement. Poor Skog, per haps he should not be blamed. 2000 hrs: arrive Paradise Bay. Position: Lat: 65 degs 42 mins S / Long: 6252 W. Weather: overcast, 984 millibars. Temp: 0. 50 air, 00 water. Vessel drifting off Paradise Bay. BBQ, then Zodiac tours, landing on the Antarctic continent. All is forgiven] In that last sentence t aken from the log today I detect a tiny soupcon, the merest hint of understa nding, of what it is to be Man the Explorer. But it is enough. Until now, th e fourth of 10 days of cruising, we have only visited islands lying off the coast of Antarctica. This evening we land on the continent itself, and Skog has recognised the heroic symbolism of that act. A literary milestone. If th ere is any doubt as to the significance of the event, there is, as the chief officer notes, to be a magnificent outdoor meal served on the rear deck, wi th a penguin - even now being chiselled in ice by a skilled Filipino chef - as the centrepiece to our blithe, mulled-wine-swilling company. And if that is not enough, the captain is up on the bridge at this moment preparing a Ce rtificate of Antarctic Exploration for each of us. We have 'joined the ranks of Scott and Shackleton', it informs us, 'and ventured to set foot on Antar ctica, the biggest, coldest, driest, windiest, loneliest, most remote and le ast-known continent on earth'. Not only that, but we are now dedicated to 'h onour the brave pioneer Antarctic explorers who sailed these frozen seas bef ore us, and to protect the Antarctic Continent for those who will follow'. T hat is certainly quite a big mouthful for one small step, even if it is on t o Antarctica. No matter how much the chief officer has loosened up, I am sur e he would not approve of the tone of such a document - could that be why he has left the captain alone on the bridge and is down here with us munching BBQ? It is simply not his style. Nicholas Woodsworth sailed to Antarctica wi th Abercrombie and Kent, Sloane Square House, Holbein Place, London SW1, tel 071-730 9600. A+K's 10-12 day Antarctic cruises, combining visits to the Fa lklands and / or South Georgia, begin at Pounds 3,996, inclusive of return a ir fare from London. He flew to Santiago, originating point of the expeditio n, with British Airways. Countries:- AQZ Antarctica. Industries:- P799 Miscellaneous Amusement, Recreation Services. Types:- NEWS General News. The F inancial Times London Page XVII ============= Transaction # 123 ============================================== Transaction #: 123 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:10:02 Selec. Rec. #: 11 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT923-5999 _AN-CH1BVACNFT 9208 27 FT 27 AUG 92 / Arts: Today's Television < BYLINE> By ANTONY THORNCROFT The first hot ticket at thi s year's Edinburgh Festival was for the flamenco dancer Cristina Hoyos. Anyo ne who missed her there can catch up on Channel 4 tonight at 11.00 in El Amo r Brujo. She stars in this dramatisation of Manuel de Falla's Spanish folk t ale, directed by Carlos Saura, best known for his films Carmen and Blood Wed ding, which also featured flamenco dancers. Survival (ITV at 7.30) really ge ts away from it all, going not just to Antarctica but underneath that contin ent. Holes are sawed through the ice to allow scuba divers to explore with t heir cameras one of the few natural environments yet to be contaminated by m an. There is still plenty of carnage going on, with seals hunting cod and th e Antarctic robber fish eating virtually everything. Pictures of penguins pr ovide light relief. These days persuade David Jason to appear in a TV series and it seems destined to be a smash hit. But Jason worked his way through t he ranks. In tonight's Porridge (BBC 1 at 9.30) he has a bit part as an old con who is reluctant to leave prison. These repeats of the 1970s classic com edy series are holding up very well. The Financial Times London Page 13 ============= Transaction # 124 ============================================== Transaction #: 124 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:10:39 Selec. Rec. #: 12 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT922-12600 _AN-CDPBOAD4FT 920 416 FT 16 APR 92 / Survey of Swindon (11): Down to earth study - Natural Environmental Research Council LAST week 's announcement that the ozone layer above northern Europe shrank by 20 per cent in the first two months of the year was a tribute to the international co-operation of 300 scientists working in 17 different counties. The scienti sts, members of European Arctic Stratospheric Ozone Experiment (Easoe), esta blished that conditions over the north Atlantic, Europe and New England were so bad in early February, ozone was possibly being lost at the rate of 1 pe r cent a day. One calculation suggests that for every 1 per cent drop in the ozone screen, there could be a 2 per cent increase in non-melanoma skins ca ncers, adding an extra Pounds 7m in treatment costs to the NHS in Britain. T he experiment was also a tribute to the research policy of the Swindon-based Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), whose research institute, th e British Antarctic Survey, co-ordinated the investigation in conjunction wi th the US space agency NASA. The discovery by NERC's scientists of the ozone hole above the Antarctic in 1985 led to the Montreal Protocol of 1989 on ph asing out CFCs. NERC is one of five research councils funded by the Departme nt of Education and Science. With a budget this year of Pounds 170m and a st aff of 2,600 employed in 16 institutes and research units across the UK, it is charged with the basic task of discovering how the earth's environment, w hich is now known to be a network of interlocking natural systems, works. Ot her projects include the construction of a new Pounds 40 Oceanographic Centr e at Southampton, and a new Geosciences Centre at Keyworth, near Nottingham. Its marine scientists have just completed an ambitious survey of the North Sea, with a view to constructing a model of how its water quality changes wi th the seasons. This has important political and economic implications. The EC is planning to ban this dumping before the end of the decade. The governm ent believes it may be possible to dump sewage sludge in the right place and the right time without doing environmental damage. It is also investigating changing land use in Britain using satellite sensing, land classification a nd on-the-ground sampling. This has already established for example that som e 25,000 miles of hedgerow disappeared between 1978 and 1984. By comparing t hese figures with changes in flora and fauna population changes, it is hoped to obtain a total picture of the ecosystem. NERC's work on analysing the bi ological rather than the chemical constituents of water has already yielded a very valuable method of monitoring water quality. A diagnostic computer pr ogramme, Rivpacs, designed for use by water authorities, analyses the biolog ical community which lives in the water from which it is able to measure the levels of nitrates and cocktail effects of impurities. Rivpacs is just one example of NERC's increasing involvement in finding practical answers to env ironmental problems. A quarter of NERC's income now comes from research comm issioned by a variety of public bodies and industrial sectors in the UK and abroad. In the years ahead, it is clearly set to grow. The Fina ncial Times London Page 37 ============= Transaction # 125 ============================================== Transaction #: 125 Transaction Code: 14 (Search Results Displayed) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:10:57 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 12340 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 12 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 126 ============================================== Transaction #: 126 Transaction Code: 14 (Search Results Displayed) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:12:18 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 12340 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 12 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 127 ============================================== Transaction #: 127 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:12:47 Selec. Rec. #: 25 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT943-1589 _AN-EIWEEADJFT 9409 23 FT 23 SEP 94 / Technology: Drugged by the deep blue s ea - The oceans may contain the ingredients to treat a variety of diseases, including cancer and arthritis By VICTORIA GRIFFITH From the coral reefs of the Pacific ocean to the Antarctic, scuba divers are scraping barnacles from rocks, digging deposits from the s ea bottom, bagging fish and algae and filling vials with seawater in the hop e that their findings will one day yield an important drug. Marine biotechno logy is attracting the attention of companies in the US, Europe and Japan, m any of which are searching the ocean for potential drugs. They include Leder le, a division of American Cyanamid; the biotechnology groups FMC and Martek ; pharmaceutical groups Merck and SmithKline Beecham; and Japanese companies Nippon Steel and Mitsui. The US government has set up a Dollars 45m (Pounds 29m) programme for marine biotechnology research, and the Japanese governme nt is also investing heavily. Many scientists are convinced that remote regi ons may hold the secrets to treating dozens of diseases. Research in the wor ld's rainforests in recent years, for example, has produced drugs such as th e anti-tumor agents Vinblastine and Vinvristine, both developed from the Mad agascar periwinkle. However, marine biotechnologists say the potential of th e rain forests pales in comparison with that of the ocean. 'It comes down to the numbers game, to accessing the greatest biodiversity possible,' says Br ad Carte, senior investigator in bio-molecular discovery for SmithKline Beec ham. The oceans cover 71 per cent of the earth's surface and much of the lif e within them is still a mystery. To many scientists this offers the possibi lity of discovering more potentially life-saving drugs. 'The ocean is an unt apped resource,' says Henry Linsert, chief executive officer of Martek. 'It is a rich source of organisms. Algae alone makes up a tremendous amount of t he plant biomass on Earth.' Results from marine biotechnology efforts have s o far been mixed. Some of the most promising compounds, such as the anti-can cer agent didemnen B, and some anti-inflammatory agents have been dropped fr om research over the last few years. Yet marine biotechnologists say failure s in marine compound screening, just as in terrestrial compound screening, a re inevitable. In the long run, they believe, they are bound to make some hi ts. This autumn, Martek hopes to launch a fatty acid, DHA, which it discover ed in marine algae, on the European market. The product will be added to inf ant formula to make it more similar to human milk. With pollution and misuse threatening a number of ocean species, scientists say they are concerned ab out losing marine biodiversity, and with it, valuable compounds. This concer n has lent their work a sense of urgency. 'The ocean has been used as a dump ing ground for a long time,' says Debra Steinberg, group leader for the Main e marine biotechnology effort at American Cyanamid. 'Concern about pollution makes scientists feel that we should try to find out what is there before i t is destroyed.' Marine biotechnology is still in its infancy. No leading dr ug has yet been launched. A handful are in clinical trials in the US, mainly cancer treatment hopefuls being studied by the National Cancer Institute, w hich in the 1970s became one of the first organisations to engage in marine biotechnology research. Scientists say the small number of products in clini cal trials merely reflects past lack of interest in the sea. With more compa nies now involved, marine biotechnologists believe the next two decades will see a number of products moving on to the market and many more entering cli nical trials. Three likely disease targets are cancer, arthritis and other i nflammatory illnesses, and diseases affecting the central nervous system. It has taken this long for companies to gain an interest in the sea, marine bi otechnologists say, because the modern pharmaceutical industry grew out of a long-term human interest in the curative qualities of plants. 'We live on l and, and we've traditionally looked at terrestrial plants for cures,' says G erald Weissmann, a professor of medicine at the New York University Medical Centre. 'Most pharmaceutical companies don't have any direct contact with th e sea. They are based inland; they don't own boats, and they don't usually h ave a lot of divers or marine scientists on their staff. That's why it has t aken them so long to get interested in the ocean.' Pharmaceuticals also face d practical barriers - it is only in recent decades that long-term, deep-sea exploration has become possible. Scientists also had difficulty replicating marine compounds in the lab. 'It is not that marine compounds are more diff icult to synthesise,' says William Fenical, professor of oceanography of Scr ipps Institute of Oceanography. 'It is just that we haven't had as much prac tice in that area, and so we are not as good at it as we are at synthesising terrestrial compounds.' Scientists are excited by the potential of marine l ife. Barnacles clinging to ocean rocks may yield a special glue that would r esist salt and temperature changes and could play a role in surgical procedu res such as joint replacement. Sponges, which fall apart so easily, could pr ovide a clue to the prevention of cell binding and in turn lead to a treatme nt for inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. Marine life can be used not only as a source of compounds, but also as a way of testing drugs. The male contraceptive gossypol, for instance, relied partly on studies in sea urchin s for its development. Yet just as scientists turned from macro-organisms, s uch as plants, to microbes, many believe the emphasis in marine biotechnolog y will eventually be in microbes. 'The state of the art is in microbes,' say s Fenical. Ultimately, one of the main challenges facing the industry may be political, rather than technological. The legalities of marine drug discove ry are still nebulous. If a company develops a cure for cancer based on a co mpound found only on certain coral reefs, for instance, the government conce rned might demand royalties. On the other hand, many companies see the ocean as a far less regulated source of compounds than terrestrial areas. 'As sov ereign issues become more important in land research, such as in rain forest s, companies may turn more to the ocean,' says Susan Clymer, managing direct or of the marine biotechnology group NichiBei Bio. 'In international waters, it's still kind of a free-for-all.' Countries:- USZ United States of America. Industries:- P8731 Commercia l Physical Research. P8733 Noncommercial Research Organizations. P28 36 Biological Products Ex Diagnostic. Types:- RES R&D spending. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Financial Times London Page 18 ============= Transaction # 128 ============================================== Transaction #: 128 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:13:44 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT931-9727 _AN-DBLB0ACUFT 9302 12 FT 12 FEB 93 / World News In Brief: Polar explorers a irlifted out Exhausted explorers Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr Michael Stroud ended their attempt to make the first unsupported crossing of the Antarctic from ice shelf to ice shelf when they were airlifted out. Both were suffering from frostbite and exhaustion. Countries:- AQZ Antarctica. Industries:- P7999 Amusement and Recreation, NEC. Types:- PEOP Personnel News. The Financial Times London Page 1 ============= Transaction # 129 ============================================== Transaction #: 129 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:13:44 Selec. Rec. #: 6 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT941-16602 _AN-EAIATAE1FT 940 108 FT 08 JAN 94 / Sport: Antarctic voyage success By RODERIC DUNNETT The crew of the Sir E rnest Shackleton, on a voyage to retrace the rescue mission of the British e xplorer after his ship, Endurance, was crushed by the polar pack ice (FT, De cember 18), landed safely on South Georgia writes Roderic Dunnett. Trevor Po tts and three colleagues left Elephant Island in Antarctica on December 24. The 23ft boat was becalmed at first but made several days' good sailing, hel ped by currents, before hitting 36 hours of gales. By noon on January 3, the party was 100 miles east of South Georgia. Having made landfall, they ran i nto force 8 gales - recalling the harsh lee shore conditions encountered by Shackleton in 1916 - but found shelter in Elsehul, a rocky harbour at the no rth west tip of South Georgia and landed on January 5. The crew plans to cro ss the neck of land known as the Shackleton Gap on foot, tracing, in reverse , part of the route the explorer took on his mountain trek to Stromness, the Norwegian whaling station, where he found help for his marooned companions. Potts' arrival coincided with the start of the International Boat Show, at Earls Court, where Shackleton's boat, the James Caird, is displayed. Countries:- GEZ Georgia, East Europe. Industries :- P99 Nonclassifiable Establishments. Types:- NEWS General News. The Financial Times London Page XV ============= Transaction # 130 ============================================== Transaction #: 130 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:13:44 Selec. Rec. #: 7 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT944-3902 _AN-ELLBEAEGFT 9412 10 FT 10 DEC 94 / Minding Your Own Business: Pole positi on for growth - Why Antarctic explorers make tracks for Tetbury By CLIVE FEWINS When things are at a low ebb in the workshop, the thoughts of Richard Olivier and Roger Daynes turn to the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge, where one of their Nansen sleds lives, much admired, in retirement. It is the veteran of a 3,700-mile inter national trans-Antarctic dog sled expedition in 1989-90 - the longest dog sl ed journey ever made. Snowsled, the company Olivier and Daynes own jointly, supplied the sled, one of three used by the six-man team. The other two were American Greenland-type sleds. When, in mid-transit, the American sleds bro ke up on the crevasse-riven terrain, Snowsled was asked to replace it with a nother of its Nansen models. 'Our sleds gave no problem and we were naturall y very pleased,' said Daynes, a former British Antarctic Survey base command er. Daynes, 52, and Olivier, 44, have been making sleds and other expedition equipment since 1987. The irony is that if they had continued only making s leds they would probably not be in business now. Olivier, a joiner and outdo or pursuits enthusiast, and Daynes met in 1986. Initially, Daynes continued running his carpentry business in North Wales, commuting for part of the wee k to help Olivier in his Gloucestershire workshop. An order worth Pounds 9,0 00 from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in 1987 for two complete Nansen s leds, 130 bridges and many components, convinced the two that their future l ay in making sleds together. Later the same year, Daynes moved house and joi ned Olivier in his workshop - a converted 18th-century barn on Prince Charle s's estate at Highgrove House near Tetbury. 'BAS was bowled over by the work manship in our Nansen sledges,' said Olivier. 'They particularly liked the s trength, the traditional lashings, and the way we had adapted a 3,000-year-o ld design that displays great flexibility and strength when pulled at up to 20mph by snowmobile.' 'Neither of us was really a businessman,' Olivier said . 'We could not see that, although we continued to get orders for very high specification sleds, we were not going to make money unless we diversified.' By 1989, turnover had reached Pounds 50,000, but after the two had drawn Po unds 10,000 each in wages they found there was no profit at the end of the y ear. 'We had an annual order from BAS and also from its American equivalent - about Pounds 30,000 in total,' Daynes said. 'We also had a useful order fr om the sponsors of the 1989 International Trans-Antarctic Expedition for 40 mini-Nansen sledges at Pounds 400 a time, for sale in stores in the US. But still we were struggling to keep going. 'We started to complement the sleds by making glass fibre pulks (lightweight, kit-carrying sleds), but in 1989-9 0 the business was still making no profit and we both drew no wages.' In 199 1, the pair formed a limited company. They borrowed Pounds 20,000 from Lloyd s Bank under a small business loan guarantee scheme and a further Pounds 20, 000 from friends, all of whom have a share option in the company. They also run a Pounds 15,000 Lloyds overdraft. The money helped them to build up stoc k and to begin trading seriously in the Ventile high-performance clothing th ey had been experimenting with for the past two years. Ventile is a highly r esilient cotton fabric. During the second world war, it was found to increas e greatly the life expectancy of pilots who had been shot down over the sea. Early in 1993, Snowsled took on two women full-time to make Ventile clothes . Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Mike Stroud wore Snowsled Ventile clothing crossin g the Antarctic on foot that year. The clothing has the potential for volume production and it was while investigating this that the two felt out of the ir depth. Early in 1994 they commissioned a marketing survey for Pounds 1,00 0. 'Although much of it told us things we already knew, it made it clear whe re our efforts were best placed,' said Olivier. Unfortunately, the report ur ged them to give up manufacturing the dog touring and racing sleds they had enjoyed making since 1988. 'We think they are lovely creations. But we sell them in very small numbers, so now our policy is to make them only to order, ' Olivier said. The other main recommendation of the survey was to place far greater emphasis on marketing - in which they knew they had few skills. 'Ea rly this year we employed a man with a great deal of marketing experience to work for us for three days a month at a fee of Pounds 1,000,' Olivier said. 'After two months he came up with nothing, so we lent on him. He was hurt t o the quick and left. We felt very relieved.' Despite a year in which cutbac ks in their national Antarctic surveys have meant smaller sled orders from t he British and American governments, Snowsled has sold equipment to Japan an d Brazil. However it has been a good year for the Ventile clothing, which is likely to account for between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of this year's ex pected turnover of Pounds 150,000. The two are also optimistic about the fut ure of two survival and protection systems - a vacuum mattress stretcher for spinal injuries and a lightweight rescue stretcher - in which they have inv ested much time. The vacuum mattress is used by 15 of the 40 UK mountain res cue teams. 'We see huge potential, but we are spread so thinly between manuf acturing, sales and a great deal of R and D that we have no time for marketi ng these two products,' Olivier said. 'We are open to offers from anybody wh o could take on the marketing of all our products, and at the same time buy into the business. But it would have to be the right person.' Snowsled Ltd, Street Farm Workshops, Doughton, Tetbury, Glos, GL8 8TP. Tel: 0666-504002. < /TEXT> Companies:- Snowsled. Countries:- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P3949 Sporting a nd Athletic Goods, NEC. Types:- CMMT Comment & Analysi s. The Financial Times London Page II ============= Transaction # 131 ============================================== Transaction #: 131 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:13:44 Selec. Rec. #: 8 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT944-18764 _AN-EJBBDAE6FT 941 001 FT 01 OCT 94 / Travel: Warmed by the glories of the frozen continent - Antarctica fires Nicholas Woodsworth's imagination By NICHOLAS WOODSWORTH 0748 hrs: arrive C uverville Is. Position: Latitude 64 degs 41 mins South / Longitude 62 degs. 37 mins West. Weather: Cloudy, 985 millibars. Temp: 2.50 air, - 0.50 sea. Wi nd: SW 4-5, sea calm. Vessel drifting off NE of Cuverville Is. Gentoo pengui ns, fur seals and 3 humpback whales. There is no getting around it - Peter S kog, chief officer and keeper of the Explorer's log, will never be a Conrad. Is it his Swedish phlegm and unflappability? Is this the new marine minimal ism of the 1990s? Or is there simply not enough space to wax lyrical in each entry? One way or another, Chief Officer Skog's prose style fails to do ful l justice to the Antarctic. Here we are, 75 fully-grown adults, all dressed identically in wellies and bright red parkas, full of hot breakfast and read y to go - as excited as six-year-olds on a school outing. And how does the c hief officer record the moment? He makes a landing on a penguin-teeming, wha le-surrounded, ice-berg-jammed antarctic island sound as thrilling as steppi ng off the No 38 bus on to the Edgware Road. Each time I wander up to the br idge to peek at the log a new literary disappointment awaits me. One dreads to think what calamity it would take to move him to passionate language - a giant tidal wave or a biblical parting of the waters might just do the trick . Rough sea and heavy swell, vessel pitching and rolling he wrote in the log two days ago as we crossed the notorious Drake Passage from Cape Horn to th e Antarctic Peninsula. Good Heavens, in my cabin pitching and rolling was th e least of it - all night long shoes, books, cameras, sets of drawers and an ything else left unsecured whizzed back and forth between cabin door and por thole like things possessed. Not even the toilet paper was left in peace -s omehow an entire roll managed to unwind itself on to the floor in my cabin b athroom. Next morning, still in the heaving Passage, the dining room looked like the charge of the Light Brigade. Others may praise Drake, Magellan and Darwin, all, admittedly, fine sailors of these fearful southern seas. But I praise Alex, our Filipino waiter, who with a loaded tray can make his way fr om a crashing galley across a bucketing floor to a pitching table, all witho ut spilling a drop. But will Skog record that in the log? No. Neither will h e note that Alex is one of the few people on earth to have had his appendix removed in an emergency operation at an antarctic research station. Nor that he never forgets the Tabasco sauce. Are these not all exceptional feats des erving of record? In my honour roll of antarctic heroes, Alex stands somewhe re near the top. Sea temperature -0.50 Skog has written in his passionless, dry-as-dust Nordic hand. Where does he mention that just yesterday some of t he more adventurous souls aboard the Explorer, my own brave self included, w ent swimming in these frigid antarctic waters? Granted, it was Skog, and not I, who knew the secret of volcanic Pendulum Cove and its sand beach, geo-th ermally heated from below. But where does he describe the great steaming and billowing, sloshing and wallowing that followed our landing? Skog might not be impressed, but I was. Pendulum Cove gave me a better bath than I can get from my miserable little hot water geyser in London. Gentoo penguins, fur s eals and 3 humpback whales, writes Skog, as if compiling a shopping list for Sainsbury's supermarket. But I can tell you that meeting these creatures fa ce to face has nothing to do with buying pesto sauce or coffee beans. In the first place, pesto and coffee smell good; colonies of antarctic birds and m ammals do not. Conrad himself would have trouble with the smell of a penguin colony - it is indescribable, but can knock you over at 50 yards. Guano asi de, though, penguins have great attraction - they are cute and cuddly, curio us and comic, and in their nesting thousands, wholly fascinating. In their b lack and white outfits they look much like French waiters, but are far more approachable. Seals are even more impressive - their smell can knock you ove r at 200 yards. And in some ways they are even more like humans than penguin s - a contented, smelly and sociable herd of one-tonne elephant seal bachelo rs lying together in a steaming sea-side wallow puts me in mind of a post-ma tch rugby-team locker room. And what about those cocky, argumentative, testo sterone-driven male fur seals who spend much of their time vying for the fav our of the females? Wind, waves, ice and water aside, I might be in my favou rite local on a busy Saturday night. But like most passengers on the Explore r, I reserve my greatest interest for the whales. Skog can write 3 humpback whales and let it go at that if he likes. When you are in a Zodiac inflatabl e dingy and close enough to be drenched in the fine spray from a whale's blo w-hole it is rather a different matter. There is nothing quite like the comp any of these vast animals as they lazily dive and spout and roll and wave th eir flippers and raise their flukes. Melville wrote hundreds of pages about the great drama between men and whales; you would think the miserable Skog m ight manage more than three words. But no. 1145 hrs: arrive Neumeyer Channel . Position: a spectacular channel, narrow and high sided, grander than any n orthern fjord. Weather: marvellous - crystal clear air, gloriously sunny, fr esh and bracing - the kind of weather that makes you feel happy to be alive. Sea: full of blue curacao-coloured icebergs. Vessel crunching through jig-s aw puzzle pack ice, surrounded by snow-covered mountains plunging steeply to the sea. Could Skog be be responsible for such a loose and fanciful entry? Of course not. Skog wrote nothing at this point. I have written it for him. The chief officer, apparently, does not believe breathtaking beauty worthy o f recording. But while he enjoys measuring millibars, the rest of us enjoyed gazing out from the upper deck at some of the most astounding scenery we ha ve ever seen - great ice cliffs, impossibly tall and pointed peaks, glaciers flowing at infinitesimal speed into the sea, weirdly sculpted icebergs, sea ls basking on sun-washed ice-floes. We were all impressed, and this is sayin g something, for the passengers aboards the Explorer - wealthy, well-travell ed, and for the most part American - have high expectations. For my own part , I had no idea that such a continent existed - in my mind Antarctica was a bleak, desolate and lifeless place of little interest. On the contrary, it i s now for me a place of the greatest interest. 1500 hrs: arrive Port Lockroy . Position: Lat: 64 degs 52 mins S / Long: 6252 W. Weather: partly cloudy, 9 82 millibars. Temp. 50 air, 00 sea. Sea calm. Vessel drifting off Port Lockr oy. Gentoo penguins, leopard seals. Back to dull Skog's ditch-water delivery again. Does he never tire? Has he never stood on the rocks, surrounded by h undreds of clamorsome, roosting shags, and looked down into the waters of Po rt Lockroy as I did? How striking it is to watch penguins, slapstick, waddli ng, inept birds on land, transform themselves into marvels of dynamic design in the water. With just one hop from a rock they become agile, graceful cre atures, as fast as torpedoes as they flash about in search of the fish and s hrimp-like krill that is their prey. One moment of marine game-watching in P ort Lockroy remains with me: that instant when, on a drifting ice-floe not f ive yards distant, a snoozing leopard seal awoke and yawned, showing me a gr eat mouthful of needle-sharp teeth, then slipped silently into the water. Th ere is nothing furry or cute about leopard seals - they can flay a penguin r ight out of its skin with a few tosses of their powerful heads. The moment t hat seal slid below the surface, the hunters became the hunted. But does Sko g appreciate the thrill of the wild, the vitality of life, the inevitability of sudden death? Gentoo penguins, leopard seals is all he can find to write . But then Swedes have always been a squeamish lot when it comes to high dra ma. In their country I have seen dairy cows with rubber bulbs fitted to thei r horns in order that they cause no undue harm or excitement. Poor Skog, per haps he should not be blamed. 2000 hrs: arrive Paradise Bay. Position: Lat: 65 degs 42 mins S / Long: 6252 W. Weather: overcast, 984 millibars. Temp: 0. 50 air, 00 water. Vessel drifting off Paradise Bay. BBQ, then Zodiac tours, landing on the Antarctic continent. All is forgiven] In that last sentence t aken from the log today I detect a tiny soupcon, the merest hint of understa nding, of what it is to be Man the Explorer. But it is enough. Until now, th e fourth of 10 days of cruising, we have only visited islands lying off the coast of Antarctica. This evening we land on the continent itself, and Skog has recognised the heroic symbolism of that act. A literary milestone. If th ere is any doubt as to the significance of the event, there is, as the chief officer notes, to be a magnificent outdoor meal served on the rear deck, wi th a penguin - even now being chiselled in ice by a skilled Filipino chef - as the centrepiece to our blithe, mulled-wine-swilling company. And if that is not enough, the captain is up on the bridge at this moment preparing a Ce rtificate of Antarctic Exploration for each of us. We have 'joined the ranks of Scott and Shackleton', it informs us, 'and ventured to set foot on Antar ctica, the biggest, coldest, driest, windiest, loneliest, most remote and le ast-known continent on earth'. Not only that, but we are now dedicated to 'h onour the brave pioneer Antarctic explorers who sailed these frozen seas bef ore us, and to protect the Antarctic Continent for those who will follow'. T hat is certainly quite a big mouthful for one small step, even if it is on t o Antarctica. No matter how much the chief officer has loosened up, I am sur e he would not approve of the tone of such a document - could that be why he has left the captain alone on the bridge and is down here with us munching BBQ? It is simply not his style. Nicholas Woodsworth sailed to Antarctica wi th Abercrombie and Kent, Sloane Square House, Holbein Place, London SW1, tel 071-730 9600. A+K's 10-12 day Antarctic cruises, combining visits to the Fa lklands and / or South Georgia, begin at Pounds 3,996, inclusive of return a ir fare from London. He flew to Santiago, originating point of the expeditio n, with British Airways. Countries:- AQZ Antarctica. Industries:- P799 Miscellaneous Amusement, Recreation Services. Types:- NEWS General News. The F inancial Times London Page XVII ============= Transaction # 132 ============================================== Transaction #: 132 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:13:44 Selec. Rec. #: 11 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT923-5999 _AN-CH1BVACNFT 9208 27 FT 27 AUG 92 / Arts: Today's Television < BYLINE> By ANTONY THORNCROFT The first hot ticket at thi s year's Edinburgh Festival was for the flamenco dancer Cristina Hoyos. Anyo ne who missed her there can catch up on Channel 4 tonight at 11.00 in El Amo r Brujo. She stars in this dramatisation of Manuel de Falla's Spanish folk t ale, directed by Carlos Saura, best known for his films Carmen and Blood Wed ding, which also featured flamenco dancers. Survival (ITV at 7.30) really ge ts away from it all, going not just to Antarctica but underneath that contin ent. Holes are sawed through the ice to allow scuba divers to explore with t heir cameras one of the few natural environments yet to be contaminated by m an. There is still plenty of carnage going on, with seals hunting cod and th e Antarctic robber fish eating virtually everything. Pictures of penguins pr ovide light relief. These days persuade David Jason to appear in a TV series and it seems destined to be a smash hit. But Jason worked his way through t he ranks. In tonight's Porridge (BBC 1 at 9.30) he has a bit part as an old con who is reluctant to leave prison. These repeats of the 1970s classic com edy series are holding up very well. The Financial Times London Page 13 ============= Transaction # 133 ============================================== Transaction #: 133 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:13:44 Selec. Rec. #: 12 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT922-12600 _AN-CDPBOAD4FT 920 416 FT 16 APR 92 / Survey of Swindon (11): Down to earth study - Natural Environmental Research Council LAST week 's announcement that the ozone layer above northern Europe shrank by 20 per cent in the first two months of the year was a tribute to the international co-operation of 300 scientists working in 17 different counties. The scienti sts, members of European Arctic Stratospheric Ozone Experiment (Easoe), esta blished that conditions over the north Atlantic, Europe and New England were so bad in early February, ozone was possibly being lost at the rate of 1 pe r cent a day. One calculation suggests that for every 1 per cent drop in the ozone screen, there could be a 2 per cent increase in non-melanoma skins ca ncers, adding an extra Pounds 7m in treatment costs to the NHS in Britain. T he experiment was also a tribute to the research policy of the Swindon-based Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), whose research institute, th e British Antarctic Survey, co-ordinated the investigation in conjunction wi th the US space agency NASA. The discovery by NERC's scientists of the ozone hole above the Antarctic in 1985 led to the Montreal Protocol of 1989 on ph asing out CFCs. NERC is one of five research councils funded by the Departme nt of Education and Science. With a budget this year of Pounds 170m and a st aff of 2,600 employed in 16 institutes and research units across the UK, it is charged with the basic task of discovering how the earth's environment, w hich is now known to be a network of interlocking natural systems, works. Ot her projects include the construction of a new Pounds 40 Oceanographic Centr e at Southampton, and a new Geosciences Centre at Keyworth, near Nottingham. Its marine scientists have just completed an ambitious survey of the North Sea, with a view to constructing a model of how its water quality changes wi th the seasons. This has important political and economic implications. The EC is planning to ban this dumping before the end of the decade. The governm ent believes it may be possible to dump sewage sludge in the right place and the right time without doing environmental damage. It is also investigating changing land use in Britain using satellite sensing, land classification a nd on-the-ground sampling. This has already established for example that som e 25,000 miles of hedgerow disappeared between 1978 and 1984. By comparing t hese figures with changes in flora and fauna population changes, it is hoped to obtain a total picture of the ecosystem. NERC's work on analysing the bi ological rather than the chemical constituents of water has already yielded a very valuable method of monitoring water quality. A diagnostic computer pr ogramme, Rivpacs, designed for use by water authorities, analyses the biolog ical community which lives in the water from which it is able to measure the levels of nitrates and cocktail effects of impurities. Rivpacs is just one example of NERC's increasing involvement in finding practical answers to env ironmental problems. A quarter of NERC's income now comes from research comm issioned by a variety of public bodies and industrial sectors in the UK and abroad. In the years ahead, it is clearly set to grow. The Fina ncial Times London Page 37 ============= Transaction # 134 ============================================== Transaction #: 134 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:13:44 Selec. Rec. #: 25 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT943-1589 _AN-EIWEEADJFT 9409 23 FT 23 SEP 94 / Technology: Drugged by the deep blue s ea - The oceans may contain the ingredients to treat a variety of diseases, including cancer and arthritis By VICTORIA GRIFFITH From the coral reefs of the Pacific ocean to the Antarctic, scuba divers are scraping barnacles from rocks, digging deposits from the s ea bottom, bagging fish and algae and filling vials with seawater in the hop e that their findings will one day yield an important drug. Marine biotechno logy is attracting the attention of companies in the US, Europe and Japan, m any of which are searching the ocean for potential drugs. They include Leder le, a division of American Cyanamid; the biotechnology groups FMC and Martek ; pharmaceutical groups Merck and SmithKline Beecham; and Japanese companies Nippon Steel and Mitsui. The US government has set up a Dollars 45m (Pounds 29m) programme for marine biotechnology research, and the Japanese governme nt is also investing heavily. Many scientists are convinced that remote regi ons may hold the secrets to treating dozens of diseases. Research in the wor ld's rainforests in recent years, for example, has produced drugs such as th e anti-tumor agents Vinblastine and Vinvristine, both developed from the Mad agascar periwinkle. However, marine biotechnologists say the potential of th e rain forests pales in comparison with that of the ocean. 'It comes down to the numbers game, to accessing the greatest biodiversity possible,' says Br ad Carte, senior investigator in bio-molecular discovery for SmithKline Beec ham. The oceans cover 71 per cent of the earth's surface and much of the lif e within them is still a mystery. To many scientists this offers the possibi lity of discovering more potentially life-saving drugs. 'The ocean is an unt apped resource,' says Henry Linsert, chief executive officer of Martek. 'It is a rich source of organisms. Algae alone makes up a tremendous amount of t he plant biomass on Earth.' Results from marine biotechnology efforts have s o far been mixed. Some of the most promising compounds, such as the anti-can cer agent didemnen B, and some anti-inflammatory agents have been dropped fr om research over the last few years. Yet marine biotechnologists say failure s in marine compound screening, just as in terrestrial compound screening, a re inevitable. In the long run, they believe, they are bound to make some hi ts. This autumn, Martek hopes to launch a fatty acid, DHA, which it discover ed in marine algae, on the European market. The product will be added to inf ant formula to make it more similar to human milk. With pollution and misuse threatening a number of ocean species, scientists say they are concerned ab out losing marine biodiversity, and with it, valuable compounds. This concer n has lent their work a sense of urgency. 'The ocean has been used as a dump ing ground for a long time,' says Debra Steinberg, group leader for the Main e marine biotechnology effort at American Cyanamid. 'Concern about pollution makes scientists feel that we should try to find out what is there before i t is destroyed.' Marine biotechnology is still in its infancy. No leading dr ug has yet been launched. A handful are in clinical trials in the US, mainly cancer treatment hopefuls being studied by the National Cancer Institute, w hich in the 1970s became one of the first organisations to engage in marine biotechnology research. Scientists say the small number of products in clini cal trials merely reflects past lack of interest in the sea. With more compa nies now involved, marine biotechnologists believe the next two decades will see a number of products moving on to the market and many more entering cli nical trials. Three likely disease targets are cancer, arthritis and other i nflammatory illnesses, and diseases affecting the central nervous system. It has taken this long for companies to gain an interest in the sea, marine bi otechnologists say, because the modern pharmaceutical industry grew out of a long-term human interest in the curative qualities of plants. 'We live on l and, and we've traditionally looked at terrestrial plants for cures,' says G erald Weissmann, a professor of medicine at the New York University Medical Centre. 'Most pharmaceutical companies don't have any direct contact with th e sea. They are based inland; they don't own boats, and they don't usually h ave a lot of divers or marine scientists on their staff. That's why it has t aken them so long to get interested in the ocean.' Pharmaceuticals also face d practical barriers - it is only in recent decades that long-term, deep-sea exploration has become possible. Scientists also had difficulty replicating marine compounds in the lab. 'It is not that marine compounds are more diff icult to synthesise,' says William Fenical, professor of oceanography of Scr ipps Institute of Oceanography. 'It is just that we haven't had as much prac tice in that area, and so we are not as good at it as we are at synthesising terrestrial compounds.' Scientists are excited by the potential of marine l ife. Barnacles clinging to ocean rocks may yield a special glue that would r esist salt and temperature changes and could play a role in surgical procedu res such as joint replacement. Sponges, which fall apart so easily, could pr ovide a clue to the prevention of cell binding and in turn lead to a treatme nt for inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. Marine life can be used not only as a source of compounds, but also as a way of testing drugs. The male contraceptive gossypol, for instance, relied partly on studies in sea urchin s for its development. Yet just as scientists turned from macro-organisms, s uch as plants, to microbes, many believe the emphasis in marine biotechnolog y will eventually be in microbes. 'The state of the art is in microbes,' say s Fenical. Ultimately, one of the main challenges facing the industry may be political, rather than technological. The legalities of marine drug discove ry are still nebulous. If a company develops a cure for cancer based on a co mpound found only on certain coral reefs, for instance, the government conce rned might demand royalties. On the other hand, many companies see the ocean as a far less regulated source of compounds than terrestrial areas. 'As sov ereign issues become more important in land research, such as in rain forest s, companies may turn more to the ocean,' says Susan Clymer, managing direct or of the marine biotechnology group NichiBei Bio. 'In international waters, it's still kind of a free-for-all.' Countries:- USZ United States of America. Industries:- P8731 Commercia l Physical Research. P8733 Noncommercial Research Organizations. P28 36 Biological Products Ex Diagnostic. Types:- RES R&D spending. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Financial Times London Page 18 ============= Transaction # 135 ============================================== Transaction #: 135 Transaction Code: 38 (Record Deselected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:13:51 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT931-9727 _AN-DBLB0ACUFT 9302 12 FT 12 FEB 93 / World News In Brief: Polar explorers a irlifted out Exhausted explorers Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr Michael Stroud ended their attempt to make the first unsupported crossing of the Antarctic from ice shelf to ice shelf when they were airlifted out. Both were suffering from frostbite and exhaustion. Countries:- AQZ Antarctica. Industries:- P7999 Amusement and Recreation, NEC. Types:- PEOP Personnel News. The Financial Times London Page 1 ============= Transaction # 136 ============================================== Transaction #: 136 Transaction Code: 38 (Record Deselected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:14:05 Selec. Rec. #: 6 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT941-16602 _AN-EAIATAE1FT 940 108 FT 08 JAN 94 / Sport: Antarctic voyage success By RODERIC DUNNETT The crew of the Sir E rnest Shackleton, on a voyage to retrace the rescue mission of the British e xplorer after his ship, Endurance, was crushed by the polar pack ice (FT, De cember 18), landed safely on South Georgia writes Roderic Dunnett. Trevor Po tts and three colleagues left Elephant Island in Antarctica on December 24. The 23ft boat was becalmed at first but made several days' good sailing, hel ped by currents, before hitting 36 hours of gales. By noon on January 3, the party was 100 miles east of South Georgia. Having made landfall, they ran i nto force 8 gales - recalling the harsh lee shore conditions encountered by Shackleton in 1916 - but found shelter in Elsehul, a rocky harbour at the no rth west tip of South Georgia and landed on January 5. The crew plans to cro ss the neck of land known as the Shackleton Gap on foot, tracing, in reverse , part of the route the explorer took on his mountain trek to Stromness, the Norwegian whaling station, where he found help for his marooned companions. Potts' arrival coincided with the start of the International Boat Show, at Earls Court, where Shackleton's boat, the James Caird, is displayed. Countries:- GEZ Georgia, East Europe. Industries :- P99 Nonclassifiable Establishments. Types:- NEWS General News. The Financial Times London Page XV ============= Transaction # 137 ============================================== Transaction #: 137 Transaction Code: 38 (Record Deselected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:14:11 Selec. Rec. #: 7 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT944-3902 _AN-ELLBEAEGFT 9412 10 FT 10 DEC 94 / Minding Your Own Business: Pole positi on for growth - Why Antarctic explorers make tracks for Tetbury By CLIVE FEWINS When things are at a low ebb in the workshop, the thoughts of Richard Olivier and Roger Daynes turn to the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge, where one of their Nansen sleds lives, much admired, in retirement. It is the veteran of a 3,700-mile inter national trans-Antarctic dog sled expedition in 1989-90 - the longest dog sl ed journey ever made. Snowsled, the company Olivier and Daynes own jointly, supplied the sled, one of three used by the six-man team. The other two were American Greenland-type sleds. When, in mid-transit, the American sleds bro ke up on the crevasse-riven terrain, Snowsled was asked to replace it with a nother of its Nansen models. 'Our sleds gave no problem and we were naturall y very pleased,' said Daynes, a former British Antarctic Survey base command er. Daynes, 52, and Olivier, 44, have been making sleds and other expedition equipment since 1987. The irony is that if they had continued only making s leds they would probably not be in business now. Olivier, a joiner and outdo or pursuits enthusiast, and Daynes met in 1986. Initially, Daynes continued running his carpentry business in North Wales, commuting for part of the wee k to help Olivier in his Gloucestershire workshop. An order worth Pounds 9,0 00 from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in 1987 for two complete Nansen s leds, 130 bridges and many components, convinced the two that their future l ay in making sleds together. Later the same year, Daynes moved house and joi ned Olivier in his workshop - a converted 18th-century barn on Prince Charle s's estate at Highgrove House near Tetbury. 'BAS was bowled over by the work manship in our Nansen sledges,' said Olivier. 'They particularly liked the s trength, the traditional lashings, and the way we had adapted a 3,000-year-o ld design that displays great flexibility and strength when pulled at up to 20mph by snowmobile.' 'Neither of us was really a businessman,' Olivier said . 'We could not see that, although we continued to get orders for very high specification sleds, we were not going to make money unless we diversified.' By 1989, turnover had reached Pounds 50,000, but after the two had drawn Po unds 10,000 each in wages they found there was no profit at the end of the y ear. 'We had an annual order from BAS and also from its American equivalent - about Pounds 30,000 in total,' Daynes said. 'We also had a useful order fr om the sponsors of the 1989 International Trans-Antarctic Expedition for 40 mini-Nansen sledges at Pounds 400 a time, for sale in stores in the US. But still we were struggling to keep going. 'We started to complement the sleds by making glass fibre pulks (lightweight, kit-carrying sleds), but in 1989-9 0 the business was still making no profit and we both drew no wages.' In 199 1, the pair formed a limited company. They borrowed Pounds 20,000 from Lloyd s Bank under a small business loan guarantee scheme and a further Pounds 20, 000 from friends, all of whom have a share option in the company. They also run a Pounds 15,000 Lloyds overdraft. The money helped them to build up stoc k and to begin trading seriously in the Ventile high-performance clothing th ey had been experimenting with for the past two years. Ventile is a highly r esilient cotton fabric. During the second world war, it was found to increas e greatly the life expectancy of pilots who had been shot down over the sea. Early in 1993, Snowsled took on two women full-time to make Ventile clothes . Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Mike Stroud wore Snowsled Ventile clothing crossin g the Antarctic on foot that year. The clothing has the potential for volume production and it was while investigating this that the two felt out of the ir depth. Early in 1994 they commissioned a marketing survey for Pounds 1,00 0. 'Although much of it told us things we already knew, it made it clear whe re our efforts were best placed,' said Olivier. Unfortunately, the report ur ged them to give up manufacturing the dog touring and racing sleds they had enjoyed making since 1988. 'We think they are lovely creations. But we sell them in very small numbers, so now our policy is to make them only to order, ' Olivier said. The other main recommendation of the survey was to place far greater emphasis on marketing - in which they knew they had few skills. 'Ea rly this year we employed a man with a great deal of marketing experience to work for us for three days a month at a fee of Pounds 1,000,' Olivier said. 'After two months he came up with nothing, so we lent on him. He was hurt t o the quick and left. We felt very relieved.' Despite a year in which cutbac ks in their national Antarctic surveys have meant smaller sled orders from t he British and American governments, Snowsled has sold equipment to Japan an d Brazil. However it has been a good year for the Ventile clothing, which is likely to account for between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of this year's ex pected turnover of Pounds 150,000. The two are also optimistic about the fut ure of two survival and protection systems - a vacuum mattress stretcher for spinal injuries and a lightweight rescue stretcher - in which they have inv ested much time. The vacuum mattress is used by 15 of the 40 UK mountain res cue teams. 'We see huge potential, but we are spread so thinly between manuf acturing, sales and a great deal of R and D that we have no time for marketi ng these two products,' Olivier said. 'We are open to offers from anybody wh o could take on the marketing of all our products, and at the same time buy into the business. But it would have to be the right person.' Snowsled Ltd, Street Farm Workshops, Doughton, Tetbury, Glos, GL8 8TP. Tel: 0666-504002. < /TEXT> Companies:- Snowsled. Countries:- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P3949 Sporting a nd Athletic Goods, NEC. Types:- CMMT Comment & Analysi s. The Financial Times London Page II ============= Transaction # 138 ============================================== Transaction #: 138 Transaction Code: 38 (Record Deselected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:14:17 Selec. Rec. #: 8 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT944-18764 _AN-EJBBDAE6FT 941 001 FT 01 OCT 94 / Travel: Warmed by the glories of the frozen continent - Antarctica fires Nicholas Woodsworth's imagination By NICHOLAS WOODSWORTH 0748 hrs: arrive C uverville Is. Position: Latitude 64 degs 41 mins South / Longitude 62 degs. 37 mins West. Weather: Cloudy, 985 millibars. Temp: 2.50 air, - 0.50 sea. Wi nd: SW 4-5, sea calm. Vessel drifting off NE of Cuverville Is. Gentoo pengui ns, fur seals and 3 humpback whales. There is no getting around it - Peter S kog, chief officer and keeper of the Explorer's log, will never be a Conrad. Is it his Swedish phlegm and unflappability? Is this the new marine minimal ism of the 1990s? Or is there simply not enough space to wax lyrical in each entry? One way or another, Chief Officer Skog's prose style fails to do ful l justice to the Antarctic. Here we are, 75 fully-grown adults, all dressed identically in wellies and bright red parkas, full of hot breakfast and read y to go - as excited as six-year-olds on a school outing. And how does the c hief officer record the moment? He makes a landing on a penguin-teeming, wha le-surrounded, ice-berg-jammed antarctic island sound as thrilling as steppi ng off the No 38 bus on to the Edgware Road. Each time I wander up to the br idge to peek at the log a new literary disappointment awaits me. One dreads to think what calamity it would take to move him to passionate language - a giant tidal wave or a biblical parting of the waters might just do the trick . Rough sea and heavy swell, vessel pitching and rolling he wrote in the log two days ago as we crossed the notorious Drake Passage from Cape Horn to th e Antarctic Peninsula. Good Heavens, in my cabin pitching and rolling was th e least of it - all night long shoes, books, cameras, sets of drawers and an ything else left unsecured whizzed back and forth between cabin door and por thole like things possessed. Not even the toilet paper was left in peace -s omehow an entire roll managed to unwind itself on to the floor in my cabin b athroom. Next morning, still in the heaving Passage, the dining room looked like the charge of the Light Brigade. Others may praise Drake, Magellan and Darwin, all, admittedly, fine sailors of these fearful southern seas. But I praise Alex, our Filipino waiter, who with a loaded tray can make his way fr om a crashing galley across a bucketing floor to a pitching table, all witho ut spilling a drop. But will Skog record that in the log? No. Neither will h e note that Alex is one of the few people on earth to have had his appendix removed in an emergency operation at an antarctic research station. Nor that he never forgets the Tabasco sauce. Are these not all exceptional feats des erving of record? In my honour roll of antarctic heroes, Alex stands somewhe re near the top. Sea temperature -0.50 Skog has written in his passionless, dry-as-dust Nordic hand. Where does he mention that just yesterday some of t he more adventurous souls aboard the Explorer, my own brave self included, w ent swimming in these frigid antarctic waters? Granted, it was Skog, and not I, who knew the secret of volcanic Pendulum Cove and its sand beach, geo-th ermally heated from below. But where does he describe the great steaming and billowing, sloshing and wallowing that followed our landing? Skog might not be impressed, but I was. Pendulum Cove gave me a better bath than I can get from my miserable little hot water geyser in London. Gentoo penguins, fur s eals and 3 humpback whales, writes Skog, as if compiling a shopping list for Sainsbury's supermarket. But I can tell you that meeting these creatures fa ce to face has nothing to do with buying pesto sauce or coffee beans. In the first place, pesto and coffee smell good; colonies of antarctic birds and m ammals do not. Conrad himself would have trouble with the smell of a penguin colony - it is indescribable, but can knock you over at 50 yards. Guano asi de, though, penguins have great attraction - they are cute and cuddly, curio us and comic, and in their nesting thousands, wholly fascinating. In their b lack and white outfits they look much like French waiters, but are far more approachable. Seals are even more impressive - their smell can knock you ove r at 200 yards. And in some ways they are even more like humans than penguin s - a contented, smelly and sociable herd of one-tonne elephant seal bachelo rs lying together in a steaming sea-side wallow puts me in mind of a post-ma tch rugby-team locker room. And what about those cocky, argumentative, testo sterone-driven male fur seals who spend much of their time vying for the fav our of the females? Wind, waves, ice and water aside, I might be in my favou rite local on a busy Saturday night. But like most passengers on the Explore r, I reserve my greatest interest for the whales. Skog can write 3 humpback whales and let it go at that if he likes. When you are in a Zodiac inflatabl e dingy and close enough to be drenched in the fine spray from a whale's blo w-hole it is rather a different matter. There is nothing quite like the comp any of these vast animals as they lazily dive and spout and roll and wave th eir flippers and raise their flukes. Melville wrote hundreds of pages about the great drama between men and whales; you would think the miserable Skog m ight manage more than three words. But no. 1145 hrs: arrive Neumeyer Channel . Position: a spectacular channel, narrow and high sided, grander than any n orthern fjord. Weather: marvellous - crystal clear air, gloriously sunny, fr esh and bracing - the kind of weather that makes you feel happy to be alive. Sea: full of blue curacao-coloured icebergs. Vessel crunching through jig-s aw puzzle pack ice, surrounded by snow-covered mountains plunging steeply to the sea. Could Skog be be responsible for such a loose and fanciful entry? Of course not. Skog wrote nothing at this point. I have written it for him. The chief officer, apparently, does not believe breathtaking beauty worthy o f recording. But while he enjoys measuring millibars, the rest of us enjoyed gazing out from the upper deck at some of the most astounding scenery we ha ve ever seen - great ice cliffs, impossibly tall and pointed peaks, glaciers flowing at infinitesimal speed into the sea, weirdly sculpted icebergs, sea ls basking on sun-washed ice-floes. We were all impressed, and this is sayin g something, for the passengers aboards the Explorer - wealthy, well-travell ed, and for the most part American - have high expectations. For my own part , I had no idea that such a continent existed - in my mind Antarctica was a bleak, desolate and lifeless place of little interest. On the contrary, it i s now for me a place of the greatest interest. 1500 hrs: arrive Port Lockroy . Position: Lat: 64 degs 52 mins S / Long: 6252 W. Weather: partly cloudy, 9 82 millibars. Temp. 50 air, 00 sea. Sea calm. Vessel drifting off Port Lockr oy. Gentoo penguins, leopard seals. Back to dull Skog's ditch-water delivery again. Does he never tire? Has he never stood on the rocks, surrounded by h undreds of clamorsome, roosting shags, and looked down into the waters of Po rt Lockroy as I did? How striking it is to watch penguins, slapstick, waddli ng, inept birds on land, transform themselves into marvels of dynamic design in the water. With just one hop from a rock they become agile, graceful cre atures, as fast as torpedoes as they flash about in search of the fish and s hrimp-like krill that is their prey. One moment of marine game-watching in P ort Lockroy remains with me: that instant when, on a drifting ice-floe not f ive yards distant, a snoozing leopard seal awoke and yawned, showing me a gr eat mouthful of needle-sharp teeth, then slipped silently into the water. Th ere is nothing furry or cute about leopard seals - they can flay a penguin r ight out of its skin with a few tosses of their powerful heads. The moment t hat seal slid below the surface, the hunters became the hunted. But does Sko g appreciate the thrill of the wild, the vitality of life, the inevitability of sudden death? Gentoo penguins, leopard seals is all he can find to write . But then Swedes have always been a squeamish lot when it comes to high dra ma. In their country I have seen dairy cows with rubber bulbs fitted to thei r horns in order that they cause no undue harm or excitement. Poor Skog, per haps he should not be blamed. 2000 hrs: arrive Paradise Bay. Position: Lat: 65 degs 42 mins S / Long: 6252 W. Weather: overcast, 984 millibars. Temp: 0. 50 air, 00 water. Vessel drifting off Paradise Bay. BBQ, then Zodiac tours, landing on the Antarctic continent. All is forgiven] In that last sentence t aken from the log today I detect a tiny soupcon, the merest hint of understa nding, of what it is to be Man the Explorer. But it is enough. Until now, th e fourth of 10 days of cruising, we have only visited islands lying off the coast of Antarctica. This evening we land on the continent itself, and Skog has recognised the heroic symbolism of that act. A literary milestone. If th ere is any doubt as to the significance of the event, there is, as the chief officer notes, to be a magnificent outdoor meal served on the rear deck, wi th a penguin - even now being chiselled in ice by a skilled Filipino chef - as the centrepiece to our blithe, mulled-wine-swilling company. And if that is not enough, the captain is up on the bridge at this moment preparing a Ce rtificate of Antarctic Exploration for each of us. We have 'joined the ranks of Scott and Shackleton', it informs us, 'and ventured to set foot on Antar ctica, the biggest, coldest, driest, windiest, loneliest, most remote and le ast-known continent on earth'. Not only that, but we are now dedicated to 'h onour the brave pioneer Antarctic explorers who sailed these frozen seas bef ore us, and to protect the Antarctic Continent for those who will follow'. T hat is certainly quite a big mouthful for one small step, even if it is on t o Antarctica. No matter how much the chief officer has loosened up, I am sur e he would not approve of the tone of such a document - could that be why he has left the captain alone on the bridge and is down here with us munching BBQ? It is simply not his style. Nicholas Woodsworth sailed to Antarctica wi th Abercrombie and Kent, Sloane Square House, Holbein Place, London SW1, tel 071-730 9600. A+K's 10-12 day Antarctic cruises, combining visits to the Fa lklands and / or South Georgia, begin at Pounds 3,996, inclusive of return a ir fare from London. He flew to Santiago, originating point of the expeditio n, with British Airways. Countries:- AQZ Antarctica. Industries:- P799 Miscellaneous Amusement, Recreation Services. Types:- NEWS General News. The F inancial Times London Page XVII ============= Transaction # 139 ============================================== Transaction #: 139 Transaction Code: 38 (Record Deselected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:14:27 Selec. Rec. #: 11 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT923-5999 _AN-CH1BVACNFT 9208 27 FT 27 AUG 92 / Arts: Today's Television < BYLINE> By ANTONY THORNCROFT The first hot ticket at thi s year's Edinburgh Festival was for the flamenco dancer Cristina Hoyos. Anyo ne who missed her there can catch up on Channel 4 tonight at 11.00 in El Amo r Brujo. She stars in this dramatisation of Manuel de Falla's Spanish folk t ale, directed by Carlos Saura, best known for his films Carmen and Blood Wed ding, which also featured flamenco dancers. Survival (ITV at 7.30) really ge ts away from it all, going not just to Antarctica but underneath that contin ent. Holes are sawed through the ice to allow scuba divers to explore with t heir cameras one of the few natural environments yet to be contaminated by m an. There is still plenty of carnage going on, with seals hunting cod and th e Antarctic robber fish eating virtually everything. Pictures of penguins pr ovide light relief. These days persuade David Jason to appear in a TV series and it seems destined to be a smash hit. But Jason worked his way through t he ranks. In tonight's Porridge (BBC 1 at 9.30) he has a bit part as an old con who is reluctant to leave prison. These repeats of the 1970s classic com edy series are holding up very well. The Financial Times London Page 13 ============= Transaction # 140 ============================================== Transaction #: 140 Transaction Code: 38 (Record Deselected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:14:40 Selec. Rec. #: 12 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT922-12600 _AN-CDPBOAD4FT 920 416 FT 16 APR 92 / Survey of Swindon (11): Down to earth study - Natural Environmental Research Council LAST week 's announcement that the ozone layer above northern Europe shrank by 20 per cent in the first two months of the year was a tribute to the international co-operation of 300 scientists working in 17 different counties. The scienti sts, members of European Arctic Stratospheric Ozone Experiment (Easoe), esta blished that conditions over the north Atlantic, Europe and New England were so bad in early February, ozone was possibly being lost at the rate of 1 pe r cent a day. One calculation suggests that for every 1 per cent drop in the ozone screen, there could be a 2 per cent increase in non-melanoma skins ca ncers, adding an extra Pounds 7m in treatment costs to the NHS in Britain. T he experiment was also a tribute to the research policy of the Swindon-based Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), whose research institute, th e British Antarctic Survey, co-ordinated the investigation in conjunction wi th the US space agency NASA. The discovery by NERC's scientists of the ozone hole above the Antarctic in 1985 led to the Montreal Protocol of 1989 on ph asing out CFCs. NERC is one of five research councils funded by the Departme nt of Education and Science. With a budget this year of Pounds 170m and a st aff of 2,600 employed in 16 institutes and research units across the UK, it is charged with the basic task of discovering how the earth's environment, w hich is now known to be a network of interlocking natural systems, works. Ot her projects include the construction of a new Pounds 40 Oceanographic Centr e at Southampton, and a new Geosciences Centre at Keyworth, near Nottingham. Its marine scientists have just completed an ambitious survey of the North Sea, with a view to constructing a model of how its water quality changes wi th the seasons. This has important political and economic implications. The EC is planning to ban this dumping before the end of the decade. The governm ent believes it may be possible to dump sewage sludge in the right place and the right time without doing environmental damage. It is also investigating changing land use in Britain using satellite sensing, land classification a nd on-the-ground sampling. This has already established for example that som e 25,000 miles of hedgerow disappeared between 1978 and 1984. By comparing t hese figures with changes in flora and fauna population changes, it is hoped to obtain a total picture of the ecosystem. NERC's work on analysing the bi ological rather than the chemical constituents of water has already yielded a very valuable method of monitoring water quality. A diagnostic computer pr ogramme, Rivpacs, designed for use by water authorities, analyses the biolog ical community which lives in the water from which it is able to measure the levels of nitrates and cocktail effects of impurities. Rivpacs is just one example of NERC's increasing involvement in finding practical answers to env ironmental problems. A quarter of NERC's income now comes from research comm issioned by a variety of public bodies and industrial sectors in the UK and abroad. In the years ahead, it is clearly set to grow. The Fina ncial Times London Page 37 ============= Transaction # 141 ============================================== Transaction #: 141 Transaction Code: 38 (Record Deselected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:14:53 Selec. Rec. #: 25 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT943-1589 _AN-EIWEEADJFT 9409 23 FT 23 SEP 94 / Technology: Drugged by the deep blue s ea - The oceans may contain the ingredients to treat a variety of diseases, including cancer and arthritis By VICTORIA GRIFFITH From the coral reefs of the Pacific ocean to the Antarctic, scuba divers are scraping barnacles from rocks, digging deposits from the s ea bottom, bagging fish and algae and filling vials with seawater in the hop e that their findings will one day yield an important drug. Marine biotechno logy is attracting the attention of companies in the US, Europe and Japan, m any of which are searching the ocean for potential drugs. They include Leder le, a division of American Cyanamid; the biotechnology groups FMC and Martek ; pharmaceutical groups Merck and SmithKline Beecham; and Japanese companies Nippon Steel and Mitsui. The US government has set up a Dollars 45m (Pounds 29m) programme for marine biotechnology research, and the Japanese governme nt is also investing heavily. Many scientists are convinced that remote regi ons may hold the secrets to treating dozens of diseases. Research in the wor ld's rainforests in recent years, for example, has produced drugs such as th e anti-tumor agents Vinblastine and Vinvristine, both developed from the Mad agascar periwinkle. However, marine biotechnologists say the potential of th e rain forests pales in comparison with that of the ocean. 'It comes down to the numbers game, to accessing the greatest biodiversity possible,' says Br ad Carte, senior investigator in bio-molecular discovery for SmithKline Beec ham. The oceans cover 71 per cent of the earth's surface and much of the lif e within them is still a mystery. To many scientists this offers the possibi lity of discovering more potentially life-saving drugs. 'The ocean is an unt apped resource,' says Henry Linsert, chief executive officer of Martek. 'It is a rich source of organisms. Algae alone makes up a tremendous amount of t he plant biomass on Earth.' Results from marine biotechnology efforts have s o far been mixed. Some of the most promising compounds, such as the anti-can cer agent didemnen B, and some anti-inflammatory agents have been dropped fr om research over the last few years. Yet marine biotechnologists say failure s in marine compound screening, just as in terrestrial compound screening, a re inevitable. In the long run, they believe, they are bound to make some hi ts. This autumn, Martek hopes to launch a fatty acid, DHA, which it discover ed in marine algae, on the European market. The product will be added to inf ant formula to make it more similar to human milk. With pollution and misuse threatening a number of ocean species, scientists say they are concerned ab out losing marine biodiversity, and with it, valuable compounds. This concer n has lent their work a sense of urgency. 'The ocean has been used as a dump ing ground for a long time,' says Debra Steinberg, group leader for the Main e marine biotechnology effort at American Cyanamid. 'Concern about pollution makes scientists feel that we should try to find out what is there before i t is destroyed.' Marine biotechnology is still in its infancy. No leading dr ug has yet been launched. A handful are in clinical trials in the US, mainly cancer treatment hopefuls being studied by the National Cancer Institute, w hich in the 1970s became one of the first organisations to engage in marine biotechnology research. Scientists say the small number of products in clini cal trials merely reflects past lack of interest in the sea. With more compa nies now involved, marine biotechnologists believe the next two decades will see a number of products moving on to the market and many more entering cli nical trials. Three likely disease targets are cancer, arthritis and other i nflammatory illnesses, and diseases affecting the central nervous system. It has taken this long for companies to gain an interest in the sea, marine bi otechnologists say, because the modern pharmaceutical industry grew out of a long-term human interest in the curative qualities of plants. 'We live on l and, and we've traditionally looked at terrestrial plants for cures,' says G erald Weissmann, a professor of medicine at the New York University Medical Centre. 'Most pharmaceutical companies don't have any direct contact with th e sea. They are based inland; they don't own boats, and they don't usually h ave a lot of divers or marine scientists on their staff. That's why it has t aken them so long to get interested in the ocean.' Pharmaceuticals also face d practical barriers - it is only in recent decades that long-term, deep-sea exploration has become possible. Scientists also had difficulty replicating marine compounds in the lab. 'It is not that marine compounds are more diff icult to synthesise,' says William Fenical, professor of oceanography of Scr ipps Institute of Oceanography. 'It is just that we haven't had as much prac tice in that area, and so we are not as good at it as we are at synthesising terrestrial compounds.' Scientists are excited by the potential of marine l ife. Barnacles clinging to ocean rocks may yield a special glue that would r esist salt and temperature changes and could play a role in surgical procedu res such as joint replacement. Sponges, which fall apart so easily, could pr ovide a clue to the prevention of cell binding and in turn lead to a treatme nt for inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. Marine life can be used not only as a source of compounds, but also as a way of testing drugs. The male contraceptive gossypol, for instance, relied partly on studies in sea urchin s for its development. Yet just as scientists turned from macro-organisms, s uch as plants, to microbes, many believe the emphasis in marine biotechnolog y will eventually be in microbes. 'The state of the art is in microbes,' say s Fenical. Ultimately, one of the main challenges facing the industry may be political, rather than technological. The legalities of marine drug discove ry are still nebulous. If a company develops a cure for cancer based on a co mpound found only on certain coral reefs, for instance, the government conce rned might demand royalties. On the other hand, many companies see the ocean as a far less regulated source of compounds than terrestrial areas. 'As sov ereign issues become more important in land research, such as in rain forest s, companies may turn more to the ocean,' says Susan Clymer, managing direct or of the marine biotechnology group NichiBei Bio. 'In international waters, it's still kind of a free-for-all.' Countries:- USZ United States of America. Industries:- P8731 Commercia l Physical Research. P8733 Noncommercial Research Organizations. P28 36 Biological Products Ex Diagnostic. Types:- RES R&D spending. CMMT Comment & Analysis. The Financial Times London Page 18 ============= Transaction # 142 ============================================== Transaction #: 142 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:15:17 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT931-9727 _AN-DBLB0ACUFT 9302 12 FT 12 FEB 93 / World News In Brief: Polar explorers a irlifted out Exhausted explorers Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr Michael Stroud ended their attempt to make the first unsupported crossing of the Antarctic from ice shelf to ice shelf when they were airlifted out. Both were suffering from frostbite and exhaustion. Countries:- AQZ Antarctica. Industries:- P7999 Amusement and Recreation, NEC. Types:- PEOP Personnel News. The Financial Times London Page 1 ============= Transaction # 143 ============================================== Transaction #: 143 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:15:30 Selec. Rec. #: 4 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT911-4348 _AN-BDSBDAE3FT 9104 19 FT 19 APR 91 / British government accused of secretly supporting a policy allowing mineral exploration and extraction in Antarcti ca By JOHN HUNT, Environment Correspondent Greenpeace, the environment pressure group, and Mr Paddy Ashdown, le ader of the Liberal Democrats, yesterday accused the British government of s ecretly supporting a policy which would allow mineral exploration and extrac tion in Antarctica, writes John Hunt, Environment Correspondent. Mr Ashdown wrote to Mr John Major, the prime minister, saying he had seen the British p roposal which was circulated to other Antarctic treaty parties before their meeting in Madrid next week, but which was not given to MPs. He said the doc ument showed that Britain intended actively to promote a mining regime at th e conference. Greenpeace is pressing for the continent to become an internat ional nature reserve. Lord Melchett, director of Greenpeace, protested that UK policy would mean a moratorium on mining for a fixed term, probably 20 ye ars, to be followed by a minerals agreement. The Financial Time s London Page 6 ============= Transaction # 144 ============================================== Transaction #: 144 Transaction Code: 12 (Record Relevance Feedback) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 10:15:33 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 16:00:00 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: zfind Default:1,4 ============= Transaction # 145 ============================================== Transaction #: 145 Transaction Code: 14 (Search Results Displayed) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:16:19 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 208798 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 12 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 146 ============================================== Transaction #: 146 Transaction Code: 15 (Terms Cleared) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:17:08 Selec. Rec. #: 0 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: ============= Transaction # 147 ============================================== Transaction #: 147 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:20:26 Selec. Rec. #: 1 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT911-4348 _AN-BDSBDAE3FT 9104 19 FT 19 APR 91 / British government accused of secretly supporting a policy allowing mineral exploration and extraction in Antarcti ca By JOHN HUNT, Environment Correspondent Greenpeace, the environment pressure group, and Mr Paddy Ashdown, le ader of the Liberal Democrats, yesterday accused the British government of s ecretly supporting a policy which would allow mineral exploration and extrac tion in Antarctica, writes John Hunt, Environment Correspondent. Mr Ashdown wrote to Mr John Major, the prime minister, saying he had seen the British p roposal which was circulated to other Antarctic treaty parties before their meeting in Madrid next week, but which was not given to MPs. He said the doc ument showed that Britain intended actively to promote a mining regime at th e conference. Greenpeace is pressing for the continent to become an internat ional nature reserve. Lord Melchett, director of Greenpeace, protested that UK policy would mean a moratorium on mining for a fixed term, probably 20 ye ars, to be followed by a minerals agreement. The Financial Time s London Page 6 ============= Transaction # 148 ============================================== Transaction #: 148 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:20:26 Selec. Rec. #: 2 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT931-9727 _AN-DBLB0ACUFT 9302 12 FT 12 FEB 93 / World News In Brief: Polar explorers a irlifted out Exhausted explorers Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr Michael Stroud ended their attempt to make the first unsupported crossing of the Antarctic from ice shelf to ice shelf when they were airlifted out. Both were suffering from frostbite and exhaustion. Countries:- AQZ Antarctica. Industries:- P7999 Amusement and Recreation, NEC. Types:- PEOP Personnel News. The Financial Times London Page 1 ============= Transaction # 149 ============================================== Transaction #: 149 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:20:26 Selec. Rec. #: 3 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT911-4349 _AN-BDSBDAE2FT 9104 19 FT 19 APR 91 / Mining ban splits Antarctica's guardia ns: Treaty nations differ on how long to protect white continent By LESLIE CRAWFORD THE 39 signatories of the A ntarctic Treaty System are set to lock horns again over the contentious issu e of mining in the white continent when they meet for an environmental confe rence in Madrid on Monday. The guardians of the Antarctic have so far failed to draw up a new set of environmental safeguards for the last great wildern ess on earth because they cannot agree on whether to ban mining forever or t o allow the exploitation of Antarctica's hidden oil and mineral riches somet ime in the future. The debate has been sharpened by the legacy of the Gulf W ar - 800 oil wells on fire or gushing out of control in Kuwait. Supporters o f regulated mining in the Antarctic believe the struggle for control over th e world's oil resources will intensify. They argue that the Antarctic Treaty would be planting the seeds of an international crisis if it were to deny t he world access to its estimated 45m barrels of oil. Environmentalists argue with equal conviction that disasters will only be averted from the white co ntinent if mineral exploration is never allowed to take place. The question has split the Antarctic Treaty nations into two. But after the deadlock that frustrated all progress at a three-week meeting in Chile last November, the re are signs that hardliners on both sides are shifting ground. Britain last month dropped its defence of a defunct minerals convention that sought to r egulate mining in Antarctica. Its isolation had become clear at the Chile co nference and, in March, Mr Tristan Garel-Jones, the UK foreign office minist er, said Britain would propose a mining moratorium in an attempt to forge a consensus at the Madrid meeting. At the other side of the spectrum, a group led by Australia, France, Belgium and Italy are still - officially, at least - campaigning for an outright prohibition. 'Australia will not support a mo ratorium because it implies that mining will almost inevitably take place af ter the prescribed period of time has elapsed,' an Australian official said in Canberra this month. Australia's position appears to leave little room fo r manoeuvre, let alone negotiations. However, some delegations believe the g roup led by Australia may agree to discuss a moratorium of 50 years or more. The quarrelling parties know that failure to reach a compromise solution wo uld strike at the very heart of the Antarctic Treaty System, which has been held as a model of international co-operation since its inception in 1961. T he treaty established the world's first international peace zone and froze a ll territorial claims. Military installations, nuclear tests and the dumping of radioactive wastes are forbidden. Scientific research promoted by the tr eaty has helped unravel some of the secrets of the world's climate. The ozon e hole was first detected over the Antarctic, and now key work is being done on the 'greenhouse effect' of global warming. Mr Curtis Bohlen, who will be heading the US delegation to Madrid, recently told Congress that 'although the parties remain far apart on the minerals issue, there appears to be a un iversal determination to find a workable compromise in Madrid'. There was br oad agreement, he said, on stricter environmental safeguards for scientific work, on the need to regulate tourism and limit the proliferation of researc h bases on the continent. These number more than 40, and Greenpeace, the env ironmental pressure group, frequently denounces their lax environmental stan dards. If some form of mining moratorium is agreed at the Madrid meeting, th e debate will almost inevitably shift to what happens after the ban expires. Countries such as Australia and New Zealand are expected to campaign strong ly for an open-ended moratorium which could only be terminated if all contra cting parties agreed. This would establish a de facto permanent ban as any o ne nation would have the power to veto a mining regime. Chile, whose positio n is close to Britain's, will seek to reverse the tables by arguing that an extension to the moratorium should require the approval of all parties. The Financial Times London Page 6 Photograph One of s everal British bases on Signy Island in the last great wilderness on earth ( Omitted). ============= Transaction # 150 ============================================== Transaction #: 150 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:20:26 Selec. Rec. #: 4 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT931-921 _AN-DC1AGAA6FT 93032 7 FT 27 MAR 93 / Heath accuses Thatcher of inciting rebe ls By RALPH ATKINS SIR EDWARD Heath exacerbated Conservative divisions yesterday by accusing Baroness Thatcher, his successor as prime minister, of inciting Tory MPs' opposition to Maastr icht and the government. Sir Edward also said that Mr John Major, the prime minister, should stop being 'quite so nice'. At the same time as Sir Edward was warning Mr Major that the Tory right wing could never be appeased, Mr Mi chael Howard, environment secretary, was preparing a speech urging Britain t o fight for a Europe 'in our own image'. But he appealed for loyalty, saying that as ratification of Maastricht neared, 'the Conservative party is visib ly pulling together on Europe'. Mr Howard said in Folke-stone: 'The Tory vis ion is of a wider Europe dedicated to free trade, decentralisation, deregula tion, low taxation, and above all, a low-cost Europe, flexible enough to com pete with the dynamic economies of the Far East.' The renewed tension betwee n Euro-enthusiastic and Euro-sceptic wings of the Conservative party will se rve as a warning to the government that its Maastricht problems are far from over. This is in spite of its success this week in pushing ahead with the t reaty legislation, helped by Liberal Democrats. Speaking on Channel Four tel evision, Sir Edward said there was 'no doubt' that Lady Thatcher and Lord Te bbit, the former party chairman, were inciting rebel Conservative MPs. 'We s ee Lord Tebbit sitting in the lobby just by the entrance to the members' cha mber and grabbing people and trying to influence them, and they are taken do wn to Lady Thatcher's room in the Lords where they are also addressed and wh ere she also attempts to influence them against Maastricht and against the g overnment.' Sir Edward said Mr Major 'simply mustn't be quite so nice'. He a dded: 'There is one thing that one always has to remember in my party which is you can never appease the right wing. Never. You live happily with them b ut you recognise they will not accept your general policies and they will, w herever possible, protest.' He complained that Maastricht opponents had stoo d on the Conservative ticket at the last election. 'If they wanted an electi on to object to Maastricht they can form their own party. Or they can stand as independents. That is the honourable course,' Sir Edward said. Separately , Mr Paddy Ashdown, Liberal Democrat leader, yesterday warned at a Scottish conference that his party's support could not be taken for granted by minist ers: 'We are an independent party in this. We do not toe the Tory line.' Countries:- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. QRZ European E conomic Community (EC). Industries:- P9721 Internationa l Affairs. Types:- GOVT Government News. Th e Financial Times London Page 5 ============= Transaction # 151 ============================================== Transaction #: 151 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:20:26 Selec. Rec. #: 5 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT911-5293 _AN-BDOBBACDFT 9104 15 FT 15 APR 91 / Major hits back over attacks on leader ship By IVO DAWNAY, Political Correspondent MR JOHN MAJOR yesterday hit back at charges of 'dithering' over ref orm of the poll tax by dismissing attacks from opposition leaders and critic ism from the Thatcherite right as 'juvenile name calling'. Justifying the de layed publication of plans for a new local government tax, the prime ministe r said it would be folly to issue a consultation document without time to ex amine the options on what was a 'really important' long term strategic decis ion. He went on to counter accusations that he is indecisive on controversia l issues by pointing to his move to join the European Community's exchange r ate mechanism and his handling of the Gulf war. The much-awaited consultatio n document on the poll tax's replacement would be published shortly, he said . Mr Major's defence against growing questioning of his leadership style dom inated his first lengthy television interview since taking office. It came j ust a day before Sir Alan Walters, the former special economic adviser to Mr s Margaret Thatcher, was due, in another television programme, to lend his w eight to right-wing claims that the government lacks direction. In a bid to maintain last week's Labour offensive, Mr Neil Kinnock, the party leader, ch aracterised the Tory party as hopelessly split both on the poll tax and on E urope. The defensive tone of the prime minister's London Weekend Television interview, nonetheless, led some Tories to question why the party leader had been allowed to face the cameras at a time when the poll tax consultation d ocument had still not been published. With the local government election cam paign now entering its second week, it immediately provoked fresh attacks fr om opposition parties which have seized on criticism of Mr Major's style fro m the Tory right to hammer home the 'weak leadership' charge. The public dis cussion of Mr Major's abilities came after public carping from a leading You ng Conservative and last week's highly critical statement from officials of the anti-federalist Bruges Group over Europe. Clearly irritated by repeated questioning on the government's new local tax, Mr Major was unable to do mor e than insist that the public must 'wait and see'. In an effort to head off the accusation that the time taken to find a solution to local government fi nancing was due to the Cabinet's attempts to 'fudge' the issue, he replied: 'It is not going to linger on and on and on and on.' The prime minister was dismissive of criticism from Sir Alan Walters, due to be broadcast on the BB C's Panorama programme tonight. This claims that while Mr Major is 'an extra ordinarily good executive' he has not conveyed a sense of the ideas and prin ciples that drive him. Mr Major reminded viewers that earlier criticism from Sir Alan had incorrectly warned that Britain's entry into the ERM would mea n devaluation and an inability to lower interest rates. The prime minister a lso defended his policy of creating an enclave for Kurdish refugees in Iraq, saying Britain had been the first country to react with humanitarian aid an d had taken the initiative in proposing solutions. Pressed on whether he wou ld support the use of troops to defend the Kurds, he replied: 'I am neither ruling it in nor ruling it out. Nobody knows what may be the situation in th e future.' Mr Paddy Ashdown, the Liberal Democrats' leader, accused the prim e minister of failing to demonstrate decisive or imaginative leadership. The Financial Times London Page 1 ============= Transaction # 152 ============================================== Transaction #: 152 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:20:26 Selec. Rec. #: 6 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT933-14509 _AN-DGNB5ACTFT 930 714 FT 14 JUL 93 / Parliament and Politics: Lib Dems pre ss fuel VAT attack By DAVID OWEN A TORY DEFEAT in the Christchurch by-election could force the government to re verse plans to impose value added tax on domestic fuel, the Liberal Democrat s said yesterday. The Lib Dems tried to exploit Monday's backbench rebellion on the issue, which cut the government's Commons majority to eight votes, w hile Labour sought to turn the heat on Mr John Major in the Commons. Mrs Dia na Maddock, the Liberal Democrat candidate in this month's election, said pe ople felt they had been cheated by a party that 'lambasted' its opponents fo r advocating higher taxes. She was supported by Mr Paddy Ashdown, the Libera l Democrat leader, who said Christchurch voters had a chance to shape the ne xt Budget. Their remarks came as Mr William Powell, the MP for Corby who was among Monday's rebels, predicted that imposing VAT on fuel would cost the C onservatives the by-election. At Westminster Mr John Smith launched a concer ted attack on the issue, accusing the government of betraying election promi ses. The Labour leader urged Mr Major to apologise to voters for pressing ah ead with the proposal to levy VAT on fuel in spite of past Conservative prom ises. He asked: 'Do you deny that you have cynically betrayed an election pl edge?' Mr Major countered by saying Labour was 'looking at' VAT on fuel and had once excluded fuel from a list of items on which it thought VAT should n ot be imposed. Turning his fire on the Liberal Democrats, the prime minister said they had also advocated a tax on energy in a recent policy document. ' Perhaps you will go back to Christchurch and tell them that,' he said. The e xchanges triggered a flurry of correspondence. Sir Norman Fowler, the Conser vative chairman, wrote to Mr Ashdown and Mr Smith reiterating the comments m ade by Mr Major, while Mr Chris Smith, Labour's environment spokesman, wrote to the prime minister denying Labour had ever supported VAT on fuel. Challe nged on her party's energy policy at the Dorset seaside town where one in th ree residents is a pensioner and the Conservatives are defending a majority of 23,000, Mrs Maddock said imposing VAT on fuel and introducing a carbon ta x were 'quite different things'. She confirmed her party favoured a carbon t ax. Mr Robert Hayward, the Tory candidate, said he supported the overall eco nomic package of which broadening the VAT base was a part but stressed that the government had said it would provide help for those on low incomes. Countries:- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. Industrie s:- P9311 Finance, Taxation, and Monetary Policy. P9199 Genera l Government, NEC. Types:- GOVT Taxes. The Financial Times London Page 13 ============= Transaction # 153 ============================================== Transaction #: 153 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:20:26 Selec. Rec. #: 7 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT911-558 _AN-BELAGAARFT 91051 1 FT 11 MAY 91 / Letter: Minerals in Antarctica From Ms VICKY LANCASTER Sir, Your leader co mment 'Antarctica's frozen future', (May 3), suggested that, contrary to the agreement of a 50-year prohibition an minerals exploration, a shorter morat orium of 20 to 30 years only, would allow 'sufficient time for international regulations to be worked out to ensure that mineral extraction . . . is con ducted within generally accepted environmental norms'. The reason this is no t supported by Greenpeace, or any of the Antarctic Treaty nations which met in Madrid, is because mineral extraction would not be possible without irrev ersible environmental damage to this unique region. Accidents will always ha ppen, as the history of oil exploration makes very clear, and as the oil com panies themselves would admit. We welcome the fact that international co-ope ration between 39 countries, based on the precautionary principle, has secur ed Antarctica's future for at least 50 years, and hopefully for much longer. Vicky Lancaster, Wildlife Campaign, Greenpeace UK, Canonbury Villas, N1 The Financial Times London Page 9 ============= Transaction # 154 ============================================== Transaction #: 154 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:20:26 Selec. Rec. #: 8 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT911-1769 _AN-BECBBABHFT 9105 03 FT 03 MAY 91 / Leading Article: Antarctica's frozen f uture ONLY A short time ago, it seemed as if the long deb ate between those who want to turn Antarctica into a world nature reserve an d the proponents of a regulated exploitation of its potential mineral resour ces, would never be resolved. A group of nations, led by Australia and Franc e and convinced that an environmental disaster would overtake the frozen con tinent if it were opened to mineral exploitation, insisted that the 39 signa tories of the 1961 Antarctica treaty should impose a permanent ban on mining . Others, such as Britain, Japan and the US, considered it was wrong to comm it future generations to policies which might no longer be appropriate in a very different economic, political and environmental context. Yet after the latest conference of member countries in Madrid, it suddenly looks as if a c ompromise on this contentious issue is in the offing. All the member countri es realised, after the deadlock reached at their previous meeting in Chile l ast November, that the necessary consensus for decisions could be achieved o nly if they abandoned their entrenched positions. The proposed 50-year morat orium on mining prospection and exploitation offers a politically acceptable way out of the impasse, though it appears to favour the environmentalists m ore than the mining lobby. Britain, the US and Japan have always argued that their main objection to the Franco-Australian position was that it involved a permanent ban on mining activities. They made it clear that, if the new a rrangements allowed the exploitation of Antarctica's mineral wealth in the l ong run, that would be acceptable, given an agreement on the duration of the ban. Yet it appears that the moratorium, in the compromise proposed by Norw ay and Spain, would be virtually open-ended. It would remain in effect even after the expiry of the 50-year period, unless a 75 per cent majority of the treaty's consultative members decided otherwise, an unrealistic prospect. W hether such a long moratorium is in the best interests of the international community remains a moot point. Certainly, in a world increasingly subject t o environmental disasters, ranging from the explosion at the Chernobyl nucle ar power station to the horrific oil fires of Kuwait, it is tempting to embr ace the idea that an environmental safe haven can be created somewhere on th is scarred planet. Yet the arguments on the other side should not be minimis ed. Though no valuable mineral deposits have yet been discovered on the cont inent, Antarctica's coastal shelf is estimated to contain substantial oil re sources. These might be sorely needed in the event of a future world oil sho rtage, either as the result of depletion of existing reserves or military co nflicts in traditional oil-producing regions. Rather than opting for the ext reme course of taking an area equivalent to one-tenth of the world's land an d sea surface out of economic circulation for 50 years or more, it would be better to search for an intermediate solution. A shorter moratorium of perha ps 20 to 30 years would allow sufficient time for international regulations to be worked out to ensure that mineral extraction, when and if it eventuall y takes place, is conducted within generally accepted environmental norms. I t is unfortunate that the consensus required by the Antarctica treaty appear s virtually to have ruled out such a solution. The Financial Ti mes London Page 16 ============= Transaction # 155 ============================================== Transaction #: 155 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:20:26 Selec. Rec. #: 9 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT922-2941 _AN-CFMAHAEKFT 9206 13 FT 13 JUN 92 / Major faces a growing clamour on Maast richt By IVO DAWNAY, Political Correspondent MR John Major flies back to Britain today with his pledge to press ahead on ratification of the Maastricht treaty in the autumn under attack f rom both flanks. Mr Paddy Ashdown, the Liberal Democrat leader, yesterday cl aimed that the prime minister's commitment to the treaty appeared to be wave ring following reports of cabinet splits over how to respond to the Danish r eferendum 'no' result. But Mr Michael Spicer, Tory MP for South Worcestershi re and a leading opponent of the accord, warned that it might be unconstitut ional for the government to proceed with ratification. The conflicting views reflected fierce divisions on all sides in the Commons about how Britain sh ould respond to the Danish rejection, both in parliament and in the presiden cy of the European Community which the UK inherits from Portugal next month. To emphasise the point, a cross-party group including Mr John Biffen, the f ormer Conservative leader of the Commons, and Mr Peter Shore, a former Labou r environment secretary, yesterday re-tabled a symbolic bill requiring a sta tement about the impact of a treaty on citizens' rights to be sent to every household. With Conservative supporters of the treaty unusually taciturn, it was Mr Ashdown who put the case yesterday for a vigorous defence of the acc ord. He argued that Mr Major should confront 'the whispering campaign of his Tory opponents' directly by tabling a confidence motion on his European pol icy. Mr Spicer, in a speech outlining a growing school of opinion among Tory MPs, countered government claims of specific gains for Britain in the Maast richt agreement. While the commission's powers had been redefined, the execu tive had an enhanced role, including a right to propose what powers would be 'handed back' to national parliaments, he said. THE Tory party is seeking a new chief executive as part of its review of Conservative Central Office, i ts headquarters organisation, Ivo Dawnay writes. The Pounds 90,000 post is o pen to applicants from both inside and outside the party. Sir Norman Fowler, party chairman, has also announced the appointment of two advisers: Sir All en Shephard, chairman of Grand Metropolitan, the food and drinks group, and Mr Richard Simmons, a senior partner of Arthur Andersen, the accountants and management consultants. The Financial Times Lond on Page 4 ============= Transaction # 156 ============================================== Transaction #: 156 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:20:26 Selec. Rec. #: 10 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT911-3977 _AN-BDVB1AC8FT 9104 22 FT 22 APR 91 / Ashdown underlines terms for a post-el ection pact By PHILIP STEPHENS, Political Editor MR PADDY Ashdown, the Liberal Democrat leader, underlined yest erday that the price of his party's support for a minority government after the next general election would be a commitment to proportional representati on. His comments came as senior ministers acknowledged that Mr John Major, t he prime minister, would welcome the endorsement of Dr David Owen - the lead er of the erstwhile SDP - during the election. The ministers dismissed as 'l udicrous', however, weekend reports that such an endorsement could win Dr Ow en a place in Mr Major's cabinet. News of discussions between the prime mini ster and Dr Owen prompted a senior Labour party official to comment that it was further evidence of Mr Major's indecisiveness. 'When the ditherer is so desperate that he consults the Doctor it is clear that even the Tories have begun to recognise that their condition is terminal,' the official said. Mr Ashdown, interviewed on BBC Radio, said that his party was not seeking a 'hu ng' parliament as a result of the election. Instead, it was intent on maximi sing its own support for a radical strategy that marked it out clearly from the Conservatives and Labour. But if neither of those parties won an overall majority, the Liberal Democrats would respond. The 'bottom line' was that h e would not be prepared even to begin talks with Labour or the Conservatives unless there was agreement to legislate to end the present first-past-the-p ost electoral system. Mr Ashdown said his message to Mr Major and to Mr Neil Kinnock, Labour leader, was straightforward: 'Don't even pick up the phone unless you are prepared to talk about a fair voting system for Britain.' He denied that the competition between the two main parties to reoccupy the cen tre ground of British politics was squeezing the Liberal Democrat vote. He i nsisted that radical policies in areas such as education and the environment marked it out clearly as the party which was prepared to take tough decisio ns. Senior Conservatives confirmed that Dr Owen had discussed the political outlook with Mr Major at a recent dinner which was attended by other leading Tory party figures. It was said that the prime minister and the leader of t he defunct SDP 'got on well'. But there was no question of a deal to ensure that Dr Owen kept his Plymouth parliamentary seat or secured a place in the government. The Financial Times London Page 8 Pho tograph Paddy Ashdown, maximising support for radical strategy (Omitted). ============= Transaction # 157 ============================================== Transaction #: 157 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:20:26 Selec. Rec. #: 11 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT933-13353 _AN-DGTCCACEFT 930 720 FT 20 JUL 93 / Parliament and Politics: Lib Dems spl it over Maastricht strategy By RALPH ATKINS A DIVISION among Liberal Democrat MPs last night over tactics for T hursday's Maastricht debate offered the government a possible lifeline in it s efforts to avoid a defeat at the hands of Euro-sceptic Tories. Sir Russell Johnston, the Liberal Democrats' Europe spokesman, suggested his party's MP s might vote with the government to save the Maastricht treaty if Labour fai led in its attempt to force Britain to accept the social chapter. A final de cision by the 21 Liberal Democrat MPs will not be taken before tomorrow or p ossibly pending fresh legal advice on the implications of defeating the gove rnment. Sir Russell said, however: 'If the Labour amendment is defeated I th ink that the likelihood is that we will vote with the government - but it's not 100 per cent.' His comments were at odds with aides to Mr Paddy Ashdown, Liberal Democrat leader, who said the party would vote against the governme nt on both of Thursday's votes: the first on Labour's amendment backing the social chapter and the second on the government motion noting its opposition to the social chapter. The importance of the apparent rift is that Liberal Democrat support for the government on the second vote would force Tory Euro -sceptic MPs to concentrate on the first vote if they want to inflict a defe at on the government. They would have to vote for the social chapter rather than just against the government. The clash came as Sir Patrick Mayhew, Nort hern Ireland secretary, again urged Unionist MPs to back the government, say ing the province needed the social chapter 'like a hole in the head'. He is expected to meet Unionists on Thursday and appeared unwilling to rule out at tempting to strike a deal. The three Democratic Unionist party MPs led by th e Rev Ian Paisley announced they would vote against the government - except possibly if the government made a complete U-turn and abandoned the 1985 Ang lo-Irish agreement. But the nine Ulster Unionist MPs will not decide how to vote until Thursday. They have not agreed tactics and although some want to back the Tory Euro-sceptics, others want to use the chance to force governme nt concessions on Northern Ireland policy. Liberal Democrats want to put max imum pressure on the government to reverse Britain's social chapter opt-out but also do not want to wreck the treaty. Thus the party would be in a quand ary if Labour's amendment were defeated. To then vote against the unamended government motion could mean no resolution being passed - possibly preventin g ratification. Mr Ashdown wrote to Mr John Major, the prime minister, yeste rday saying Liberal Democrats 'would use our votes in whatever way we felt w ould give Britain the best chance of being inside the social chapter'. He sa id that was the only way that Britain would be able to influence the develop ment of the European social and employment policies. Countries: - GBZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P9721 International Affairs. P8651 Political Organizations. Types: - GOVT Government News. The Financial Times London Page 6 ============= Transaction # 158 ============================================== Transaction #: 158 Transaction Code: 22 (Record(s) Saved) Terminal ID: 57900 Z39.50 Server ID: 19 (TREC) Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Old Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat) Usr Interface: Prob Time Cmd Sent: 16:00:00 Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 10:20:26 Selec. Rec. #: 12 Boolean Indexes Used: 0 Author 0 Date 0 Rectype 0 X_Corp Author 0 Call # 0 Title 0 Language 0 X_Author 0 Uniform Title 0 Subject 0 ISBN 0 X_Title 0 X_Subject 0 Organization 0 LCCN 0 Topic 0 Host Item 0 Series 0 ISSN 0 Keyword 0 Conf Boolean Conjunctions: Button 1: and Button 2: OR Button 3: or Used?: No Used?: No Used?: No # Keywords: 0 Error Code: 0 # Hits: 0 Help Code: 0 # Displayed: 0 Help ID: 0 Associated Variable Length Text: FT933-12653 _AN-DGWCHABRFT 930 723 FT 23 JUL 93 / Parliament and Politics: Smith and As hdown warn PM against exceeding power of office By I VOR OWEN, Parliamentary Correspondent MR JOHN SMITH, the La bour leader, yesterday warned Mr John Major that if he sought to defy the wi ll of the house on the Maastricht treaty he would have 'exceeded the power o f his office'. Calling on MPs to support the social provisions of the treaty , Mr Smith claimed that the debate was more about the 'tattered reputation o f a discredited prime minister' than the national interest. This theme was t aken up by Mr Paddy Ashdown, Liberal Democrat leader, who told Mr Major that if the vote went against the government 'we expect him to obey it'. To Labo ur cheers Mr Smith insisted that Britain had no future as the 'sweatshop of Europe', and forecast accelerating economic decline if the policies of socia l devaluation which lay behind the attempt to opt out from the social chapte r continued. Brushing aside suggestions from Conservative backbenchers that acceptance of the social chapter would mean a return to union domination he emphasised that it did not extend to pay the right of association and the ri ght to strike. Mr Smith said Britain was alone among the 12 member states of the European Community in opposing a modest extension of its competence to such matters as the protection of health and safety of people at work and eq uality of opportunity between men and women. He accused the prime minister o f increasingly inhabiting a 'Walter Mitty world' in which he alone suffered from the delusion that getting Britain excluded from a decision making proce ss of considerable consequence constituted a triumph. Mr Smith said the memb ers of the EC who embraced the social chapter had more impressive records of competitiveness and productivity than Britain. He added: 'What the Conserva tives fail to understand is that low wages, inadequate skills, and persisten t under investment are the real drag anchors on Britain's economic performan ce.' Denouncing the government for what he said was its 'crude' approach to international competition, Mr Smith said it sought to compete with Taiwan on wages rather than against Germany on skills. In the real world the new econ omic agenda required a new approach - a positive combination of skills devel opment, decent and humane standards, and ever widening employment opportunit ies. Mr Ashdown denied earlier assertions by the prime minister that the Lib eral Democrats would be opposing ratification of the treaty by joining with Labour MPs and voting against the government in both divisions at the end of the debate. Mr Ashdown insisted that the votes were about accepting the soc ial chapter which his party believed could be improved through Britain being part of it and not outside it. He said: 'It is not the great new monster of socialism stalking across Europe which the government tries to persuade us to believe.' Countries:- GBZ United Kingdom, EC. Industries:- P9721 International Affairs. P9199 Genera l Government, NEC. Types:- GOVT Government News. The Financial Times London Page 7