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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 ==============================================
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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 ==============================================
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============= Transaction # 9 ==============================================
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============= Transaction # 11 ==============================================
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============= Transaction # 12 ==============================================
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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 ==============================================
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============= Transaction # 14 ==============================================
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============= Transaction # 15 ==============================================
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============= Transaction # 16 ==============================================
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============= Transaction # 17 ==============================================
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============= Transaction # 19 ==============================================
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============= Transaction # 20 ==============================================
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FT934-10056_AN-DKHDHABAFT931
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 ==============================================
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FT934-10056_AN-DKHDHABAFT931
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)
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Rec. Format: Long Time Cmd Complete: 09:21:58
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FT932-5802_AN-DFBBWACKFT9306
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)
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FT934-7389_AN-DKSDHAHKFT9311
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)
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FT941-16332_AN-EAKC0ACTFT940
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)
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FT944-7809_AN-EKWECACWFT9411
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 ==============================================
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FT932-5802_AN-DFBBWACKFT9306
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 ==============================================
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FT934-7389_AN-DKSDHAHKFT9311
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 ==============================================
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FT941-16332_AN-EAKC0ACTFT940
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 ==============================================
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FT944-7809_AN-EKWECACWFT9411
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 ==============================================
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FT931-16618_AN-DAFBVAAWFT930
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
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============= Transaction # 32 ==============================================
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FT921-11880_AN-CA2A2AF8FT920
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
DOC>
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FT941-2277_AN-ECVCOACGFT9403
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 ==============================================
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FT932-7114_AN-DEYCHAG4FT9305
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 ==============================================
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FT932-3215_AN-DFOCRAF2FT9306
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
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============= Transaction # 42 ==============================================
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FT922-4414_AN-CFEA9AEEFT9206
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
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FT944-18195_AN-EJED5AA3FT941
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)
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FT941-1242_AN-ECYC5AHGFT9403
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)
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FT934-9399_AN-DKOCBAFRFT9311
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.
TEXT>
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
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Transaction #: 47 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected)
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Session ID: 1 New Z39.50 Server ID: 0 (Astro/Math/Stat)
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FT924-1130_AN-CLTALAC0FT9212
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
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Transaction #: 48 Transaction Code: 19 (Record Selected)
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FT923-4774_AN-CIEASADWFT9209
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
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FT922-9444_AN-CEGBFAFXFT9205
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
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FT911-129_AN-BENBQAC6FT91051
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).
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FT943-11018_AN-EHBDUACKFT940
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
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FT942-5669_AN-EFCDVAC3FT9406
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
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FT932-769_AN-DF0AKAD0FT93062
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)
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FT922-4414_AN-CFEA9AEEFT9206
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)
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FT922-4414_AN-CFEA9AEEFT9206
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)
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FT944-18195_AN-EJED5AA3FT941
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 ==============================================
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FT941-1242_AN-ECYC5AHGFT9403
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
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FT934-9399_AN-DKOCBAFRFT9311
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.
TEXT>
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
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FT924-1130_AN-CLTALAC0FT9212
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
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FT923-4774_AN-CIEASADWFT9209
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
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FT922-9444_AN-CEGBFAFXFT9205
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
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FT911-129_AN-BENBQAC6FT91051
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 ==============================================
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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
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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
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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 ==============================================
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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
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FT922-4414_AN-CFEA9AEEFT9206
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
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FT944-18195_AN-EJED5AA3FT941
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 ==============================================
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FT941-1242_AN-ECYC5AHGFT9403
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
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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.
TEXT>
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
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FT941-6348_AN-ECBDOADYFT9403
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
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============= Transaction # 101 ==============================================
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FT943-7475_AN-EHWDLAC1FT9408
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:-
XX>
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 ==============================================
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FT911-2041_AN-BEBBRAA5FT9105
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
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FT944-8187_AN-EKUDAAFIFT9411
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 ==============================================
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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
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FT941-6348_AN-ECBDOADYFT9403
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
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FT943-7475_AN-EHWDLAC1FT9408
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:-
XX>
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 ==============================================
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FT911-2041_AN-BEBBRAA5FT9105
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)
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FT944-8187_AN-EKUDAAFIFT9411
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)
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FT943-9990_AN-EHHDNACUFT9408
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 ==============================================
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FT943-10219_AN-EHGAUABOFT940
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 ==============================================
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FT943-10219_AN-EHGAUABOFT940
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
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FT931-9727_AN-DBLB0ACUFT9302
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 ==============================================
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FT941-16602_AN-EAIATAE1FT940
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
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FT944-3902_AN-ELLBEAEGFT9412
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 ==============================================
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FT944-18764_AN-EJBBDAE6FT941
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
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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
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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
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FT943-1589_AN-EIWEEADJFT9409
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
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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
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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
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FT944-3902_AN-ELLBEAEGFT9412
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
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FT944-18764_AN-EJBBDAE6FT941
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 ==============================================
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FT923-5999_AN-CH1BVACNFT9208
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
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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
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FT943-1589_AN-EIWEEADJFT9409
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
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FT931-9727_AN-DBLB0ACUFT9302
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 ==============================================
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FT941-16602_AN-EAIATAE1FT940
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
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FT944-3902_AN-ELLBEAEGFT9412
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
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FT944-18764_AN-EJBBDAE6FT941
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 ==============================================
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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
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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
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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
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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 ==============================================
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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
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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 ==============================================
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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 ==============================================
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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).
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FT931-921_AN-DC1AGAA6FT93032
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
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FT911-5293_AN-BDOBBACDFT9104
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
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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
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FT911-558_AN-BELAGAARFT91051
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
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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
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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
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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).
PAGE>
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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:
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Types:
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GOVT Government News.
The Financial Times London Page 6
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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:-
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Industries:-
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P9199 Genera
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The Financial Times London Page 7