杏吧原创

Westminster

RICHARD GOULD emphasised recently the importance of keeping a check on the
levels of pollution in Britain鈥檚 rivers
(This Week, 29 November, p 6). It is
particularly difficult to check the level of ammonium ions, which are toxic to
fish. Gould said that a British company, M² Technology, has now developed a
portable 鈥渢otal ammonium鈥� sensor that gets around the problem. As I鈥檓 often
invited to speak to enviromnental groups on what the government is doing on a
range of environmental fronts, I asked John Battle, the science, energy and
industry minister, to tell me more about the Department of Trade and Industry鈥檚
support for M² Technology鈥檚 sensor.

Battle said that the DTI gave its support under the small firms merit award
for research and technology (SMART to the trade) in 1994, first for a
feasibility study and then, in 1995, to develop the technology to a prototype
stage. The project was completed in October 1996. The minister said he
understood that the company hoped to go into full-scale production in the next
few months.

WITH another Gulf War in prospect, Mark Ward鈥檚 story on a computer system
that could help reduce deaths from friendly fire has an awesome topicality about it
(This Week, 10 January, p 7).
In the heat of battle, quick decisions are
vital. During the 1991 Gulf War, nearly 20 per cent of Allied casualties were
caused by soldiers or pilots on the same side firing at each other.

If the novel method of pattern recognition developed by the Neo-Core company
of Colorado Springs fulfils its promise, such 鈥渇ratricide鈥� could be dramatically
reduced. I asked Lord Gilbert, the defence procurement minister, who was defence
minister during Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan鈥檚 administrations in the 1970s,
how effective he thought such a system would be.

Gilbert said that the Ministry of Defence has an active research programme
into such matters. Part of it has involved the MoD working with Britain鈥檚 NATO
allies in a number of forums, including a panel of NATO鈥檚 Science and Technology
Board, which is responsible for assessing the use of new technologies in such
matters. Britain has a number of bilateral information exchange agreements with
the US and is involved in schemes to implement research findings on behalf of
NATO.

Gilbert agreed that the technology to which Ward referred is a step in the
direction of a recognition system that automatically recognises targets as
friend, foe or neutral in a single process. That鈥檚 a long-term aspiration as far
as Britain and its allies are concerned.

So be it, but families who have lost loved ones to friendly fire tend to be
indescribably bitter about such incomprehensible accidents. As a constituency
MP, I have had first-hand experience of their rightful anger.

ARTICLES in New 杏吧原创 often amaze me, but few have chilled me
quite as much as Rob Edwards鈥檚 鈥淩ussia鈥檚 toxic shocker鈥�
(This Week, 6 December 1997, p 15).
It focused on the revelation of investigations by the Russian and
Norwegian governments that the former Soviet Union鈥檚 bomb factory at Mayak, in
the southern Urals, consistently leaked radioactive isotopes into the
environment and created the most radioactive place on Earth. I asked Robin Cook,
the Foreign Secretary, for a comment.

Britain, said Cook, has been looking at how it might help Russia to solve its
nuclear waste problem in northwest Russia, and has raised this with the Nordic
countries at every opportunity. The Mayak reprocessing plant is a major problem
and, at a meeting of the Contact Experts Group in November, Russia said the
plant was its main priority for action on nuclear-waste management.

Cook said he had no reason to doubt the findings of the Norwegian and Russian
scientists, given the unrestricted discharge of liquid waste to the environment
from the Mayak plant during its early years of operation. Through the European
Union鈥檚 programme of Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent
States (TACIS) and European Commission鈥檚 study contracts, a number of projects
are either under way or in preparation.

To the officially prepared reply, Cook then added in his own handwriting: 鈥淚
find the reports of the situation around the Kola peninsula deeply troubling. I
have discussed them with Foreign Ministers for the Nordic countries and it may
be we can push for more action while Britain is President of the EU. I raised it
at the NATO Council meeting in December and it was agreed that we should put the
issue down for the next meeting of the NATO/Russian Joint Council. I fully share
your worries.鈥�