ASIAN POWER

"Decline of the West'' in Nuclear Issues 17. p3, December 1995, available from APG, 8 Ruvigny Mansions, Embankment, Putney, London SW15 1LE, reports that Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia. and Thailand are building and/or planning new nuclear power installations.

It is expected that the number of nuclear plants in Asia will double from the current 79 to about 150 during the next 15 years. Japan, Ko-rea, and Taiwan respectively already generate 27%, 35%, and 33% of their electric power from nuclear plants. (See Access to Energy 23-3. p 2.) The United States has 109 nuclear power plants generating 22% of its electricity, but has only one new plant under construction.

Uranium Information Centre Newsletter No. 6, November/Decem-ber 1995, available from GPO Box 1649N, Melbourne 3001, Austra-lia, reports that Australia has about 40% of the western world's low-cost uranium reserves (recoverable at less than $80 per kilogram).

As this decline continues and we become the non-producers, we are definitely going to need a "World Government'' to tax Asia for a welfare program for the United States. Asia will, no doubt, cooperate.