The YABLOKO party considers the practices
of enrichment of uranium tailings in the territory of Russia
dangerous and morally unacceptable. We are against the plans
of transferring spent nuclear fuel from the German Centre
for Nuclear Research in Rossendorf to Russia. Transfer of
the spent fuel to Russia, where its storage and recycling
is accompanied by radioactive emissions is dangerous, and
we do not want Russia to turn into an international nuclear
dump. There are no guarantees of security during transportation
of spent nuclear fuel because of the quality of infrastructure,
the danger of terrorism and high level of corruption in the
country.
The nuclear and the energy sectors have been irresponsibly
shifting the problem of treatment of radioactive waste resulting
from their performance and requiring thousands of years of
isolation onto the society and the state. The present agreements
and the agreements that are being prepared between the governments
of Russia, the USA and Germany, with IAEA approval, on transfer
of spent nuclear fuel to Russia are immoral, they violate
the international principle of equal environmental safety
and bring profits to the nuclear sector at the expense of
Russia’s long-term interests.
The YABLOKO party supports the protest voiced by dozens of
thousands of EU citizens who tried to stop transportation
of nuclear waste from France in November 2010. We believe
that the plans of the European Union to legislatively ban
shipment of radioactive waste to other countries are correct
and absolutely necessary. This coincides with the position
of the YABLOKO party which has always advocated responsible
attitude by the countries to long-lived radioactive waste
produced in their territories. We hope that this intention
of the EU will also facilitate adoption of the same decisions
by all the countries with nuclear energy sectors, and, primarily,
by the United States.
We are urging the German government to veto the transfer
of spent nuclear fuel from the Center for Nuclear Research
in Rossendorf to Russia.
Sergei Mitrokhin,
Chair of the YABLOKO party
See also:
Nuclear
Safety
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