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By Sophia Kornienko

Welcoming Nuclear Waste
Fears abound about Russia's plans to get-rich-quick by processing nuclear fuel.

www.tol.cz, June 11, 2001

ST.PETERSBURG, Russia—Russia’s most recent money-making scheme could bring 20,000 tons of nuclear waste into the country over the next two decades. The plan, enabled by a bill recently passed by the state Duma, the lower house of parliament, has been vigorously criticized by economists, ecologists, and doctors. Meanwhile, even western exporters are questioning their counterpart’s venture, saying that the spent fuels may never reach Russia.

The bill permitting the fuels to enter Russia was approved by a vote of 243 to 125 on 6 June. Among the opposition was the democratic Yabloko Party, whose leader Grigoriy Yavlinsky claimed that Russia is jeopardizing the lives of its children. Aman Tuleev, governor of the Kemerovo region, complained: “Russia is going to be the first and the last country to pass such a bill. It is embarrassing.” According to Javlinsky, opinion polls across the country show Russians strongly oppose the government’s plan to use the roughly $20 billion earned from storing the waste for developing fuel reprocessing technologies and ecological programs. A last-minute attempt by the Yabloko Party to bring the issue to a referendum was defeated.

Lev Buldakov, of the State Research Institute of Biophysics, told the NTV.ru news service on 6 June that there are no health risks involved in working with nuclear waste, providing all the necessary security measures are observed. Both life expectancy and the overall health of the inhabitants of the Closed Administrative-Territorial Formations (ZATO), areas where uranium is extracted or nuclear arms are stored, are above average in Russia, he said on 6 June. “Life expectancy in a ZATO area is 71 years, while it is only 65-68 across the country in general. Disease frequency in the ZATO is low, too. This clearly shows that given the proper medical handling, the people exposed to nuclear technologies are not in such danger as is being claimed by some ecological activists.”

Environmental campaigners Greenpeace hopes to block Russia’s endeavor. The Financial Times reported on 7 June that Greenpeace is demanding that the United States--which controls over 90 percent of the world’s nuclear waste outside Russia—block Russia’s controversial plan. The same day, the U.S. State Department declared that if Russia wishes to receive U.S. permission to import nuclear fuels it must sign the treaty on peaceful nuclear cooperation. Analysts claim that Washington fears Russia will use the fuels in military cooperation with rogue states, such as Iran. Some states have said they will refuse to export nuclear waste to Russia. The German daily Die Welt on 6 June noted that the strength of the Green Party in parliament will prevent the passage from taking place.

Meanwhile, Alexander Lebed, governor of Krasnoyarsk, the only region capable of storing up to 3 tons of nuclear waste, was skeptical about the Duma's decision. He told the local daily Segodnyashnyaya Gazeta on 6 June that “The Duma’s decision is inconsistent. We are not even provided with funds to maintain the waste we already have. Reprocessing is going to be even more costly.”

www.tol.cz, June 11, 2001

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