| Sergei Mitrokhin (Yabloko faction), deputy chairman
of the State Duma Committee on Local Government, comments on the
situation.
Q: How much spent nuclear fuel has
been brought into the country in the interim?
Mitrokhin: To date none at all. The
only nuclear waste to have reached Russia was Bulgarian and Ukrainian,
imported under the 1992 agreement.
Q: What is the current state of the
plants that will receive the spent nuclear fuel?
Mitrokhin: We have an official document
regarding the Mayak RT-1 plant - a letter by Vishnevsky, Chairman
of the Federal Inspectorate for Nuclear and Radiation Safety,
to Nuclear Power Minister Rumyantsev, analyzing in detail the
possibility of recycling spent nuclear fuel in Russia. The document
says that the infrastructure of RT-1-type plants is entirely outdated.
There are no funds for its modernization or effective security
systems. The accidents in recent years at Mayak occurred simply
because the power network was past its service life. In other
words, Russia does not have a system for handling nuclear materials
securely, and this includes the security of nuclear production
facilities.*
Q: The Ministry of Atomic Energy promised
that the RT-2 plant would feature state-of-the-art technology.
What has been done so far?
Mitrokhin: The RT-2 project has dragged
on for 20 years. Construction was suspended owing to a shortage
of funds. Today it is simply an unfinished building with nothing
but a storage facility; it is not guarded and so obviously poses
a threat - something that we have tried to prove in practice.
A group of my colleagues and I entered without any authorization
the premises of a mining and chemical combine in Zheleznogorsk.
We decided to test the reliability of the combine's protection.
What did we find? We reached the nuclear storage area where waste
is stored. No one stopped us; we did not arouse any suspicion.
We filmed the path that any person, including a terrorist, could
use to penetrate the storage facility.
Q: However, the law authorising the
import of spent nuclear is now in force. What will happen next?
Mitrokhin: Russia is negotiating with
the United States on the signing of a nuclear cooperation agreement.
The Nuclear Power Ministry is engaged in "nuclear diplomacy"
- that is to say, it is trying to get the US to sanction the import
of US waste. Otherwise, no country in the world will ship its
spent nuclear fuel to Russia. The US has consistently opposed
these plans, but its position is gradually changing, as powerful
lobby groups are behind these deals.
Q: What sort of groups?
Mitrokhin: Various strong NGOs in
the United States come out with numerous initiatives that subsequently
become official state programmes. Today some of these organizations
are working on plans for a number of countries to ship their spent
nuclear fuel to Russia, primarily Taiwan and South Korea, which
have a large amount of spent nuclear fuel - approximately 10,000
tonnes. There are influential commercial structures in the US
that are extremely interested in orders for the transportation
and placement of spent nuclear fuel, construction of storage facilities,
etc, in particular, the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Non-Proliferation
Trust. These lobbying structures believe that there should be
no impediments to Russia's plans to import nuclear waste, as this
would make it possible to raise the funds required to dismantle
and dispose of its own nuclear arsenals.
Q: Has the United States reviewed
its position on the spent nuclear fuel issue since the Bush administration
came in?
Mitrokhin: The position of the Clinton
administration was that the US would not allow anyone, least of
all Russia, to recycle spent nuclear fuel. Even if Americans did
ship their nuclear waste someplace, they only did so to bury the
waste, as recycling can produce plutonium, which can easily be
used to make a nuclear bomb. The new administration does not stick
so strongly to this position, and under the pressure of lobby
groups, plans are being made to let Russia do what it likes with
spent nuclear fuel - admittedly, under U.S. supervision.
Q: In your opinion what is the real
priority of the RF Nuclear Power Ministry - the recycling and
export of spent nuclear fuel or its burial on Russian territory?
Mitrokhin: The Atomic Energy Ministry
has never planned to return recycled nuclear fuel. Judging by
a ministry report, over the past 20 years thousands of tonnes
of spent nuclear fuel from Eastern Europe have been recycled:
however, not a single ounce has been returned to the country of
origin. In other words, recycling is performed in name only. The
Nuclear Power Ministry has not obtained money for recycling, but
simply as payment to rid these countries of their nuclear waste.
In his letter to Minister Rumyantsev, Vishnevsky wrote that "it
has not been specified how much of the regenerated uranium is
being used and how much has in fact been buried." In other
words, no one knows the real situation. Under the cover of recycling,
spent nuclear fuel is simply being buried.
Q: In late June, a Russian-European
group on the import of spent nuclear fuel to Russia was established
in Brussels. You were elected co-chairman. What are the group's
terms of reference?
Mitrokhin: The group will study the
expediency of importing to Russia spent nuclear fuel from EU countries
- both current EU members and those that have yet to join the
EU. The latter are in fact Russia's traditional partners in nuclear
cooperation. Yabloko said at the group's session that it considered
the import of spent nuclear fuel unacceptable for various reasons,
above all nuclear security considerations. As well as the project's
non-viability for economic and environmental reasons, it is unacceptable
that a new nuclear waste burial market be created.
Q: Do you really think that you can
change the course of history?
Mitrokhin: I think that this is possible.
The most important line of action now is dialogue with the US.
I believe that a Russian-U.S. group should be set up to supervise
all Russian-U.S. nuclear cooperation programmes. Today the RF
Nuclear Power Ministry handles this bilateral cooperation. This
means that both the public and parliament are kept in the dark
about all programmes. If they are opened to public control, this
will represent a step forward.
See also:
YABLOKO Against
Nuclear Waste Imports
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