| In an article Putin Will Process the Nuclear Damp (from
February 27) Alexei Vinogradov made a serious mistake. The author of the
article stated that the President supports imports of spent nuclear fuel
into Russia. This is not true. In the quotation used by Vinogradov as his
source, Putin refers to the need to focus on waste from our [domestically
produced] fuel. He implies here that spent nuclear fuel from domestically
produced fuel rod arrays were exported to Europe by the USSR and then by
Russia.
The main criticism made by the YABLOKO party referred to the idea of
importing foreign nuclear waste rather than these practices. For example,
Taiwan and South Korea want to export to Russia the nuclear waste produced
from the rods supplied by the USA. This was Adamov’s idea (Ed. Former
Nuclear Power Minister), suggested to him by an American scientist Thomas
Kohran. At our meeting with the President Grigory
Yavlinsky and I said that this idea raised political risks, on top
of the environmental and financial risks, as 90% of foreign nuclear waste
in the world is controlled by the USA and we would have to ask for their
permission. In addition not a single country in the world retains foreign
nuclear waste, something that Adamov was trying to achieve. Vinogradov’s
words that the USA bury their waste and a considerable share of foreign
nuclear waste on their territory have nothing to do with reality. After
processing foreign nuclear waste, Britain and France return it to the
country of origin.
Putin’s words actually demonstrate that Russia is rejecting the
idea of importing foreign nuclear waste. The Head of the Nuclear Power
Ministry Rumyantsev also made such statements on several occasions. The
second depository in Krasnoyarsk is built for Ukrainian nuclear waste
and not Japanese waste, and also for waste to be imported into Russia
in accordance with the contracts concluded by Russia on new deliveries
of the rods. Thus the conclusions made by author are incorrect: the President
took YABLOKO’s point of view, and Adamov ’s idea did not prevail.
At the same time some false information released by Adamov has a long
life. One such example was repeated by Vinogradov who stated that spent
nuclear fuel is not really waste and can be processed into fuel. Under
this logic the word waste can be deleted from dictionaries, as virtually
any waste can be processed into valuable products.
See also:
YABLOKO for Nuclear
Safety
YABLOKO for Environmental
Safety
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