Rifiuti radioattivi: la Russia si suicida (22 dicembre)

Russia Offers Itself as Radioactive Refuse Site
By Elfie Siegl

MOSCOW. The Russian Duma approved passage of two laws on Friday -- one on the use of nuclear energy; the other an environmental protection law -- that will now enable the country to offer itself as a location for the reprocessing and storage of the world's spent nuclear fuel. Both laws were approved with a large majority.

The change in statute effectively removes Russia's previously existing ban on the import of nuclear waste. Up until now, only countries that have nuclear plants built by the former Soviet Union were allowed to send their nuclear waste to Russia.

Members of the Duma said the decision, made only days after the final closure of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant -- and without reference to a number of serious accidents in a plutonium facility in the city of Mayak -- would help realize the wish of Russia's Nuclear Power Ministry to earn up to $20 billion from the import of nuclear waste over the next 10 years.

Members of the liberal Jabloko Party voted against the change in legislation. The leader of the party, Grigory Yavlinksy, said the government was not to be trusted with such a dangerous procedure.

On top of the 14,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel that is already stored in Russia, the country could receive another 20,000 tonnes from European and Asian countries in the future, said Duma member Robert Nigmatulin.

Of the expected revenue, $3.5 billion is set to flow into Russia's federal budget, while $2.5 billion is being planned for the nuclear energy industry. Another $7 billion is to go toward developing new technologies and the protection of the environment.

Russian environmentalists are decidedly against the import of nuclear waste. Aside from their ecological concerns, they also fear that the import revenues could disappear into clandestine channels, only to be funneled into foreign bank accounts.

According to Alexy Jablokov, a well-known Russian ecologist and former environmental advisor to the Kremlin, Russia does not even have the capacity to reprocess its own spent nuclear fuel. Nor does Russia have sufficient storage space, he said. The country's only storage unit for spent fuel is in eastern Siberia. It has capacity to store 6,000 tonnes, but is already half full.

Mr. Jablokov also blasted the Duma for ignoring a petition against the import of spent nuclear fuel that was signed by 2.5 million Russians.

Alexander Tomov, a member of the Duma's committee for ecology, said he was concerned about the high costs for transporting and storing radioactive refuse. He also said that Russia could in no way afford an increase in radioactive pollution.

Today, 220,000 people in Russia live in areas with heightened radioactivity, according to the environmental organization Greenpeace, which also said that drinking water for 124,000 Russians is contaminated with radioactive isotopes, including strontium-90, caesium-137 and plutonium.

More than 8,000 Russians have died from sicknesses that resulted from exposure to radioactivity from the many nuclear accidents in the city of Mayak over the past five decades.

The mayor of Mayak's neighboring city of Osersk, Sergey Chernishev, nevertheless portrayed the Duma's decision as a victory for Mayak. He is optimistic that the decision could lead to an improved infrastructure and better social conditions for the city.

Tobias Münchmeyer of Greenpeace International, who is banned from entering Russia by the government, called the Duma's decision, "a disaster."

Dec. 22, 2000


Commento: così dopo i Curdi, i Bosniaci, gli Albanesi e i Palestinesi avvelenati dall'uranio impoverito, avremo dei nuovi immigrati disperati: i Russi contaminati dalle scorie. Gli avveleniamo la loro terra, per miliardi di anni, è ovvio che poi scappano. Non lo sapevate che armi usano i Turchi? Che armi stanno usando gli Israeliani? Roba da film di Dario Argento.