Russian EPA doesn't exist any more

["Tsurikov, Nick" <nick.tsurikov@iluka.com>]

Dear Radsafers,

For your information, from The St, Petersburg Times, 11 July:
(Full text is available until Friday on:
http://www.sptimes.ru/current/opinion/better.htm
<http://www.sptimes.ru/current/opinion/better.htm> )
Better Protection Required For Environment Agency 
By Mark Hertsgaard
A couple of months ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin abolished his
country's environmental protection agency - a decision that bodes ill not
only for the people and ecosystems of one of the world's most polluted
nations, but also for the security and environmental health of the entire
world. Yet Putin's action has attracted virtually no attention from Western
politicians or media.
.........
Nowhere are Putin's actions more frightening, though, than with respect to
nuclear technology. The State Committee for Environmental Protection did not
directly oversee Russia's nuclear-industrial complex, but Putin's
business-first attitude seems certain to carry over to nuclear policy. Not
one of Russia's 29 nuclear power plants has a complete safety certificate
and many have been cited for hundreds of violations. Yet Putin's minister
for atomic energy, Yevgeny Adamov, wants to build 23 more nuclear power
plants, plus another 40 advanced "fast breeder" reactors. Breeders rely on
plutonium, a key ingredient in nuclear weapons.
To have plutonium shipments criss-crossing Russia, where the rule of law is
weak at best, is a recipe for catastrophe. Adamov says fast breeder reactors
will make Russia rich, which is the same reason he offers for changing
Russia's laws to allow the import of tons of nuclear waste - as if Russia
isn't already choking on the stuff.
Instead of abolishing the State Committee, Putin should have strengthened it
to address the dangers posed by his country's nuclear pollution and
security.
The infamous Chernobyl accident of 1986 took place in Ukraine, of course,
not in Russia, but its radioactivity continues to increase the risk of
cancer and endanger human health throughout the region. Many of Russia's
nuclear plants rely on the same technology as Chernobyl.
Less well-known is the unfolding crisis near the western Siberian city of
Chelyabinsk. The Mayak complex 50 miles north of Chelyabinsk was the heart
of the Soviet nuclear-weapons production system throughout the Cold War.
Three disasters with Mayak's nuclear waste - in 1946, 1957 and 1967 - have
caused damage comparable to, and probably worse than, the Chernobyl
meltdown.
Rivaling Chelyabinsk is the Kola Peninsula in northwestern Russia, near the
border with Norway. During the Cold War, the harbors of Kola were home to
the Soviet Union's Northern Fleet, which dumped used submarine reactors,
spent fuel and other nuclear debris into the sea with abandon. The waters
now contain two thirds of all the nuclear waste dumped into the world's
oceans.
The problems at Kola came to light thanks to Alexander Nikitin, a former
naval captain who co-authored, with the Bellona Foundation, a Norwegian
environmental group, a report documenting the potential for trouble. Though
Nikitin's report relied only on previously published information, the
Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested him in 1996 and imprisoned him on
charges of treason and divulging state secrets. He was acquitted last
December.
.........
<<<<<<<<

Kind regards
Nick Tsurikov
Eneabba, Western Australia
http://eneabba.net/





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