Greenpeace Warns Of Russia Plan To Import N-Waste

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Tuesday January 12 11:46 AM ET 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The environmental group Greenpeace said 
Tuesday Russia was considering importing nuclear waste from 
Switzerland for long-term storage in a move it called illegal and 
environmentally risky.  

A Russian Atomic Energy Ministry official who took part in 
September talks in Zurich confirmed to Reuters Moscow was 
exploring reprocessing and storing spent fuel from Switzerland and 
other Western nations but had struck no deals yet.  

``There were such talks, but that does not mean that Russia or 
Russian representatives have agreed to import or export anything,'' 
said Boris Nikipelov, a ministry marketing expert.  

``The question is being studied in Switzerland and France and 
Germany and in the East.''  

In Zurich, Swiss utilities acknowledged having held talks on storing 
nuclear waste in Russia, but they did not inform Swiss authorities 
since no contractual agreements had been made.  

``A memorandum of understanding is not a contract and therefore 
not presented to authorities,'' the Swiss utility 
Nordostschweizerische Kraftwerke (NOK) said in a statement 
which it released on behalf of itself and other utilities.  

Greenpeace released a Sept. 17 document signed by Russia and a 
Swiss utility official from Elektrizitaets-Gesellschaft Laufenburg AG 
expressing Swiss interest in sending spent fuel to Russia for 
permanent storage.  

``Such a shipment is completely illegal under Russian 
environmental law,'' Greenpeace anti-nuclear campaigner Igor 
Forofontov said. ``Society knows nothing of these activities.''  

NOK said the fact that Swiss utilities have made various 
international contacts to talk about permanent international storage 
sites has been publicly known for years.  

The memorandum did nothing more than confirm talks would also 
be held with Russia about the possibility of international long-term 
storage of radioactive nuclear waste, it added.  

A spokeswoman for Switzerland's Environment, Energy and 
Transport Ministry said they had learned of the memorandum from 
the Greenpeace statement.  

Nikipelov, one of two ministry officials present at the talks, said 
nuclear officials were trying to change a 1991 law that allows 
reprocessing but not storage of foreign waste. ''Before reprocessing 
you need to have storage,'' he said.  

Many countries import or export nuclear power plant waste, but the 
issue alarms some Russian experts who say the country is 
already unable to handle its own waste from the Soviet era.  

Before the 1991 law was adopted, Russia imported waste from 
countries using Soviet-designed nuclear power plants including 
Ukraine, Lithuania and Finland, officials said.  

``All necessary safety measures are taken: a special train, 
reinforced security,'' said Yuri Bespalko, a spokesman for Russia's 
Atomic Energy Ministry. ``So far there is no basis to sound an 
alarm. This alarm by Greenpeace is a false alarm.''  

If the nuclear waste imports from Switzerland take place from 2000 
to 2030 as outlined in the preliminary protocol, it would be the first 
time Russia had accepted nuclear waste from Western-designed 
reactors, officials said.  

Environmental officials estimated Russia stood to earn between 
$120 and $450 a pound by taking nuclear waste, with the Swiss 
protocol calling for several thousand tons to be sent to Russia over 
the 30-year period.  

Such amounts would mean billions of dollars for cash-strapped 
Russia, but pressure from environmental groups has already ended 
an agreement to process Finnish nuclear waste.

Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -
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