More than 150 organizations across the globe today urged the United States to stop the proposed import of U.S.-origin high-level radioactive waste from various nations into Russia.
In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, the international coalition urged the U.S. to “deny any request by Russia to allow the storage and/or disposition of irradiated nuclear fuel, or high-level atomic waste, of U.S. origin in that country, whether in a program led by Minatom, or by any other entity.”
Russia’s atomic energy Minatom actively has been trying to change Russian law that prohibits the import of radioactive waste for storage. The Russian Parliament, or Duma, is now expectedafter several false startsto vote on the issue in mid- to late-December.
In anticipation of the Duma’s vote, Russian environmentalists collected more than 2.4 million signatures on a petition to hold a referendum on the issue. Adhering to the narrowest possible interpretations of Russian law, some 800,000 of the signatures were disqualified, leaving the environmental groups just short of the 2 million voters needed to implement such a referendum. The environmental groups have sued in Russian court to have some of the names disqualified on technicalities reinstated.
But the United States may hold the real key to the Russian nuclear agency’s scheme, which is aimed at reaping billions of dollars in high-level waste storage fees. The letter pointed out that Minatom intends to use much of these funds to pursue its plan to build some three dozen new nuclear reactors
The letter also expressed concerns that Minatom could end up reprocessing the fuel. The groups wrote, “…Minatom’s record is one that does not encourage trust in either its ability to protect the environment, nor in its willingness to assure that high-level nuclear waste will not be reprocessed into reactor fuel or, worse, nuclear weapons components. Minatom refuses to accept a basic cornerstone of U.S. non-proliferation policy: that commercial spent nuclear fuel must never be reprocessed. There is no reason to believe that Minatom will behave any differently if granted U.S. approval to store nuclear fuel upon its land.”
Due to nuclear proliferation concerns, irradiated fuel, or high-level nuclear waste, of U.S. origin cannot be stored except where the U.S. grants advance approval. The U.S. State Department, the Department of Energy, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would have to make a positive authorization to allow U.S.-origin fuel to be stored in Russia. The U.S. Congress may also play a role in this process.
With the exception of a few reactors in Eastern Europe, which have only received atomic fuel from Russia, most other nuclear plants in the world have received fuel of U.S. origin.
Besides Minatom, a U.S.-based non-profit organization, the Non-Proliferation Trust (NPT), also has proposed the import of high-level atomic waste into Russia. The NPT says it would use the funds generated to help clean up contaminated sites in the country. But according to the letter, “[t]he complicated NPT proposal is aimed at preventing Minatom from any reprocessing of nuclear fuel the agency may import. To NPT’s backers, this is an effective non-proliferation measure. However, we believe that it cannot succeed in stopping reprocessing in Russia, given Minatom’s stated determination to proceeding in that direction. On the contrary, it could become a recipe not only for more plutonium accumulation in Russia, but also for serious diplomatic conflict.”
Said Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Washington DC-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service, “The letter indicates our serious concerns over proliferation, reprocessing, waste transportation and storage. The U.S. should act now to prevent Russian import of U.S.-origin atomic waste.”
Vladimir Sliviak of Russia’s Ecodefense!, one of the groups collecting signatures on the proposed referendum, stated plainly, “The Russian people do not want our country to become the dumping ground for the world’s atomic waste. The Russian nuclear authorities already have radioactively poisoned large sections of our country, we will not let them add to the environmental burden placed on our people.”
Copies of the letter, with signatories, are available upon request and on NIRS’ website, www.nirs.org.