(448.4447) Socio-Ecological Union - With work on the project by a Japanese company, Tomen, due to begin next month, control has been taken over by Moscow. Apparently the prospect of earning money by turning far-away Primorski krai into a nuclear waste dumping ground for foreign countries as well as for Russia was just too attractive to Moscow. It decided to exclude Primorye from the US$28 million construction project altogether, thereby keeping project administrative or managerial fees for itself.
A special government consortium to handle the project was created a year ago, the Association for Marine Atomic Technology and Equipment, or AMATE, consisting of several federal government agencies and joint ventures, including the Japanese company that won the bid. AMATE has already asked for $500,000 for bureaucratic processing, duties its officials should be performing anyway. On top of that, it has requested $4.8 million to prepare the feasibility study.
According to Yevgeni Stomatyuk, head of the krai's committee for natural resources, AMATE is breaking a Russian law which stipulates that facilities of international import should be constructed with the agreement of local authorities. "In late September, Moscow decided not to inform us about the tender offer procedures. Now we have lost the opportunity to control the quality of the future facility. It's a pity that we were pushed aside from constructing the facility, but that doesn't mean that the krai administration will hamper implementation of the project."
Ironically, some believe that reports stating the necessity of such a facility have been manufactured or at least greatly exaggerated in order to gain public acceptance of the project, and attract investment dollars, particularly part of the $100 million from Japan earmarked for Soviet nuclear disarmament. Officials may therefore have put Primorski krai's environment in danger for nothing. For example, a recent announcement by the Ministry of Nuclear Industry stated that the volume of liquid radioactive waste kept in Primorye is 10,000 cubic meters. However, that figure is disputed by Georgi Kuligin, head of the Pacific Fleet's department for processing and recharging nuclear submarines. Even during the Fleet's most active period, the volume of LRW did not exceed 5,000 cubic meters, and today the total amount of LRW in the Far East is 600 cubic meters, an amount that can easily be processed by current facilities.
In fact, a new Russian LRW processing facility was recently opened in Primorski krai in response to the emergency situation that existed in February 1994, when Russia was not allowed to dump its wastes into the Sea of Japan and had to store it in tankers. This facility processed 3,000 cubic meters of LRW last summer. The new danger, Kuligin and his colleagues believe, is that Primorski krai will begin to process the wastes of foreign countries, burying the radioactive residues near Vladivostok, as processing only condenses the amount of the waste and does not eliminate it completely. Encouraging this scenario is the new government decree that allows expended nuclear fuel from foreign plants into the country. There are several indications that foreign countries are also setting the stage for exporting their wastes into Russia. In 1994 when Russia was "caught" dumping its wastes into the Sea of Japan, the Japanese media created a worldwide scandal about the incidents, making it seem as though Russia needs an alternative disposal option, even though Japan also dumps its LRW into the Sea of Japan.
Also, a Hong Kong newspaper reported that a Taiwanese power company signed a secret letter of intent with Russia to cooperate in burying the island's radioactive wastes in Russia. South Korea is also reported to be interested in participating in building the LRW facility near Vladivostok. In Primorski krai the wastes are buried in Shkotovo, only 50 kilometers northeast of Vladivostok. Already, only 30 meters from the highway, radiation readings are at dangerous levels.
Source and Contact: Socio-Ecological Union, Centre for coordionation and information. Krasnoarmesjkaya 25-85, Moscow, 125319 Russia; tel/fax +7-095-9217161
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