In accordance with the Treaty, the cooperation "embraces the
following lines of using atomic energy with peaceful purposes:…
geological and geophysical exploration, mining, production,
subsequent processing and use of uranium resources". This means,
that thousands of tons of uranium from Australia will be enriched
on the territory of Russia, and the major part of the uranium will
be stored in form of dangerous substance - uranium hexafluoride -
on the country's territory. Thus the existing practice of importing
foreign nuclear materials to Russia will be continued.
The text of the appeal is cited below:
In the following weeks the Parliament of Australia is to
consider and solve the issue of <to be or not to be> for the
intergovernmental Treaty between the Russian Federation and
Australia on cooperation in the sphere of atomic energy use with
peaceful purposes. The Treaty was signed in Sydney on September 7,
2007 by the head of the Federal Agency of Atomic Energy Sergey
Kiriyenko and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia
Alexander Downer. The main aim of the document is to grant Russia
the opportunity to enrich the natural uranium from Australia and
use it both for the external and internal needs of the Russian
nuclear complex.
The international uranium enrichment center is supposed to be
established on the basis of the Angarsk electrolysis chemical
industrial complex. At that the concern "Rosatom" - the main
initiator of importing the foreign nuclear materials to Russia -
has neither technological, nor economic facilities for the
realization of such projects.
Fist of all, the system of uranium enrichment in Russia doesn't
guarantee that uranium from Australia won't get into reactors of
countries with unstable political regime - for instance, such as
Iran. There are no physical facilities to "mark" the atoms of
separate isotopes of uranium as "Australian" ones, so the
information about their origin will be lost after the first
enrichment cycle stage.
For the period of many years the Netherlands have been supplying
uranium for processing to the Russian Federation. At that the
government of the Netherlands doesn't guarantee that the returned
concentrated uranium is Dutch in origin. And this means that there
is possibility that after processing the enterprises of "Rosatom"
return the uranium in the composition of which uranium from other
sources can be included.
Secondly, the system of uranium enrichment, in part of the
ecologically significant information, is closed for the public. The
ecological organizations have again made sure in that during the
visit of the representatives of Bellona to Angarsk On June 18,
2008. By invitation of "Rosatom" the ecologists visited the Angarsk
electrolysis chemical combine (AECC), but they were not permitted
to perform the measurements of radiation and were not answered the
questions about the treatment of the depleted uranium hexafluoride.
For all the requests of the representatives of Bellona to show
certain indices and sums, related to uranium enrichment and the
utilization of depleted uranium hexafluoride the representatives of
the industrial complex answered that "these are restricted
figures".
Thirdly, thousands of tons of depleted uranium hexafluoride - an
extremely dangerous toxic substance - will be annually formed as a
result of Australian uranium concentration. At that in Russia there
are no approved technologies for the large-scale conversion of
uranium hexafluoride into a safe form, and there are no financial
guarantees that this problem will be solved.
In the recent statement of the head of concern "Rosatom" S.
Kiriyenko it's said about the scope of this problem. The matter
concerns the fact that in case if the issue is not solved,
"Rosatom" is even ready to refuse from the supplies of uranium from
Western Europe.
Finally,
in Russia there is no physical defense of the transported
uranium.
The major part of Russia's population (92%) is against the
projects of importing foreign materials for processing and storing.
Another survey of ROMIR, conducted by order of Henry Bell Fund and
Ecodefense in December of 2007 showed that 100% of the population
of Primorskiy Krai province (through which the Australian uranium
can be transported) are against importing of foreign nuclear
materials through their region. In 2007 20 000 residents of
Irkutsk province where AECC located appealed to the President of
Russia with the demand to stop the supplies of uranium from Western
Europe. The public confrontation to the of projects of importing
foreign uranium from Western Europe is taking most tough forms.
In connection with that the public organizations are appealing
to the Joint
Standing Committee on Treaties of House of Representatives of
Australia related to the issues of international treaties with the
appeal not to ratify the Treaty. Ecologists hope that Australia
won't favor the destruction of the regime of non-proliferation of
nuclear weapons, the violation of human rights in Russia and the
establishment of another dangerous production in Russia,
threatening the health and safety of population.
Contacts:
The Baikal Ecological Wave +7 95110134 64
Marina Rikhvanova, the Baikal Movement +7 95110134 64
Rashid Alimov, Bellona, +7-921-995-61-18
Vladimir Chuprov Greenpeace Russia +7-495-9887460,
+7-903-1294651
Vladimir Slivyak Ecodefense - +7-495-776-62-81,
+7-903-299-75-84