In the evening a concert of the legendary group in support of a
new "green" project is going to be held at the Tomsk Sports and
Show Palace.
The protest "Say No to MOX!" will go on till November 20. Its
initiators are Tomsk Ecological Students Inspection named after Lev
Blinov (TESI), Siberian Environmental Agency, Greenpeace Russia and
the International Social-Ecological Union (ISEU). In the framework
of the event Greenpeace photo exhibition "Half-life" was opened
dedicated to victims of "the peaceful atom" in the Chelyabinsk
region. On 14th of November there will be a concert of Tomsk rock
groups held devoted to the antinuclear movement (at "Kukushka" art
café).
"Our protest is addressed, first of all, to residents of the
Tomsk region. Weэd like to draw attention to the threat to their
life and the lives of their children. The more people demand true
answers from the nuclear industry officials, the easier it'll be to
oppose reckless nuclear projects", - said Greenpeace Russia
anti-nuclear campaigner Vladimir Chouprov at the press
conference.
Another participant of the press conference Jan Vande Putte from
Greenpeace International stated: "Governments of the USA and France
yielded to the demands of the Ministry of Atomic Energy of Russia
(Minatom) and are going to finance the construction of a MOX plant
near the city of Tomsk. It is supposed to produce new fuel for NPPs
and to utilize weapons plutonium instead of vitrifying and burying
it. We have to make them understand that financing the project,
which is going to lead to new ecological and social problems in
your country, is a destructive initiative that contradicts
elementary common to all mankind values. The construction of
another nuclear object with a permanent risk of accidents will
inevitably worsen an already serious situation both in this region
and in the whole Russia".
The Siberian Chemical Plant (SCP) located in the immediate
vicinity of Tomsk has been polluting the environment with highly
dangerous radioactive materials for many decades. A number of
accidents as well as "non-accidental" regulated emissions have
polluted a surrounding area of hundreds square kilometres with
strontium, plutonium and other dangerous materials.
Tens of thousands of people suffered. Residents of Georgievka,
Naumovka and other villages keep on living in the polluted with
radiation territory without necessary medical assistance or finance
support.
In the territory of the plant there is a very dangerous object -
the facility for underground pumping liquid highly active waste
containing strontium, caesium and one of the most dangerous
chemicals - plutonium. During last 40 years waste with total
radioactivity of more than 1 billion curie was pumped under the
ground, which is equal to 20 "Chernobyls"! Besides that, partly
backfilled basins of other storages still contain waste with total
radioactivity of about 200 million curie.
Despite of that, the Federal Agency of Atomic Energy (former
Ministry of Atomic Energy) made a decision to construct a new
complex in the territory of the plant to produce so called mixed
uranium-plutonium fuel (MOX fuel). There is a 15 year plan to
reprocess 38 tons of metallic plutonium - highly dangerous
radioactive waste with the half-life period of 24.000 years.
According to SCP estimates, "the MOX plant" is going to annually
produce about 2.5 thousand cubic metres of additional liquid and
about 900 cubic metres of solid radioactive waste.
Additional information
Russia regards weapons plutonium as the national property and a
valuable energy source for peaceful NPPs. The Minatom pays no
attention to all the negative aspects of MOX technologies'
development.
The plant in Tomsk with evaluated cost of 1 billion dollars is
going to be created in the framework of the Russian-American
program on the utilization of weapons materials. The plant in the
town of Seversk is going to be constructed at the expense of "the
Great Eight".
According to the nuclear industry officials, MOX fuel consumers
are Russian VVER-1000 reactors (Balakov NPP) and foreign PWR.