Feature story - 20 October, 2004
October 20, 2004, Moscow, Today the Moscow municipal court (Mosgorsud) approved the creation of a storage ground for radioactive waste from Bulgaria in the Russian territory. Mosgorsud considered the appeal of Russian Citizens against the decision of the Zamoskvoretsky district court of May 5, 2003, to refuse to bring a case on illegal import of spent nuclear fuel from Bulgaria.
Action near Ministry of Atomic Energy
The fuel was imported in accordance to the contract between JSC
"Tekhsnabexport" and Bulgarian NPP "Kolodui" The contract violated
the Russian legislation that prohibits import of radioactive waste
(RAW) and spent nuclear fuel (SNF) for storage. Several Russian
citizens brought a suit on the case. However, judges, once again,
forgot that according to the paragraph 1 of the contract, it is
imported for storage (which was prohibited by the legislation).
"Such shortsightedness can easily be explained, - says Ivan
Blokov, Greenpeace Russia campaign coordinator. - The global
nuclear complex has nowhere to send their waste, but there is a
Russian Atomic Energy Agency that is ready to take dangerous waste
without considering the consequences of this decision. Both the
judges and top officials of Russia don't care about the citizens,
93% of them being against such projects, and their descendants who
will have to be responsible for these burial grounds".
In all 120 tons of spent nuclear fuel have been imported into
the country since 2001. There are not facilities to reprocess it;
this means that SNF was imported for eternal storage. It is going
to be stored in Krasnoyarsk-6 - the town in the Krasnoyarsk region,
where the Russian government is planning to organize an
international nuclear waste storage ground.
Greenpeace calls for the government to observe the Russian
legislation and act in compliance with national interests for the
nuclear safety, it demands the export of the SNP back to Bulgaria
and calls for citizens to remember those who betray national
interests.
Additional information
Contract N 08843672/80011-09Д, signed by the management of
Bulgarian NPP "Kozlodui" and Russian JSC "Tekhsnabexport"
concerning the supply of 41 tons of SNF provides for the import of
not only irradiated fuel assemblies, but also burnable absorber
rods. These tools are not spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and they are
classified as radioactive waste (RAW). At the moment of signing
their import contradicted the Agreement between the RF Government
and the Government of the Bulgarian Peoples' Republic on
cooperation in the area of nuclear energy and the Law of the RSFSR
on Environmental Protection. Besides that, according to the
Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation of July 29,
1995 N773, regulating the procedure of SNF import for processing,
the import of SNF for storage was prohibited. At the moment the
spent fuel was imported, the contract also contradicted a new
amended legislation on the SNF import. Among other things, no
environmental impact assessment was carried out, the procedure of
import was not approved, no fund for the program of restoration of
radiation polluted areas was created etc. The illegal practice of
SNF import for technological storage, according to the "old"
legislation, was acknowledged by the resolution of the Supreme
Court of the Russian Federation of April 4, 1996, on the case
initiated by Greenpeace Russia on the appeal against the Decree of
the RF President. According to the Resolution, "as there is no
reprocessing plant, the court regards the Decree of the RF
President (with the permission for the Mountain Chemical Mill to
accept spent nuclear fuel from foreign nuclear plants for temporary
storage and then processing) as the approval of import of such fuel
for storage, which contradicts the RF Law "On Environmental
Protection" and Article 90 of the RF Constitution, according to
which decrees and regulations of the RF President shall not
contradict the RF Constitution and federal laws.