Russian Duma Votes to Allow Nuclear Waste Import Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - Mark Graffis Russian Duma Votes to Allow Nuclear Waste Import Environment ENS -- Environment News Service MOSCOW, Russia, June 6, 2001 (ENS) - Today Russian lawmakers approved three controversial bills allowing the import of high-level nuclear waste, which includes spent nuclear fuel from power plants. The lower house of parliament, the Duma, passed the bills by a wide margin. The most important bill amends the Russian law on environmental protection reversing a ban on the import of nuclear waste. It attracted the favorable votes of 243 members, while only 125 were opposed, and seven State Duma deputies abstained. The measures were backed by the government of President Vladimir Putin, but angrily opposed by environmental groups who argue that the country cannot safely handle the nuclear waste it has now and should not import any more. Some anti-nuclear activists chained themselves to the entrance of the Duma in protest. Now all three bills must be approved by the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, and President Putin. Dates for these decisions have not yet been set. Speaker of parliament's upper chamber Yegor Stroyev warned before the Duma vote that the upper chamber may have serious concerns about the measure. "We will take our time with this decision," Stroyev told reporters. "First, we have to take a careful look at all the consequences, think about guaranteeing security, and only then make our decision." Before the vote, the Russian Ministry of Atomic Power (Minatom) distributed in the Duma a report discrediting one of the environmental groups campaigning against the nuclear waste import bill entitled, "Anti-nuclear campaign: methods and means of misinformation." Vladimir Slivyak, director of the anti-nuclear campaign at Ecodefense! said, "When Minatom can't beat our arguments, it start to discredit our name." Members of the Russia's Academy of Science urged Putin to veto the law if it reaches his desk, contending that storage of radioactive waste is a public health danger. "In case of massive [nuclear byproduct] introduction, the inevitable side-effects would endanger the life of Russia's residents for hundreds of years," they wrote in a letter distributed in the Duma. One of the measures allows the reprocessing of imported waste, and Minatom says the import is aimed exclusively at developing the Russian reprocessing industry. None of the bills approved today includes information on how many years the nuclear waste can be stored after it is imported. Anti-nuclear campaigners say that now Western and Asian nuclear industries will be able to dispose of their nuclear waste in Russia. Russia's government contends that over the next 10 years the project could earn the country about US$21 billion. Anti-nuclear activists say that figure is enormously inflated to justify the program. "To make such profit there must be approximately 20,000 tons imported at a price of US$1,000 per kilo," says Slivyak. "Such an 'economic program' may hardly be implemented since Minatom was never able to arrange a single contract for reprocessing with price higher than $6 per kilo," he says. "There is chance to stop this legislation when Federation Council will vote on it - it may correct the mistake Duma made," said Alexandra Koroleva, co-chairman of Ecodefense! Whatever the final outcome of the bills, the anti-nuclear activists will undertake to inform Russian voters across the country which Duma representatives voted in favor of waste import. "Duma' members who likes to make nuclear dump site out of Russia must not be elected to Duma again," said Koroleva. According to the poll conducted by the nationwide newspaper "Moscow News" in April, about 75 percent of Russians would join in civil disobedience actions if foreign nuclear waste is brought across Russian borders. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nyteeu-06.08.01-20:50:12-26689