10 000 People Support GP Initiative on Nuclear Referendum

["greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org>]

One Hundred Thousand People Have Supported the Initiative of
Greenpeace  

March 10 1997, Krasnoyarsk.   To the electoral committee there
have been submitted today about a hundred thousand  signatures
of Krasnoyarsk district citizens, who consider it necessary to
carry out the referendum on the issue of construction of
enterprises for nuclear fuel reprocessing.
 
According to the Law on District Referendums, this number of
signatures is sufficient  for the Legislative Assembly to
obligatorily adopt the decision to carry out the referendum.
Its main objective is to decide the future of the RT-2 plant
for nuclear fuel reprocessing, which construction is
unfinished.  
In ten days the electoral committee has to announce its
conclusion about results of checking the signatures. Then the
signatures are to be forwarded to the District Legislative
Assembly, which will appoint the date of the referendum. 
 
The Greenpeace initiative to carry out the referendum roused
the outburst of indignation among 'nuclearists'. While the
signatures were being collected, supporters of the RT-2
construction strongly opposed the idea of the referendum,
searching for the enemies and convincing the community that 
the referendum campaign was begun by the hirelings of the US
financial chiefs.   
The direction of the RT-2 declares that the construction of
the plant won't aggravate the financial burden of the Russian
community, as the whole financing will be done by foreign
investors. At the same time, the Budget of the Russian
Federation for the year 1997 includes the program 'Fuel and
Energy', where it is proposed to assign 100 billion rubles per
year for the RT-2 construction.
 
In case of the positive outcome at the referendum, MinAtom
(the Ministry of Atomic Energy) plans to earn billions dollars
at the expense of health of the community would be finally
buried. Moreover, this could be the first step to blocking
future dangerous plans of MinAtom for developing a new
direction in nuclear power technology - construction of
reactors which use mixed uranium plutonium fuel.
 
Information for the editor
 
The construction of RT-2 started in 1984. It was designed for
reprocessing spent fuel from NPPs with VVER-1000 reactors. The
construction was stopped in 1990. At present there is only a
storage facility for 6 thousand tons of spent fuel (per
uranium) being utilized. Completion of the construction will
require an additional USD 2-4 billion.
 
Reprocessing is dirty and dangerous. The plant at La Hague in
France, which 'safe activities' are often referred to by the
RT-2 workers, is notorious,  for the rate of leukemia among
children has been estimated to be between 2-10 times higher
than the averages in other regions.
 
A Feasibility Study by the State Ecological Expertise at the
RT-2 plant has shown that the project has not been thoroughly
developed. For instance, the main technological equipment is
planned to be constructed and even to be anew developed.   
Some of radioactive waste - which contains tritium - is
supposed to be pumped down into the earth at the "Severny"
area for 30 years. The authors of the feasibility study have
not dared to forecast the consequences of such activity. 
 
MinAtom was prepared to sign agreements on taking nuclear
waste from foreign nuclear power plants in order to raise
funds to complete the RT-2 construction. Under pressure from
MinAtom the President of the Russian Federation signed a
Decree,  permitting the import of spent nuclear fuel from
nuclear power plants for storage and reprocessing. Later the
term "storage" was changed to "temporary storage for future
reprocessing", for the Decree to be in accordance with the
Law. On April 4th, the Supreme Court, having considered the
claim of Greenpeace Russia, recognized part  of the Decree 'On
state support of the structural reconstruction and conversion
of the atomic industry in city of Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk
district' of the President of the RF #72 from January 15,
1995, illegal. The point of the Decree, which allowed for the
mining and chemical combine to take spent nuclear fuel from
foreign NPPs for storage on the pretext of 'temporary
storage', contradicted to the Law.  
At present spent fuel may be brought into the country only if
the special intergovernmental agreement is concluded, which
first has to pass the federal ecological expertise and then to
be ratified by the Federal Assembly, what is next to
impossible.
 
The Krasnoyarsk referendum will be the second 'nuclear'
referendum in the history of the country. In December 1996
about 80 per cent of the Kostroma community, out of those who
came to the elections, voted against construction of the NPP
in Kostroma.
 
Article 7 of the Law on referendums in Krasnoyarsk district
states, that the district referendum may be appointed if the
issue in question is supported by no less than 50 thousand
citizens, who have the right to sign the appropriate signature
form, or if supported by 25 thousand of such citizens in at
least one third of the district cities and regions.
 
For more information contact: Evgeni Usov, Alexander Shuvalov,
251-90-73, 978-39-50.