Russian Citizens For Referendum on Krasnoyarsk Reprocessing Plan

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

RUSSIAN CITIZENS AGAINST KRASNOYARSK REPROCESSING PLANT

Krasnoyarsk, March 18. Today the Krasnoyarsk district electoral
committee has identified 86 234 signatures valid out of 98 255,
which were collected by the initiative group of the district
referendum on the issue of passing the law in Krasnoyarsk
district 'On ban of construction [continuation of construction]
of objects for nuclear fuel reprocessing, including RT-2, on the
territory of Krasnoyarsk district'. It was necessary to collect
at least 25 thousand signatures, taken in due form. 'Greenpeace
Russia was among those who initiated the signatures collection.
We can state that 95 per cent of the Krasnoyarsk district
citizens are against RT-2,'- said Oganes Targulyan, Greenpeace
Russia activist, who is  now in Krasnoyarsk. 'We collected
signatures in all 20 towns of the district and in 37 regions out
of 42. Each third family in Krasnoyarsk put its signature to
carry out the referendum'.

Tomorrow the district electoral committee will forward 86 234
signatures for examining to the Legislative Assembly of 
Krasnoyarsk district, which is to appoint the referendum. 'In a
month they are to take a decision out of three possible: to
reject the initiative to carry out the referendum if the Law on
districts referenda has been violated, to pass the proposed bill
for Krasnoyarsk district without making amendments or to appoint
the district referendum on the given issue', said Ivan Blokov,
Greenpeace Russia campaigns coordinator.

To save budget money, the initiative group conveyed a letter to
the Chairman of the Legislative assembly, where it's proposed to
carry out the referendum together with the upcoming elections in
the district. This would allow to finance social programs and
nature protection projects.

'One can easily understand why the district community does not
want to live near to plants like RT-2. Waste reprocessing is
inherently hazardous, which has been proved by recent accidents
at similar plants in France [La Hague] and Japan [Tokai],' said
Ivan Blokov, Greenpeace Russia.

If the decision to carry out the referendum is taken,
Krasnoyarsk district will become the second case in the Russian
history, when the community is given the chance to decide the
future of the dangerous nuclear project. On December 8, 1996 87
per cent of Kostroma citizens, out of those who came to the
election polls, voted against the nuclear power plant
construction in Kostroma.



For more information contact: Greenpeace Russia, tel. 251-90-73,
Ivan Blokov, Andrew Semenov.

Krasnoyarsk, tel. (3912) 22-13-79, Oganes Targulyan



Information for the editor



According to the Krasnoyarsk Law on district referenda, it's
necessary to collect in three months 50 thousand signatures of
district citizens, who are at least 18 years old, or 25 thousand
signatures in more than 1/3 district towns and regions. The
collection of signatures started on December 10, 1996. On March
10, 1997 98 255 signatures were forwarded to the Krasnoyarsk
district electoral committee.

The construction of RT-2 started in 1984, and already in 1990 it
was stopped due to inadequate financing. It was designed for
reprocessing spent fuel from NPPs to separate plutonium. Eighty
per cent of  spent nuclear fuel was supposed to come from
foreign NPPs and only twenty per cent - from those in Russia.
Therefore the major part of  waste would stay in Krasnoyarsk,
what could not but raise protests of the community and
ecologists. 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 is notorious,  for the rate of leukemia among children
has been estimated  between 2-10 times higher than the averages
in other regions. On March 11, 1997 thirty five workers were
exposed to radiation at another reprocessing plant in Japan at
the Tokai village, about 130 km northeast of Tokyo.



A Feasibility Study by the State Ecological Expertise at the
RT-2 plant has shown that technological processes at the plant
would necessarily bring to radioactive releases into the
environment.