LEAKED DOCUMENT REVEALS SECRET NEGOTIATIONS TO DUMP SWISS NUCLEAR WASTE IN RUSSIA
Greenpeace condemns plans as illegal and immoral

12 January 1999

ZURICH Greenpeace today released a leaked document revealing secret negotiations between industry officials to allow the dumping of Swiss nuclear waste in Russia. Greenpeace has condemned the plans as "illegal" and "immoral" and called for both the Swiss and Russian governments to intervene and discontinue the negotiations.

The document, leaked to Greenpeace in Switzerland, outlines negotiations held in Zurich on September 17, 1998, between representatives of the Swiss nuclear utilities (EGL and NOK) and Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy (MINATOM) officials and their comm ercial agents (Techsnabexport, Russia and Internexco, GmbH, Germany).

In the "Protocol of Intentions", the Swiss officials request that the agreement permit them to send some 2,000 tonnes of highly radioactive spent fuel from Swiss reactors to Russia during the next 30 years, up to 2030. Swiss officials stipulate that this nuclear waste will either remain in Russia and/or could be reprocessed in order to yield plutonium which would be returned to Switzerland while the nuclear waste generated by the reprocessing would remain in Russia.

Even if the fuel is not processed for plutonium extraction, the Swiss side requests that they be able to access Russian plutonium stocks equivalent to those contained in the Swiss fuel. Finally, the Swiss side requests that the Russian accept storage of up to 550 cubic meters of highly radioactive nuclear waste due to be returned to Switzerland from France and Britain between 1999 and 2010 as part of plutonium reprocessing contracts signed between the Swiss utilities and the French state-controlled pl utonium company COGEMA, and UK equivalent BNFL.

In recompense for these services, the Russian side, represented by the Deputy Director of Minatom, N. Yegorov, asks for undisclosed financial payments plus the opportunity to fabricate fresh uranium fuel for the Swiss nuclear reactors.

Following on the Russian sides statement that Russian Federation law must be "...amended accordingly or special decisions are taken on a governmental level", it is agreed that "The parties have come to an understanding that strict confidentiality must be ensured for the current and future negotiations, with respect for both the fact of such negotiations and the preliminary agreements reached by the Parties."

"An agreement containing these terms would be illegal under current Russian law, and the negotiating Parties even state this in their Protocol," said Sergey Tsyplenkov, Executive Director of Greenpeace Russia. "We believe that the Russian Duma and th e Government should intervene to stop these negotiations and take all steps necessary to ban waste dumping and further plutonium reprocessing in Russia."

"It is unimaginable that Swiss industry officials think that their nuclear waste should be dumped in Russia under a clandestine and illegal agreement", said Stefan Fueglister of Greenpeace Switzerland. " The government and Swiss public must stop this i mmoral attempt to exploit Russian poverty and lack of regulatory control. The Swiss government must also stop these negotiations otherwise they would be permitting their nuclear materials to be transferred to facilities which are not under international s afeguards regime and they would effectively be underwriting operations of secret, closed Russian facilities at which nuclear weapons materials continue to be produced."

It would also appear that the negotiating Parties have sought to keep their talks secret from the US government which maintains non-proliferation controls over Swiss nuclear materials of US origin and/or which have been used in US-origin nuclear techno logies.

Accordingly, under the US-Switzerland Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, the U.S. prohibits Switzerland from transferring nuclear materials to third parties without permission. Given that the US has sought to end plutonium reprocessing in Russia in order to guarantee nuclear non-proliferation, this agreement would appear in direct conflict with U.S. foreign policy and would not receive their permission.

Greenpeace has promised to campaign in Russia, Switzerland and the US in order to block the waste dumping/reprocessing agreement.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
- Sergey Tsyplenkov - Moscow - 70 95 257 4116
- Stefan Fueglister - Zurich - 41 1 447 41 50, or mobile 41 79 222 82 59 (for interviews in German only)
- Damon Moglen - Washington DC - 1 202 319 2409

- Read the Swiss Waste briefing paper