US CONDITIONS CAST DOUBT ON FUTURE OF RUSSIAN PLANS TO IMPORT NUCLEAR WASTE

US CONDITIONS CAST DOUBT ON FUTURE OF RUSSIAN PLANS TO IMPORT NUCLEAR WASTE

8 June 2001

Moscow, Russia, 2001: Russian government plans to import nuclear waste were in doubt after the US State Department ruled out Russian reprocessing of nuclear waste as an option for US origin nuclear fuel, which accounts for 90 percent of the potential waste imports.

"Russia is neither able nor willing to fulfil the US conditions, which amount to a de facto veto on this dangerous Russian nuclear waste import scheme," said Tobias Muenchmeyer of Greenpeace International. "The US conditions make Minatom's plans impossible. Without the US controlled fuel the Minatom program, if it proceeds, will involve mainly spent nuclear fuel from former Eastern Block countries."

The State Department's announcement followed Greenpeace's call for the US government to veto nuclear waste exports to Russia. The announcement came out a few hours after the Russian Duma on Wednesday approved a controversial amendment to the environmental law, which overturned a ban on the import of radioactive waste to Russia

Reprocessing (see notes) of imported nuclear waste is a crucial part of the Russian Atomic Ministry's (Minatom) plan. Minatom estimates, 16,000t of the 20,000t imported would be reprocessed. The US State Department, in a statement released yesterday clarifying US policy, said: "For Russia to import irradiated fuel containing US origin nuclear material would require a Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with the US, something it does not now have".

The statement continued: "In considering whether in the future to grant consent for retransfer, the US would want to consider several factors. For instance, the US would want to be assured that the transfer was for eventual disposal, and not for reprocessing, in order to avoid increases in civil stockpiles of separated plutonium. The US would need to be assured that the planned transportation, storage, and disposition of the fuel complied with appropriate standards of safety and security. An especially important factor would be the nature of Russia's nuclear cooperation with third parties". The last point refers to American concerns over Russian sales of nuclear technology to Iran.

Recent calculations based on data provided by the US Department of Energy (DOE) show that more than 90 percent of foreign radioactive waste (spent nuclear fuel) considered for import by Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom) is under US control.

Only 180t (or 7.5 percent) of the 2,400 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel produced annually, by Minatom's claimed potential client countries, could be exported to Russia without US approval.

This material is mainly produced in Eastern European countries and in China.

The State Department conditioned a permission for countries to export US controlled fuel to: a commitment that Russia would give up its plan to reprocess the imported spent fuel: that transportation, storage, and disposition of fuel would comply with international safety standards; and Russia would give up nuclear cooperation with Iran and India.

The law changes, approved by the Duma on Wednesday, must go in the coming days to the Russian Upper House. The leader of Russia's Upper House is opposed to the radioactive waste import legislation

"The Federation Council must demonstrate that it has nothing to do with the nuclear mafia, but is reflecting the people's opinion. Greenpeace urges the Federation Council to turn down this insane law change." said Muenchmeyer.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Tobias Muenchmeyer (Berlin) +49 170 86 66 052
- Ivan Blokov (Moscow) +7 095 257 41 22 or visit the Greenpeace website at
www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/waste/russianwaste.html where a chronology of events leading up to today's Duma vote is available.
PHOTOS AND VIDEO are available of the victims of radioactive pollution from the Mayak nuclear facility.
Contact Greenpeace Communications Mim Lowe (video) or John Novis (photo) on ++31-20-5236222

Nuclear fuel reprocessing involves the separation of plutonium, the basic ingredient for nuclear weapons, from nuclear waste. There are only three civil reprocessing plants operating in the world: Sellafield (UK), La Hague (France) and Mayak (Russia) all of which have a disastrous track record of accidents and environmental pollution.

It is the declared objective of Minatom to establish a "closed nuclear fuel cycle" or plutonium economy in Russia: Spent fuel would be reprocessed, separated Plutonium fabricated into MOX fuel and the MOX fuel loaded in Fast Breeder Reactors, the most dangerous reactors in the world, to produce ("breed") more plutonium, which then can be separated and used again. USA, Germany, France, Italy and Belgium have all cancelled their fast breeder programs, because of economic and safety reasons, Japan has halted its program, only Russia still believes in the use of fast breeder technology.