EU RUSSIAN "DISARMAMENT" FUNDING COULD INCREASE RUSSIAN STOCKS OF WEAPONS-USABLE PLUTONIUM

5 March 2001

Brussels - The European Commission is considering a "disarmament" funding proposal for Russia which will actually increase the country's stocks of weapons-usable plutonium, heighten the risks of nuclear weapons proliferation and cause severe environmental contamination, Greenpeace warned today.

A new Russian government document (1), obtained by Greenpeace, reveals plans to use Western disarmament funds to set up a new nuclear reactor programme, known as Fast Breeders, which burn MOX fuel. According to the document the government is considering leasing MOX fuel, made from weapons grade plutonium, to nuclear power plants ".... owned by utilities of Western countries, like Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, Japan, which are interested in the process of nuclear disarmament". The document states, that Belgium and Italy "are currently joining" a Russian-French-German agreement on peaceful use of weapons grade plutonium. The consequences of this would be an increase in the amount of Russian weapons-usable plutonium and a major increase in the number of nuclear transports in Western Europe as plutonium MOX fuel is moved from Russia to Western Europe and nuclear waste is returned to Russia after the MOX fuel has been burnt in commercial reactors.

European Commission External Affairs, commissioner Chris Patten is setting up a "Unit of Experts" (2) to consider funding the production of mixed oxide plutonium (MOX) reactor fuel, as a way to utilise plutonium taken from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons. The European Union and the G8 group of countries support this option, despite MOX fuel being classified as a "direct-use weapons material" by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

A two-day meeting starts in Brussels tomorrow (Tuesday) of the G8 Plutonium Disposition Program Group (PDPG) with participation of the European Union to discuss the financing of the Russian MOX program. Also in Brussels on Thursday another high-ranked meeting of the Non-proliferation and Disarmament Co-operation Initiative (NDCI) with representatives from all EU and all G8 countries as well as Switzerland, Australia and Norway will discuss the financing and in particular the use of MOX fuel in Western countries. On Friday EU and U.S. experts will also meet in Brussels to discuss how to fund the production of MOX fuel in Russia. G8 experts have already identified the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)as the most appropriate funding mechanism. About US$ 100 million of the funding for a US$ 1.9 billion program is expected to come from the EBRD.

"This program is a dangerous fraud. As a result of this so-called disarmament initiative, Russia will have more weapons-usable nuclear materials than ever before," said Greenpeace nuclear expert Tobias Muenchmeyer.

Last Friday in Moscow Greenpeace revealed confidential documents revealing the large-scale illegal business dealings of Evgeny Adamov, Minister of the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom), and demanded his dismissal.

"The EU must be mad to throw millions of dollars into Adamov's ministry for a Russian MOX program. There is no guarantee, that this money will not end up on a private Swiss bank account of Minister Adamov." said Tobias Muenchmeyer.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Tobias Muenchmeyer +49 30 440 58 960

www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/waste/russianwaste.html

Download the Greenpeace report: The Disarmament Myth of Plutonium Fuel Production (in pdf)

(1) Presentation by Vice-Minister of Minatom, Valentin Ivanov, to the Russian cabinet on February 8.

(2) The unit of experts will begin work in the coming weeks under the "European Union Cooperation Programme for Non-Proliferation and Disarmament in the Russian Federation".

(3) The Russian MOX funding discussions in Brussels follow a G8 agreement in Okinawa to agree on a financing plan by the next G8 meeting in Genoa, Italy, on July 20.

The G8 decision follows an in principle in September 1998 between U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin to dispose of weapons-grade plutonium (known as plutonium disposition) from their national stockpiles, declared excess to military requirements. A Joint US-Russian Plutonium Disposition Options Study identified two options for plutonium disposition: plutonium disposition by burning in MOX fuel or immobilization of plutonium. Under a September 2000 US-Russian agreement 25 tonnes of the US and 34 tonnes of the Russian excess weapons plutonium is to be 'burned' in nuclear reactors as MOX, while nine tons of the U.S. plutonium is to be immobilized."