A tangled web of corrupt Russian ministers, powerful members of the US military and security elite, a prominent American environmental organisation, global PR companies and the nuclear industry, spurred on by the prospect of a pile of cash, is on the brink of turning Russia into a dumping ground for the world's nuclear waste. Despite massive opposition from the Russian people, the Russian parliament is poised make a change in legislation that paves the way for a deadly global trade in high level nuclear waste. Olaf Bayer investigates…

The Problem
One of the nuclear power industry's greatest failures is its inability to develop a safe method for the long term storage, or disposal, of its spent nuclear fuel. Approximately 220,000 metric tonnes of spent nuclear fuel have been created since the 1950s . But despite not having a clue what to do with its waste, the nuclear industry seems content to bury its head in the sand and carry on with business as usual.

The global stockpile of spent nuclear fuel continues to grow by approximately 10,000 metric tonnes per year[1]. As well as being highly radioactive, this spent fuel contains weapons-grade plutonium. Storage of this material is an expensive and politically sensitive problem. The prospect of offloading it onto a third party who will take it away and deal with it is an opportunity governments would jump at.

Recent attempts to develop centralised repositories for nuclear waste in the Australian outback, Sweden and Canada have failed. A US plan to build a waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is facing mounting opposition and seems unlikely to go ahead. The most recent schemes are US-backed Russian initiatives to import thousands of tonnes of spent nuclear fuel to Russia.

The Market
Minatom, the Russian State nuclear agency, is keen to be the first to cash in on what it sees as new global market in commercial nuclear waste storage. It is pushing the Russian parliament to change environmental law to allow the import-ation, disposal and reprocessing of foreign nuclear waste. Selling the plan to the Russian Parliament, Minatom head Evgeny Adamov claimed 'French Cogema and BNFL are constantly trying to push us out of the market not only of nuclear fuel supplies, but from the spent fuel market as well. Therefore if we don't pass the draft today everything we are talking about will go to BNFL and Westinghouse.'[2] An initial vote has gone overwhelmingly in favour of the proposed amendments. A second vote is due to take place on March 22nd and is expected to pass.

The idea of promoting Russia as a repository for nuclear waste was initiated in 1998 by an American organisation called The Non-Proliferation Trust (NPT). The NPT aim to acquire 6,000 metric tonnes of spent nuclear fuel from various countries. This waste would then be transported to Russia for storage for up to 40 years. The NPT hope to raise up to $12 billion through this process. Beyond covering their costs this money would be spent on the construction of a permanent repository for the waste, decontamination of Russia's nuclear sites, nuclear non-proliferation activities, and social and environmental schemes within Russia.

The NPT is set up as a not for profit organisation and owned by 3 US charitable trusts: the Minatom Development Trust, the Russian Environmental Trust and the Russian Humanitarian Trust. Its board of directors is made up of extremely senior and influential figures in US nuclear, military and security service circles. They include General P.X. Kelly (former Commandant U.S. Marine Corps); Admiral Bruce DeMars (formerly director of the US Navy nuclear propulsion program, head of the US nuclear submarine fleet and head of the US Navy reactor programme); Dr William von Raab (formerly customs commissioner under the Reagan adminis-tration); and Admiral Daniel J. Murphy (former commander of the US Navy Sixth fleet, deputy director of the CIA and chief of staff for George Bush senior when he was vice-president). He is currently vice chairman of global PR firm Hill and Knowlton. Other figures in the NPT are William Webster (chief trustee of Minatom Development Trust) former head of both the FBI and CIA and Thomas Cochren (chief trustee of Russian Environmental Trust) currently director of the US Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC).

But what do they stand to gain from the proposed project? Jeffery St. Clair in his article 'Hot Property, Cold Cash', suggests the NPT proposal is strongly backed by senior figures in the US State Department, as a way of shoring up the floundering Russian economy and preventing the disintegration of their defence and nuclear forces. It is also unlikely that those invol-ved in the NPT will be personally out of pocket from the scheme. While officially a non-profit making organisation, some sources estimate the NPT stands to make up to $1.2 billion[3].

The Industry
In an attempt to pre-empt opposition, within Russia and elsewhere, the NPT have embarked on an elaborate PR campaign advised by global greenwash giant, Burson Marsteller. From the outset they have been very careful to combine what is essentially a foreign policy (and money making) enterprise, with overtly environmentally and socially beneficial projects in Russia.

The NPT's scheme has prepared the ground for a much more wide-ranging and frightening plan proposed by Minatom. With none of the NPT’s much hyped environmental and social responsibilities, this proposal would allow for Russia to import 20,500 tonnes of spent fuel for storage, disposal and reprocessing. Minatom hopes to earn US$21 billion from the scheme, half of it clear profit[4].

Not only does reprocessing lead to the generation of greater volumes of nuclear waste, but it is envisaged that revenue raised from waste importation will be used to fund the rejuvenation of Russia’s nuclear power industry. As part of ongoing non-proliferation negotiations Russia has agreed to dispose of part of its stock of weapons grade plutonium by converting it into mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) to be burnt in commercial reactors. In another money making scam Minatom are proposing to lease MOX to commercial reactors abroad, with the waste being shipped back to Russia for reprocessing or disposal. Discussions are underway in the EU regarding funding new MOX facilities in Russia through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The EBRD has a reputation for funding dodgy nuclear schemes in eastern Europe such as the construction of the Tremlin nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic.

The strongest proponent of both the NPT and Minatom schemes has been Yevgeny Adamov, Minister for Atom Energy. A recent Russian anti-corruption enquiry has exposed Adamov's extensive history of illegal business activities[5]. Supposedly forbidden from having private business interests, Adamov is involved with a string of private companies, notably setting up a US registered management and consultancy company, Omeka Ltd, in 1994. Omeka has contracts with Tekhsnab-export, the import arm of Minatom, and stands to profit substantially from importing billions of dollars of nuclear waste.

The Protest
There has been widespread outcry at the prospect of Russia becoming a dump ground for the world's nuclear waste. On January 15th thousands of people across Russia took to the streets in demos, pickets and street theatre as part of an ‘Anti-Nuclear Resistance’ day of action. Russian regional authorities have also condemned the proposals. Over 2.5 million signatures were collected by environmental groups calling for a referendum on the import of foreign nuclear waste. 2 million signatures are needed to force a referendum under Russian law, but the Central Election Committee rejected over 700,000 of the votes, blocking the referendum. The Russian state seems intent on ignoring public opinion and pushing the new legislation through regardless.

The blocking of the referendum comes as Russian environmental and human rights activists are suffering an increasing level of state oppression, in what they see as deliberate attempts to marginalise and outlaw them. Russian anti-nuclear activists have been targeted by the police and FSB (successor to the KGB). In 1998 Aleksander Nikitin was charged with treason and spying for co-writing a report on the nuclear hazards posed by the Russian Northern Fleet. The charges were later dropped. In 1999 police, acting on behalf of the FSB, 'warned' Vladimir Slivyak, founder of Ecodefense and prominent member of the Social Ecological Union, and threatened to fit him up on terrorism charges. In the same year the apartments of 2 anti-nuclear activists were raided.

The New Problem
The idea of commercially importing foreign nuclear waste to Russia should be opposed on several levels. It will make Russia's environmental problems worse. Even if the NPT's nuclear clear-up schemes are implemented to their fullest extent, the fact remains that importing thousands of tonnes of spent nuclear fuel is going to be an environmental nightmare. The NPT scheme, although suggesting that waste should only be stored, not reprocessed, only accounts for the storage of waste for 40 years. The waste will remain lethally radioactive for millennia. Reprocessing is possible under the NPT scheme, and a certainty under the Minatom scheme. Waste reprocessing is the dirtiest stage of the nuclear fuel cycle, releasing radioactive liquids and gases, and multiplying the volume of waste. Existing nuclear facilities at Krasnoyarsk and Mayak are the most likely sites for storage and reprocessing. Both facilities have appalling safety records which can only worsen with the arrival of thousands of tons of imported waste.

Both schemes will hugely increase the frequency of international nuclear trans-ports, an inherently dangerous process. Greenpeace draws particular attention to the danger posed by transport using Russia's crumbling rail network[6].

Rather than preventing the spread of bomb making materials, both the NPT and Minatom proposals have serious implications for the proliferation of these materials. Part of the NPT proposal involves taking control of 50 tons of weapons grade plutonium. This would set a dangerous precedent by placing bomb making materials in the hands of a private company. MOX fuel production in Russia and its transport around the world also have worrying implications for weapons proliferation. As a fairly stable plutonium rich compound, MOX is an ideal source for terrorists or governments wishing to acquire plutonium for weapons building[7].

At the root of this whole saga is the ultimate 'not in my backyard' philosophy. The opening of Russian borders to imports of foreign nuclear waste will allow nuclear power producers to rid themselves of one of their biggest headaches. If they can dump their problems now, the industry will get a whole new opportunity to develop new projects and multiply the waste it produces. It will be disposed of in a distant country that is widely perceived as a bit of a nuclear hell hole anyway (some more won't hurt) in return for a lump sum of cash. Corrupt Russian officials, aided and abetted by some of the most powerful men in US military and security circles, are selling the Russian people down the river for $1.5 million a ton. It will effectively enable nuclear power utilities the world over to bribe the government of an economically desperate nation into taking the world's nuclear waste despite the opposition of their people. Russia will be living with the legacy of the world's nuclear waste long after any possible short-term financial rewards have disappeared.

Further Reading
Greenpeace International's Nuclear pages at www.greenpeace.org
The evil NPT's homepage at http://nptinternational.com
An excellent series of essays on the globalisation of the nuclear industry from 'Nuclear Monitor' magazine at www.nirs.org/globalization/globehome

Contact: Socio-Ecological Union (SEU) Moscow seu-press@online.ru View copies of their newsletter at www.igc.org/gadfly

Additional research by: Pippa Gallop
Thanks to: Xanthe Bevis

[1] Figures from 'Importing Radioactive Waste to Russia - a deadly business' Greenpeace International 9.10.00
[2] Y. Adamov, speaking at the 68th Plenary Session of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, 22.12.2000, www.minatom.ru/english/presscenter/document/news/
[3] J. St Clair and A. Cockburn 'Hot Cargo' in Nature and Politics, 29, 9, 99. www.eatthestate.org/04-2/NaturePolitics.htm
[4] figures from Greenpeace International briefing 'Importing Radioactive Waste to Russia-a deadly business'. 9,10,00
[5] Greenpeace International press release, 'Greenpeace Reveals Documents Proving Corruption By Russia' 2.3.01. www.greenpeace.org/pressreleases/nucwaste/2001mar2.htm
[6] Greenpeace International briefing 'Russia Importing Nuclear Waste For Final Disposal and Reprocessing' T. Muenchmeyer and S. Burnie, 9.3.2000.
[7] Greenpeace International briefing 'The Disarmament Myth of Plutonium Fuel Production', T. Muenchmeyer and S. Burnie, March 2001