Russia may import British nuclear waste

Russian environmentalists were told of plans to import nuclear waste from the US and Britain at a meeting with Alexander Rumyantsev, the Head of the Russian Ministry of Atomic Power on 9 April.

Russian law has been changed to allow such imports. Rumyantsev told the meeting that a contract would be signed in 2003 for the import of spent nuclear fuel from research reactors in Britain. This would be stored at Krasnoyarsk in Siberia and then processed at the Mayak Chemical Combine near Chelyabinsk. Storage facilities at Krasnoyarsk are being increased five times. Russia is also working on obtaining permission from the US to import American nuclear waste. The Russian environmental group Ecodefence has discovered evidence that Russia planned to import nuclear waste from Taiwan and then dump it on Simuchir island in the Russian Far East.

Vladimir Slivyak, co-chair of Ecodefence: "The import of nuclear waste is a crime against the environment and future generations. Britain should not dump its radioactive garbage on Russia."