An Appeal To:
The Speaker of the Russian State Duma
and the Chairmen of the following Duma factions:
Communist Party of the Russian Federation Unity
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
Fatherland-All Russia
Union of Right Forces
Yabloko
Agrarian Deputy Group
People's Deputy Group
Russia's Regions Deputy Group
Dear Deputies of the Russian State Duma,
Save your beautiful country from becoming a nuclear wasteland!
As representatives of ___# of non-governmental organizations around the
globe , and as world citizens, we urge you to reject the law on "Special
Ecological Problems on the Environmental Rehabilitation of
Radioactively-Polluted Regions of the Russian Federation, Financed from
Revenue from International Trade in Nuclear Fuel," and the related
amendments to the law on "The Use of Nuclear Energy," and to the law on
"The Protection of the Environment." We strongly believe that approving
such laws will not only bring irreparable harm to your country, but will
threaten the safety of other countries.
Why, you may ask, do we express ourselves so forcefully about a matter
seemingly so far away from us? Why are we - citizens of other countries -
against the importation of radioactive nuclear fuel into Russia?
First of all, as a matter of environmental principle and justice, we feel
that spent nuclear fuel generated by a country should be kept isolated from
the environment and stored, as safely as possible, by that nation - and not
stashed in someone else's backyard.
It is especially unethical to take advantage of a country's socio-economic
crisis by offering them chimerical profits in exchange for storing
materials that present serious dangers to their population. Each country
must take financial, technical and social responsibility for its own waste
products.
The history of the nuclear power industry shows that spent nuclear fuel has
been primarily used to extract plutonium. However, today plutonium is no
longer needed for military purposes, and the use of plutonium as fuel for
commercial nuclear reactors is not profitable.
Once created, plutonium cannot be used for fuel for nuclear reactors for
decades. In the meantime, storing one ton of plutonium costs, according to
various sources, costs from $1 million to $5 million a year. According to
these costs, then, storing the amount of plutonium that your Ministry of
Atomic Energy intends to create will require annual expenditures ranging
from $200 million to $1 billion. This calculation is based on figuring that
200 tons of plutonium can be produced from the 20,000 tons of nuclear waste
that would be brought into Russia. This transaction becomes especially
unprofitable if you take into consideration the environmental and public
health consequences of importing nuclear waste.
Moreover, we should remember the lessons of history with respect to the
reprocessing of nuclear spent fuels, i.e. both the large swaths of
territory all over the world already polluted in past years and the costs
of rehabilitating this land. Already these costs are a drain on the state
budgets of our respective governments, costs which will only grow for
Russia if it produces more plutonium. Plutonium ends up being an incredible
burden even for the richest countries.
We understand that in the past decade there have been several incidents
where nuclear fuel stored in Russia has disappeared. Therefore, we feel
justified in raising concerns about control over the radioactive materials
your government is proposing to import. Needless to say, this plutonium
could fall into the hands of the enemies of peace.
We public interest organizations who sign this letter wish you to
understand that we work on these difficult nuclear waste issues in our
respective nations - as well as globally. On a regular basis, we
communicate with our various governments regarding spent nuclear fuel's
potential environmental, health and proliferation risks. We do not write
only to Russia on this topic.
Finally, in our country spent nuclear fuel is called nuclear waste. It is
not a valuable substance, as some of our energy officials still like to
claim, but a danger to the health of our land and people.
Setting aside the various economic and financial questions connected to the
market in radioactive materials, we wish to impress upon you the gravity of
the danger in trading in nuclear waste and remind you of your
responsibility before future generations.
Thus, importing nuclear waste presents serious dangers to your public
health, environment, economy and even national security as well as that of
other countries.
We therefore hope that you will try to receive and will carefully study all
available information on this question - including the opinions of
independent and unbiased experts - when this bill is again under
consideration in March 2001.
Please consider the many people both in Russia and in other countries that
will be affected by your actions.
Respectfully yours,
(names here)
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