World’s spent fuel to be buried in Krasnoyarsk region

According to the information from the Moscow group Ecozashita (Ecoprotection), the burial ground for the nuclear wastes from the whole world will be built in the Krasnoyarsk region. Ecologists said, there were new documents found, which proved that the Ministry for Nuclear Power was conducting the research 30 kilometers far from the mining and chemical works (Zheleznogorsk) pertaining to the issue of creating the burial ground to store the nuclear wastes of high activity. This research started in 1998. The site itself is situated 25-30 kilometers from the mentioned factory. The research is being funded together with Finland, Japan and the USA – the countries that experience serious problems due to the saved volumes of the spent fuel on their territories.

In the summer of the year 2001, despite the mass protest expressed from Greenpeace and from several political organizations, 3 bills came into effect in Russia and the spent fuel was allowed to be imported for storage or processing. However, the results show, the imported wastes are not going to be either processed or shipped back for the original owners after the processing. So, most likely, the burial ground is needed to simply bury the nuclear wastes.

The Ministry for Nuclear Power believes the plan to import the spent fuel will bring about $20 billion to Russia within 10 years. Pursuant to the documents, exposed by the group Ecoprotection and by the anti-nuclear company of the social-ecological union in the spring of 2001, thousands of tons of spent fuel were going to be delivered to the mining and chemical works from Taiwan and other countries. The depot, which is disposed at the factory itself is only good for 6 thousand tons of nuclear wastes, it is half-filled and may solve the problem where to store the wastes only within a limited period of time.

The works connected with building the nuclear burial ground have never been publicized in Russia, but the nuclear specialists used to make regular reports abroad regarding the work that had been done. Ecologists have the documents about the research of a certain area not really far from the city of Krasnoyarsk. The papers were prepared at St.Petersburg institute and presented at the 9th international radioactive wastes conference in Las Vegas.