Ren TV, Moscow
[Presenter Anna Fedotova] Russia has signed no contracts for the recycling of used nuclear waste from foreign nuclear power plants Russian Atomic Energy Minister Aleksandr Rumyantsev said today [17 December].
According to him the stiff competition on the nuclear fuel recycling market will make this process very long and painstaking. At the moment, the waste is brought to Russia under the contracts signed by the former Soviet Union. All the transport operations are carried out secretly, and no reports about routes and timing are released, he said.
Protest actions were held in many cities, but they gave no results. Now signatures under the demand to hold a local referendum are being collected in Krasnoyarsk [Siberia].
[Correspondent] While the law on the recycling of the used nuclear fuel in Russia was debated in Moscow, the first shipment of such fuel arrived in Krasnoyarsk. This has raised a ground swell of emotions in Krasnoyarsk Territory. The Krasnoyarsk branch of the Union of the Right Forces has begun collecting signatures under the demand to hold a local referendum against the recycling of the used nuclear fuel. The signatures will be collected until 20 December. The referendum may take place in the spring [2002] after all the preparations are completed.
[Passage omitted: Krasnoyarsk residents comment on the issue.]
In the meantime, 40 t of used nuclear fuel have been unloaded at the chemical plant in the town of Zheleznogorsk. You can see how the railway carriage is being opened and a container with the fuel is being taken out. This is the first shipment arriving to the plant from abroad. Specialists say that they have been getting ready for this for 11 years.
[Viktor Bespalov, captioned as deputy chief of the shop for the transportation and storing of nuclear wastes] The Bulgarian fuel is absolutely identical to the Russian one because their nuclear power plant was built by specialists from the former Soviet Union. According to various international contracts, we supply fuel to them and take away their used fuel.
[Correspondent] In theory, the used nuclear fuel is a good raw material for extracting uranium. However, the chemical plant is not able to process it at the moment. The construction of the fuel regenerating plant, which had begun before the Perestroika, was frozen seven years ago. So the fuel will simply be stockpiled in Zheleznogorsk. Under the agreement, Krasnoyarsk Territory will keep 25 per cent of the sum paid for the storing of the fuel, and Zheleznogorsk will receive 25 per cent of those 25 per cent.
[Vasiliy Zhydkov, captioned as general director of the plant] This money will go to social and environmental projects in the zone affected by the defence activities of the chemical plant [as received]. Of course, the town of Zheleznogorsk, the Yenisey river's area and the plant's territory are mostly affected.
[Correspondent] The Territory's authorities realize that the storing and recycling of the used nuclear fuel could become a good business. However, the administration shares the environmental concern of the residents.
[Krasnoyarsk Region governor Aleksandr Lebed] If a referendum is held, and I want to emphasize it, the decision is adopted according to law, then we have the Constitution which says that the people are the supreme authority in our country. We shall say 'yes sir' and implement the will of the people.
[Passage omitted: on plans to hold more referendums in Chelyabinsk and Tomsk Regions.]
[Video shows: the activists collecting signatures, Krasnoyarsk residents, footage of the plant in Zheleznogorsk]
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