Itar-Tass, Moscow
Used nuclear fuel supplied from Bulgaria's Kozlodui nuclear power plant in early November is now in a storage at the Zheleznogorsk mining and chemical plant on the Krasnoyarsk territory, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

The planting of 96 used fuel elements from Bulgaria in the storage "was done in the same way as the planting of more than 6,000 used fuel elements from Russian and Ukrainian nuclear power plants within the past 16 years," the press service said. The first used fuel elements were brought to the storage on December 31, 1985. The fuel will be stored for several decades until its radioactivity reduces. Then it will be processed and returned to Bulgaria.

The recent delivery of used nuclear fuel from Bulgaria to Russia caused a scandal. Environmentalists claimed that the transportation was illegal and turned Russia into "a nuclear dump." Russian and Bulgarian officials disagreed. The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry said that the approximately 41 tonnes of used nuclear fuel were brought from Bulgaria in eight special containers under the bilateral agreement of 1995. The contract worth of 25.7 million rubles "fully conforms to the Russian laws, nature conservancy bills included," they said. The containers fully meet the international standards and prevent a discharge of radioactivity even in major accidents.