REUTERS NEWS SERVICE, November 29, 2000
Russia Denies Referendum on Nuclear Waste Import
MOSCOW, Russia, November 29, 2000 (ENS) - A proposal by Russian
environmentalists for a nationwide referendum on the issue of importing
nuclear waste has been turned down by the Central Election Committee
(Tsentrizbirkom) in Moscow.
The referendum was proposed on July 26 to find out what Russians think
about the import and burying of radioactive waste in the country.
A coalition of environmental groups from across Russia collected almost 2.5
million signatures, but about 617,000 of them were declared fake and
invalid after examination.
A referendum can be announced if 2.5 million signatures are collected in
its support. Election authorities approved only 1.8 million of signatures
as valid.
"Government doesn't want people's action against nuclear waste import
because there is a chance to make up to $20 billion on it," said Vladimir
Slivyak, co-chairman the anti-nuclear group EcoDefense!
The Russian environmental group led the referendum initiative. The group
has succeeded in stopping several nuclear waste transports to Russia from
Taiwan and Bulgaria in the past.
"Authorities are trying to ignore that there is more than 90 percent of
population opposed to the waste import," says Alisa Nikoulina of
Anti-Nuclear Campaign of the Socio-Ecological Union, an umbrella
organization including about 300 local environmental groups across the
Russian Federation.
On November 22, members of Russian parliament, the Duma, postponed a review
of an amendment to the law on environmental protection that would remove
the current ban on the import of nuclear waste from Russian legislation.
According to ROMIR, the national center on public opinion, more than 93
percent of Russians are opposed to a proposal by the Ministry of Atomic
Power (Minatom) to import spent nuclear fuel from foreign countries to
improve country's economic situation.
Russian security officers break up the August 3 anti-nuclear waste
demonstration in front of Chelyabinsk Governor Petr Sumin's mansion.
Even in Ozyorsk, the city where Russia's Mayak nuclear waste reprocessing
plant is located, more than 70 percent of the population is opposed to the
import of nuclear waste import, even if such import would provide new jobs
for city residents.
The environmentalists are questioning why Minatom does not reprocess the
14,000 tons of Russian spent nuclear waste that is already stockpiled
before seeking to import more.
"Government doesn't want a real democracy to be developed in our country,"
says Slivyak. "But there is one thing which is not taken into account so
far - millions of people supported an initiative by environmental
activists. Those people may start to protest the import of waste in more
radical forms."
Some Russian nuclear officials say reprocessing of foreign nuclear waste
could bring the country much needed hard currency and should not be seen as
dangerous.
Two other items on the referendum petition were the creation of a federal
authority for environmental protection and a separate forestry service to
replace the agencies eliminated by President Vladimir Putin shortly after
he took office in May.
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