The St. Petersburg Times, November 14, 2000
Ecogroups Closer to Forcing Plebescite
By Galina Stolyarova
Russian environmentalists have moved a step closer to forcing a referendum
on the import of nuclear waste from abroad, but some observers said that
there was little hope the move would succeed.
At the end of last week, city authorities said they would pass on a petition
on the issue, signatures for which were gathered by environmental groups
across the country, to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) in Moscow.
The environmentalists are opposing a move by the Nuclear Power Ministry to
allow Russia to import spent nuclear fuel from other countries. Proponents
of the idea say that a commercial fuel dump would bring Russia billions of
dollars that would work for the cause of nuclear security.
The project can only go ahead if the State Duma amends the law banning the
import of nuclear waste. A bill that would do so is tentatively scheduled to
be heard Dec. 19. The law as it stands allows Russia to accept spent fuel
from other nations for reprocessing - which yields uranium, plutonium and
huge quantities of radioactive waste water - if the resulting waste is sent
back where it came from.
But environmentalists have repeatedly said that Russia is unable to deal
with its own nuclear industry, let alone everyone else's.
The CEC has 15 days to check the validity of the 2.6 million signatures the
environmentalists claim they gathered, before asking President Vladimir
Putin for a decision on whether or not to hold a nationwide vote on the
matter.
According to Alexander Karpov, an ecologist who helped organize the petition
in St. Petersburg, the signatures collected here and in the Leningrad Oblast
have been declared valid.
This was confirmed on Monday by Tatyana Pastushkova of the St. Petersburg
Electoral Commission. Out of 95,676 signatures put forward for scrutiny,
only 838 (or 0.88 percent) were rejected - either because the signatory was
under 18 years old or for purely technical reasons, such as missing
information.
"We were extremely impressed with this result," Pastushkova said. "Normally,
we reject a much higher number of signatures."
In the Leningrad Oblast, only 520 signatures were refused out of the 17,912
presented for verification.
According to Dmitry Artamonov, head of the St. Petersburg Society of
Greenpeace Supporters, 52 of the 62 regions in which the environmentalists
were active have already passed on signatures to the CEC. The CEC is
expected to finish its own verification work by Nov. 30.
If the president allows a referendum to take place, a date could be set for
March or April of next year, said Karpov.
But Putin may take the issue to the Constitutional Court to see whether it
can be decided by popular vote or not.
Environmentalist Alexander Nikitin welcomed the achievement of the
petition's organizers, but said that they would have a tough time clearing
all hurdles.
"I expect the referendum will encounter serious difficulties," Nikitin said
in an interview Monday. "The Nuclear Energy Ministry will do its best to
invalidate as many signatures as necessary so that the referendum does not
take place, and it will use all its influence to convince the president not
to allow it - as well as pushing the Duma to change the law on nuclear waste
imports ."
Nikitin also said that the $20 billion Russia expects to earn from the
import of spent nuclear fuel would not be enough to solve the country's
environmental problems.
And he said that new technology touted by Deputy Nuclear Energy Minister
Valentin Ivanov at a conference earlier this month, which would make
reprocessing spent fuel cleaner, existed only on paper.
Ivanov claimed that Russia was developing ways of reprocessing nuclear fuel
without ending up by isolating plutonium and uranium.
"What they are presenting as a breakthrough is more old research that has a
number of weaknesses," Nikitin said.
"The real motive behind this kind of talk is the Nuclear Ministry's desire
to make money. The ministry has slumped from being a scientific and
technological center to a commercial enterprise."
But the environmentalists say they won't give up, and will go to the courts
themselves if the CEC rejects the petition, according to Artamonov.
"Legally, we are entitled," he said.
The signature gatherers also criticized the hoops that have to be jumped
through when trying to organize a nationwide vote - on this or any issue.
"Not only does one need a person's name and address, but also his passport
information," said Artamonov, "so people who didn't have their passports
with them couldn't sign." Many environmentalists set up petition centers
outside metro stations or on the streets.
"And this also means that homeless people cannot participate at all, which
is an obvious violation of their rights."
Back to the Publications page
Back to the first page on Abolishing of Russian Environmental Agencies
Back to the If Everything OK With Forests In Russia page
| 
