The SEU-Times, December, 2000
Referendum killed, nuclear waste welcomed
By Olga Berlova
Russian authorities do not care about what people think or want. We have
received several proofs for that lately. 2,5 million of signatures is just
an obstacle for nuclear bosses.
As you may know already, the Central Election Commission has killed the
referendum that would have asked whether voters opposed the importation of
radioactive materials for storage, reprocessing or burying. But citing
numerous technical inaccuracies, the Central Elections Commission struck off
more than a fifth of the 2.5 million signatures collected across the country
this fall, leaving the environmentalists with just over 1.8 million
signatures - 200,000 short of the 2 million needed to force a referendum.
Clearly it was another step towards something that has been long desired by
the Nuclear Power Ministry - passing the amendment to Russian environmental
legislation allowing to dump spent nuclear fuel in Russia.
The hearings in Russian State Duma required to pass the amendment were
several times rescheduled, due to the controversies and protests. The
Nuclear Power Ministry and Evegeny Adamov, the Minister, personally worked
hard to lure the deputies into amendement support, observers say.
Had the CEC agreed to accept at least 2 million of the collected signatures,
the hearing would have had to have been canceled, as stipulated by the
referendum law. But as the referendum was halted, there was nothing to stop
the Duma from passing Adamov's bill, which would allow his ministry to go
ahead with a deal to accept up to 20,000 tons of spent fuel from 14
countries in Asia and Europe for 50 years of storage. "The authorities do
not allow people to use democratic means to prevent Russia from being turned
into a radioactive dump," said Vladimir Slivyak, a leader of the SEU
Anti-nuclear campaign. Activists said the real reason was that the election
commission was ordered to block the referendum by the government. "[CEC
Chairman Alexander] Veshnyakov did as he was told [by the Kremlin]," said
Thomas Nilsen, a researcher at the Norwegian environmental group Bellona,
which supported the referendum drive.
The voting was finally scheduled for December 22. However, on late December
20 it was moved onto December 21 - to prevent the environemntalists
demonstrations. This did not, however, affect the Nuclear astroturf groups
demonstration at 10 am - right before the hearings.
The routine slogans - jobs and profits is just a populistic outside of the
whole nuclear junk affair. The Ministry will get all the money from the
deals, and will, of course, spend it for the further nuclear power
development.
The majority fo Duma fractions said "yes" to the bill in its first reading,
despite the numerous protests and despite the signatures collected. Thus
Duma memberes do not even pretend anymore that they work for the interests
of the people who has elected them.
The bill is still to undergo chnges and to pass the second reading.
The meaning of the current events in Russia for the rest of the world is
much more dreadfull than it may seem. Not speaking of the ethical side of
nuclear states turning Russia into radioactive waste dump, this means the
further promotion of the nuclear power development worldwide. Goverenments
and corporations are getting rid of the responsibilty for the waste their
nuclear entereprises produced already, and feel free to prodice even more
without thinking of consequences. Nice bargain offered by Russian Minatom
(prices for NW processing and storage are much lower than the worldwide)
allows the nuclear irresponsiblity to continue.
Separate issue is the safety of the territories through which the waste
would be shipped (if would) to Russia. Taken into account the rise of the
terrorism in the world and within Russia, one may say that the whole world
safety is questioned.
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