Deutsche Presse-Agentur, December 22, 2000
Russia's Mayak Nuclear Waste Plant Not Ready To Take Imports
Russia's only nuclear facility for reprocessing nuclear waste is not equipped to take thousands of tons of spent fuel rods imported from foreign power stations as the government in Moscow plans, an official at the Mayak centre in the Urals said Friday.
Russia's parliament, the Duma, on Thursday backed a bill which, if enacted after further readings, would open the way for reprocessing operations that would earn an estimated 20 billion dollars over the next ten years.
As Western reactor types vary considerably from Russian ones, extensive restructuring of Mayak's equipment is needed to meet the plans, a centre spokesman Yevgeny Ryzhkov told the Interfax news agency.
The bill envisages that used reactor fuel rods from Western power stations will be imported for treatment but not permanent disposal.
Ecologists and anti-nuclear power activists fear that the step marks the start of Russia's transformation into a refuse tip for dangerous waste from all round the world.
About 14,000 tons of an estimated 200,000 tons of the world's used fuel rods are currently stored in Russia.
The bill if passed could draw a further 20,000 tons of waste from India, Iran and China where Russian companies continue to build nuclear power stations, and from Taiwan, South Korea, Switzerland and Japan.
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