Interfax Russian News, December 22, 2000
Ozyorsk Mayor Welcomes Duma Decision for Reprocessing of Spent Nuclear Fuel
Mayor of the town of Ozyorsk in the Chelyabinsk region Sergei Chernyshov has said he welcomes the State Duma's adoption in the first reading of amendments to the effective law that will allow spent (irradiated) nuclear fuel to be brought to Russia from abroad for storage and reprocessing.
"I welcome this[ decision] as a man who worked at[ the enterprise] Mayak for 12 years, as a man who was born in this town, works here, and will live and work further. It is a blessing for Ozyorsk, a blessing for the whole of Russia," Chernyshov told Interfax on Friday.
The town of Ozyorsk is a closed administrative unit housing the Mayak nuclear processing plant. Only four companies in the world, including Mayak, possess the necessary technology for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel.
The work on reprocessing spent nuclear fuel "is extremely important to do, because this can bring the country[ Russia] money that the government and the deputies are often unable to find and that can be spent on solving numerous social problems," Chernyshov said. The Ozyorsk mayor said he is certain that "the enterprise has enough production potential for this" and expressed his surprise over statements made by ecologists on the plant's "insufficient capacity."
Certain ecological problems in Ozyorsk are attributable to the initial stage of the plant's operation, when "no one knew what to do in this or that situation and the scale of consequences was ignored," Chernyshov said. In particular, the mayor mentioned the problem of the so-called "ninth reservoir"- the Karachai Lake, in which "a moving lens" of radioactive waste appeared. "A special project is being carried out" in relation to this reservoir, Chernyshov said.
"There are some very interesting proposals from other countries" designed to resolve certain ecological problems, he said.
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