International Herald Tribune, December 22, 2000
Russia Risks Another Chernobyl
By Cristina Chuen and Elena Sokova
Is the world ready for a self-regulating nuclear industry in Russia, just a short time after the Chernobyl power plant was finally shut down? The Ministry of Atomic Energy thinks so and is promoting a bill before the Parliament that may soon emasculate Russia's independent nuclear regulatory agency. The bill would transfer authority over licensing and safety inspections from the Federal Inspectorate for Nuclear and Radiation Safety, known in Russia by its acronym GAN, to the ministry, known as Minatom - a throwback to the Chernobyl era.
The creation of a nuclear regulatory agency was a singular achievement of the budding Russian democracy in the early 1990s. It was also a result of a serious re-evaluation of Russia's nuclear programs after the 1986 Chernobyl accident. The 1994 International Nuclear Safety Convention, which Russia has signed, requires parties to separate operation and regulatory activities.
But, Minatom soon chafed under the new regulations, and began to lobby against GAN's ''intrusive'' inspections and exacting licensing procedures. First, GAN lost its jurisdiction over Russia's nuclear navy. In 1996, the inspectorate was required to make its annual reports secret. This summer Minatom pushed through a government decree eliminating GAN's right to license any military-related nuclear activities. Now Minatom is trying to eliminate GAN's right to license and perform safety inspections in the civilian sector. If Minatom succeeds, GAN would be left without any effective regulatory tools. Although the minister of atomic energy, Yevgeni Adamov, claims that the licensing change is merely a question of streamlining and that his ministry is not trying to destroy the nuclear regulatory body, the chairman of GAN, Yuri Vishnevsky, says that one should ''not believe a word Adamov says.'' Mr. Vishnevsky knows what he is talking about: Last year, GAN attempted to shut down two plutonium reactors producing electricity near Tomsk, Siberia, because they were unsafe. Instead of fixing the problems, Minatom, with government collusion, kept the reactors running. Today, Minatom is on the verge of a massive expansion of its operations, especially in nuclear energy production. Minatom is bringing new power reactors on line, reconstituting divisions that were privatized under reforms, promoting profitable deals like the sale of nuclear power reactors to Iran, and planning to make money by importing spent nuclear fuel. Furthermore, Minatom has been fighting to consolidate its profit-making enterprises, which currently subsidize activities like nuclear dismantlement, safety and security, into a single corporation. In Soviet times, when the atomic industry monitored itself, it did not have to worry about costs in a state-run economy. Its new focus on profits sharply reduces the incentive for Minatom to maintain safety standards and stop cutting corners. Another reason why Minatom wants to effectively shut down GAN is that in just two years, 12 of Russia's 29 power reactors will reach the end of their service lives, including several old Chernobyl-type reactors. Upgrades can be costly. Minatom hopes to fix the reactors at one-third of the cost that GAN thinks is required to ensure their safe operation. To proceed with its plan, Minatom needs to remove the safety watchdog from the scene. Mr. Vishnevsky said Minatom officials had told him it would be cheaper to buy legislators than to pay for the upgrades. In addition, safety improvements continue to be needed at other nuclear installations. According to Mr. Vishnevsky, many of Russia's 109 research reactors are in dire need of safety upgrades. Russia also has to deal with more than 400 radioactive waste storage sites holding 389 million cubic meters of liquid radioactive waste and nearly 50,000 cubic meters of solid radioactive waste. Can Minatom be trusted to seek out safety problems and fix them appropriately?
Except for GAN itself and the rather weak Russian environmental movement, there is no one to challenge Minatom's plans, particularly since the government of President Vladimir Putin eliminated the State Environmental Committee earlier this year. Recently, a public drive to hold a referendum on Minatom's spent nuclear fuel import plans was halted when the Central Electoral Commission invalidated enough signatures to bury the plebiscite.
The plan to hamstring GAN is being pushed through the legislature with the help of the chairman of the Duma environmental committee, who is the brother of a Minatom deputy minister. The government also supports the changes. No wonder GAN has asked Western regulatory agencies for their support. Foreign countries should insist that no assistance money be spent in the civilian sector without independent inspections. Unless the international community mobilizes, Minatom will soon be able to oversee itself: This closely resembles the situation when Chernobyl exploded. It is not too late yet to reverse the highly dangerous course of events. Can the world afford to let the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy monitor itself once again? As the Russians say, this is like having a wolf guard the sheep. The writers are research associates at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in the Monterey Institute of International Studies. They contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune. (Not to be reproduced without the permission of the author.)
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