Russia Plans Nuclear Dump for Soviet Test Site

MOSCOW, Russia, May 29, 2002 (ENS) - Russia has chosen the former Soviet nuclear test site on Novaya Zemlya in the far north as a disposal site for nuclear waste that could be imported from anywhere in the world.

The Russian Ministry of Atomic Power (Minatom) and Governor of Arkhangelsk region Anatoly Efremov made the announcement that a dump site for low and medium level radioactive waste would be built at the former Soviet nuclear test site on the Arctic archipelago Novaya Zemlya. Novaya Zemlya is the northern extension of the Ural Mountains which divide the European and Asian continents.

Minatom says the project on the strait between two Arctic islands will cost about US$70 million and is scheduled for completion within three years.

On May 21, Minatom and Efremov said low and medium level radioactive waste will be moved to Novaya Zemlya from the regional storage site at Severodvinsk, a small city and nuclear submarine base on the site called Mironova Mountain.

Map showing location of Novaya Zemlya (Map courtesy Sam Clayton)

On May 12, in advance of U.S.-Russia meetings earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov also denied that the recent activity at Novaya Zemlya had anything to do with nuclear weapons testing, calling such suspicions "ungrounded."

Russia has been moving in the direction of importing high-level nuclear waste. Last year the country changed its laws to permit import of radioactive waste including spent nuclear fuel from power plants. Government officials estimate that over the next 10 years the project could earn the country about US$21 billion.

Anti-nuclear activists say that figure is enormously inflated to justify the program. Activists from EcoDefense and other groups across Russia have been protesting Russian import of nuclear waste for years.

"There are no regions across Russia where people would accept radioactive waste dumping. For the past 50 years nuclear industry was unable to create technology for waste disposal that would be safe for people and the environment," said Vladimir Slivyak, co-chair for Ecodefense, environmental group campaigning against unsafe disposal of radioactive waste.

"Hundreds of protest actions against possible radwaste disposal took place all over Russia in last three years. But nobody lives on Novaya Zemlya, so nuclear industry hopes nobody would bother them there with protests," Slivyak said.

Novaya Zemlya (Photo credit Thomas Nilsen/Bellona)

"The nuclear industry just wants to build a cheap facility for low-level radioactive waste first and then dump there everything it has to get rid of, mainly spent fuel", said Alisa Nikulina, anti-nuclear campaigner for Socio-Ecological Union, an umbrella for nearly 300 environmental groups across the Russian Federation.

"Construction of a dumping site for low level waste costs much smaller then repository for spent fuel," said Nikulina. "One can not build site to dispose all kinds of radioactive waste for 70 million people, unless you ignore all kinds of safety systems."

Anti-nuclear activists say that Novaya Zemlya is far from cities or villages where people may organize effective public control over operations of nuclear industry. "That gives Minatom the ability to violate all kinds of law and regulation, as it did many times in the past, and nobody would speak a word about it," Nikulina said.

Slivyak said, "Ecodefense greatly concerned over the possibility of radiation leaks to the environment if the dumping site on Novaya Zemlya is constructed, even if the plan looks safe on paper."

"The Russian nuclear industry is famous for its inability to construct safe nuclear facilities. Industry cannot be trusted and, in case of Novaya Zemlya project, it would be very hard to monitor what's going on there," he warned.

Ecodefense and the Socio-Ecological Union urge that radioactive wastes be stored at sites which produce them. They say the nuclear industry must increase the safety of nuclear waste storage technology.

A history of nuclear explosions on Novaya Zemlya is reported by the Norwegian Bellona Foundation.

Bellona has produced a report on dumping of radioactive waste in the Russian Far North.