STOP SENDING GERMAN NUCLEAR WASTE TO RUSSIA

Anti-atom.ru, August 15, 2010 - New transportation of nuclear waste from Germany to Russia is planned for late 2010 or 2011 through the Baltic sea. It consists of 951 spent fuel roads from research reactor in Rossendorf. Roads are stored in Ahaus nuclear waste storage since 2005. Ecodefense strongly opposes this transportation and demand to cancel this.

Transportation of nuclear waste can be called "Mobile Chernobyl" because it increases risks of theft and accidents with radiation leaking to the environment. Moreover, if this waste arrives to Russia and then reprocessed - the volume of radioactive waste will grow 150 times. Poor management at Russian nuclear facilities, together with extreme climate change events including forest fires, may later cause new radiation accidents.

Although German officials did not disclose the route, waste will likely be transported by ship to Sankt-Petersburg, then by railway to "Mayak" nuclear reprocessing facility. Territory near "Mayak" facility, close to Chelyabinsk city, is the most radioactively contaminated place on Earth. This is the only facility in Russia where spent fuel roads from research reactor can be reprocessed.

Reprocessing can not solve the problem with nuclear waste, but it will increase the volume of waste. As a result of 1 ton of nuclear waste reprocessed, about 150 tons of new radioactive waste appears. Part of this waste will be stored at "Mayak", and another part will be dumped to nearby lake Karachay.

"This is an attempt to drop the responsibility for German nuclear waste on the shoulders of future' generations of Russians. Together with our German colleagues in Ahaus, we insist that dropping waste in Russia is no solution and that nuclear waste must not cross national borders. Both Russian and German governments should invest into new technologies to find real solution for nuclear waste - honest and transparent. What we see right now is the deal secretly arranged by Russian-German nuclear mafia which must be opposed by all possible means", said Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman for Ecodefense, Russian environmental group.