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Russian Duma Votes for Import of Nuclear Waste
The Russian State Duma on Wednesday approved at the third and final reading a controversial package of three bills permitting the import of spent nuclear fuel for disposal and storage.
If the bills, passed by a 243-125 vote, are adopted by the Federation Council, or upper house of the parliament, and signed by the president, Russia may import up to 20,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel for disposal and temporary storage in the next 10 years.
For that, Russia is expected to receive more than 20 billion US dollars, most of which will be spent on special environmental programs.
Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov said he believed Russia would not become the world's nuclear dumping ground.
He said the Duma passed the bills "following a very tough debate." Some deputies had made the issue a political one, but the majority believed no danger is involved in this action.
Meanwhile, the Upper House Speaker Yegor Stroyev claimed his council will treat the issue "very attentively," as the bills "are being pushed through by the nuclear lobby."
"Despite the seeming economic benefit, the introduction of nuclear wastes is actually a serious problem," he said.
Before adopting such laws in Russia, Stroyev said, it is better to determine what threat these wastes would pose to the coming generations of Russians rather than think about the profits the country could reap.
The controversial bills are strongly opposed by many environmentalists and Duma's right-wing factions.
Vladimir Kuznetsov, a leading nuclear and radiation safety expert, told a Wednesday press conference that Russia's nuclear industry facilities have not prepared yet to dispose and store both foreign and local nuclear waste.
Russia "does not have a standardized technology to dispose both foreign and local fuel due to the differences in isotope composition, the degree of burning as well as other parameters," he added.
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