Surviving on Nuclear Waste

Surviving on Nuclear Wasteinternational financialinstitutions. Yet, according to
the BBC, of the twelve priorityprojects worth
Author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism$1.3 billion that have been agreed - not one
Revisited"concernsatomic trash.
On May 11, 2005, Romania will host a two-dayThe NDEP, set up in 1997, is a partnership of the
exercise simulating anuclear accident. It will beEuropean
conducted at the Cernavoda nuclearpower plant.Commission, Russia, the European Regional
But the real radiological emergency is already atDevelopment Bank, the
handand unfolding.European Investment Bank, the Nordic Bank and
Nuclear waste is both an environmental problemthe World Bank. But itis predicated on a crucial
and an economicsolution in the countries of eastdocument - the Multilateral Nuclear
Europe and central Asia.Environment Programme in Russia (MNEPR) -
Kazakhstan announced in November 2002 that itwhich Russia for longevaded signing.
plans to import othercountries' nuclear waste -The sorry state of underfunded efforts to cope
and get paid for its shoddy disposal-by-burial,with the aftermath ofnuclear power and
contrary to international conventions.weaponry and the blatant venality that
Ironically, the money thus generated is earmarkedoftenaccompanies shady waste deals provoked a
for ridding ofgreen backlash throughoutthe otherwise docile
Kazakhstan of its own pile of fissionable trash.region. The Guardian quoted courageous
This emulates asimilar scheme floated five yearsKazakhenvironmental activists as saying:
ago in Russia. The Atomic Energy"The same is repeated again and again. It is just
Ministry planned to import 20,000 tons of nuclearanother money-making venture ... The World Bank
waste to earn $21billion in the process.is worried about corruption in
The collapse of the Warsaw Pact left manyKazakhstan. In our current situation there is no
countries in the formerguarantee of publicsafety, no system for
Soviet block with an ageing and prohibitivelycompensation, no confidence in the ability
expensive to maintainnuclear arsenal. Dismantlingofcustoms to deal with these cargoes. Everyone
the war heads - often with American andhas a human right to asafe environment - but
European Union Euratom funding - yielded moundsapparently not here."
of lethalradioactive materials.Similar sentiments are expressed by groups in
Abandoned nuclear test sites - such as theRussia, Romania,
USSR's central facilityin Semipalatinsk, KazakhstanBulgaria, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic,
- contain thousands of tons ofradioactivePoland andelsewhere. Being "environmentally
leftovers. Add to this the network of decrepit,correct" is so important that
Chernobyl-like, reactors strewn throughout theTanjug, the Yugoslav news agency, in its
region and theirrefuse and the gargantuanrelentless campaign against
dimensions of the threat emerge.NATO, implausibly accused Germany of storing its
Take, again, Kazakhstan. According to Mukhtarwaste in the minesof Kosovo.
Dzakishev, thenpresident of Kazatomprom, theA prime example of activism involved a Russian
country's national nuclear agency, thecountry isscientific expeditionwhich found a nuclear
immersed in 230,000 tons of waste. It would costsubmarine dumped, with spent radioactive fuel,in
morethan $1 billion to clean. The country shouldthe northern Kara Sea. According to news
earn this amount in asingle year of imports ofagencies, quotingenvironmental groups, dumping
nuclear litter.nuclear waste, hundreds of submarinesand
The going rate in Europe is c. $3-5000 perdecommissioned nuclear reactors into Arctic
200-liter barrel, only afifth of which is spent on itswaters was commonpractice in the Soviet Union.
burial in old mines or speciallyconstructedIn late 2002, the governor of the Murmansk
depositories. This translates to a profit of $80-140region, bordering on
percubic meter of uranium buried - compared toNorway, has announced a 6-year cleansing
less than $10 per cubicmeter of uraniumprogram of the Kolapeninsula, designed to assuage
extracted. The countries of east Europethe worried Scandinavians. The
haveentered the fray with relish. In 2001,Norwegians built a waste recycling facility in the
president Putin rushedthrough the Duma aarea, constructeda special train to ferry the
much-debated law that allows for thewaste away and invested in renovating astorage
importationand disposal of nuclear waste.dump.
Getting rid of nuclear waste and dismantlingMany east European countries do not store
nuclear facilities -both military and peacetime - donuclear waste but servemerely as transit routes.
not come cheap.The waste the Kazakhs plan to dispose of,for
According to the ELTA news agency, Lithuania'sinstance, should cross Russian territory. Yet, the
decommissioning ofthe Ignalina Nuclear PowerRussians arethe easy part. In 1998, they have
Plant would require 30 years and shouldcost $90agreed to continue to store ineast Siberia fission
million in 2008 alone. In October 2002, Russia'sby-products from Bulgaria's controversial
AtomicSoviet-built Kozloduy nuclear power plant. Russia
Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov pegged thealso stores wastefrom Slovakia, Hungary, the
cost of a USA-Russianagreement to dispose ofCzech Republic and Lithuania. Wastedisposal was
34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium atpart of the standard construction contracts of
$750million. Russia plans to resell the end product,Sovietreactors abroad.
mixed oxide (MOX),to various countries in EuropeBut getting the waste to Russia often requires
and to Japan. MOX can be used topermission fromother, a lot less forthcoming,
fuelspecially-fitted power plants.countries such as Moldova, Ukraineand Romania.
The European Commissions, alarmed by theseBy the beginning of 2003, according to the
developments in itsbackyard, announced,Bulgarianreactor's management, the old storage
according to EUObserver.com, that it "givesprioritypits were exhausted and theplant had to close
to geological burial of dangerous material as thedown.
safestdisposal method to date. Member states willAccording to the Regional Environmental Center,
be required to establishnational burial sites for thethe transitcountries cite ill-equipped railways,
disposal of radioactive waste by 2018.antiquated containers andother environmental
Research for waste management will also beconcerns as the reasons for their reluctance.
stepped up."Inreality, they are under pressure by the
Even private NGO's got into the act. In AugustEuropean Union and the USAto collaborate with
2002, Russiareclaimed from the Vinca Institute ofwaste transport and disposal companies in the
Nuclear Sciences in Belgrade,West, such as British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), or
Yugoslavia 45 kilograms of highly enrichedCogema. In thewastelands that constitute large
uranium. The Nuclearswathes of the post-communistworld, nuclear
Threat Initiative (NTI), a Washington-based NGOwaste, it seems, is a growth industry.
established by Ted==========================
Turner of CNN fame and former Senator SamAUTHOR BIO (must be included with the article)
Nunn, was instrumental inarranging the airSam Vaknin ( ) is the author of Malignant
transport of the sensitive substance. According toSelf Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the VincaRain - How the West
Institute conditioned itssurrender of the uraniumLost the East. He served as a columnist for
rods on financial aid to dispose of 2.5tons of spentCentral Europe Review,
nuclear fuel. NTI provided the $5 million neededPopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United
toaccomplish the cleanup.Press International
A donor conference, in the framework of the(UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the
Northern Dimensioneditor of mental healthand Central East Europe
Environmental partnership (NDEP) pledged incategories in The Open Directory and
November 2002 c. $110million to tackleSuite101.
environmental and nuclear waste in northwestUntil recently, he served as the Economic Advisor
Russia. This fund will supplement loans fromto the Governmentof Macedonia.