Russian Nuclear Industry—The Need for Reform

Published by: The Bellona Foundation www.bellona.org Norway: Russia: Oslo Murmansk P.O.Box 2141 P.O. Box 4310 Grünerløkka 183038 Murmansk N-0505 Oslo E-mail: E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] Bank acc.no.: 6045 05 St. Petersburg 32579 (for donations) P.O. Box 258 191 028 St. Petersburg Belgium: E-mail: Bellona Europe [email protected] 10 B, Clos du Parnasse 1050 Brussels E-mail: [email protected] This report is published in English and Russian. Photocopying is permitted if source is stated. Comments to this report are welcomed. Keywords: Mayak, radioactive waste, spent nuclear fuel, contamination, nuclear submarines, reprocessing, nuclear energy, nuclear power plant, uranium mining. Authors: Igor Kudrik, Charles Digges, Alexander Nikitin, Nils Bøhmer,Vladimir Kuznetsov,Vladislav Larin. Graphic Design: Philip Hauglin Printing: Grafisk Senter Grøset ISBN 82-92318-10-0 ISSN 0806-3451 Bellona's partnership with business and industry. In 1998, Bellona launched its B7 partnership program with business and industry.The environmental program is factual, geared towards finding practicable solutions through the use of technology, and is based on a dialo- gue with leaders in trade and industry who seek to be on the forefront of development. THE B7 PROGRAM TODAY CONSISTS OF THE FOLLOWING PARTNERS: Aker Kværner Aker RGI Applied Plasma Physics Bertel O. Steen Braathens Conoco Phillips Norway Coop Norge E-CO Eidesvik Eiendomsspar Energos Energy and Industry Eramet Ferrolegeringens Forskningsforening Norwegian Fishing Vessels Owners Association Fred Olsen Marine Harvest Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO) Federation of Norwegian Processing Industries (PIL) Norway Post Select Service Partner Norske Shell as Skretting Statkraft Statoil Uniteam Water Power Industries (WPI) The above companies are firms who represent branches, products and services that play a crucial role in defining the environmental requirements of the future. The B7 program examines important and long-term parameters for society and the environment, and the parties view each other as sparring partners and oppo- The publication of this report is partly sing experts at the forefront of their respective fields sponsored by : mutually in search of improvements that are environmentally sound as well as economically feasible. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Preface The following pages represent Bellona's fourth report nuclear industry and the mandate of independence that on sources of radioactive contamination within Russia, both Russian citizens are entitled to and that western and on Russian nuclear politics as a whole. Unlike the donors to nuclear remediation projects require. three previous reports (which focused on contamination sources in Northwest Russia), this report has as its It is also Bellona's hope that this report will find its way into focus the broader scale of Russia's nuclear industry, and the hands of officials, both in Russia and in the west, who the virtually unchecked power it has managed to maintain will take its contents not as criticism, but rather as a set since 1949 with the explosion of the first Soviet atom of suggestions and a necessary reference so that they may bomb. For decades, the Russian nuclear industry, in its better solve the problems posed by Russia's nuclear various guises as the PGU, Minsredmash, the Ministry of industry in its currently ailing state. Bellona's three previous Atomic Energy (Minatom), and now the somewhat wea- reports on the nuclear challenges in Russia have gained kened Rosatom, has managed to maintain a position as a the status of required reading and have been extensively "supra-ministry," its budgets and projects shrouded in used by top government official and other decision- secrecy, its preferential treatment among other Ministry's makers. It is our hope that this report will achieve the guaranteed by the Cold War.This war-like footing on which same prominence. the Russian nuclear industry has always been able to place itself has also helped it whittle away at whatever inde- Beyond officialdom, we hope this report will find its way pendent nuclear regulation there has been in Russia. into the hands of concerned citizens in all concerned countries -- citizens who ultimately have the power to Now those years are waning and the once well funded pressure their Russian State Duma representatives, and nuclear industry is in a shambles. As a pragmatic non- their counterparts in the United States Congress and governmental organisation, Bellona is searching for solu- the European Union, to take swift and unified action to tions to stem the potential hazards posed by the decay of help clean up, enterprise by enterprise, those elements Russia's nuclear industry while at the same time ensuring of the Russian nuclear industry that are now endangering that organisations and governments who are funding the lives of generations to come. In this regard, non- nuclear remediation projects in Russia are not simply governmental civic society plays the most important role bolstering the industry's further existence. in providing guidance to leaders about what the environmental priorities truly are.This leads to public discussion, Environmentally speaking, almost all of the industry's insti- which, in its turn, leads to new solutions that the involved tutions, enterprises, nuclear power plants, radioactive waste governments may not yet have considered. handling facilities, military installations and laboratories pose potential grave health risks to those who live in sur- In order that this report be as widely-available as possible, rounding areas and irreversible hazards to the environ- it will be redesigned for publication in a web-friendly format ment.This report will not only expose this information, in Russian and English on our web site at www.Bellona.org. which has been culled from both Russian and western Updates will track developments in the issues described open sources, but will set out suggestions that will help in the report in order that decision-makers and the gene- dampen these nuclear dangers to the population of ral public have the latest information at their disposal. It is Russian and, indeed, the world. important to protest the legacy left by Russia's nuclear industry, but it is equally important to propose projects It remains unclear what power the new Rosatom, formed aimed at stirring public discourse aimed at preventing in summer 2004, will have, and most analysis indicated that future contamination and potential hazards that arise it will not be as all pervasive as its parent organization, from the enterprises of the Russian nuclear industry. Minatom. It also remains unclear what sort of power the new nuclear regulatory agency in Russia, which replaced Though our offices in Oslo, Murmansk, St. Petersburg, Gozatomnazor (GAN) after the shake-up in spring-sum- and Brussels, as well as our assosiates in Moscow, and mer 2004. But it is Bellona's hope that the resultant orga- Washington, D.C., we have worked to establish contacts and nization will guarantee the safe operation of Russia's foster mutual understanding between Russia, European 7 and American authorities and corporations. Via these In connection to that, we wish to acknowledge the assis- means, we hope to promote the notion that only strong, tance of Per-Einar Fiskebeck, chief engineer of the County well coordinated international action can advance the of Finnmark for agreeing to read and check our facts in cause of a safer Russian nuclear industry. Appendix 5, as well as to Morten Sickle of the Norwegian Radiation Protection Agency (NRPA) for furnishing us with Acknowledgements maps of the Mayak area.We also thank Ingar Amundsen, Although much of the research for the report has been also with the NRPA, for supplying us with updates to funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it some of our information in Appendix 5.We wish further may not necessarily reflect the Ministry's views and no to thank Willam Hoehn III, director of the Washington official endorsement should be inferred. office of the Russian American Nuclear Advisory Council for DOE budget information he supplied for this Bellona would like to acknowledge the support of several Appendix. individuals who contributed to this report.Though not all who have taken their valuable time to enhance the authors' Bellona's Erik Martiniussen, the author of Appendix 2, understanding of various nuclear may share the conclusi- "European Reprocessing," also gets our thanks as does ons they have reached, their input has nonetheless assisted WISE-Paris and its assistant director, Yves Mariguac, in the completion of the report.Though it may be con- whose information was crucial to Appendix 2's comple- troversial at points, we hope that it will contribute to a tion. wider understanding of Russia's nuclear dangers and possible approaches to dealing with them -- which is a Frederic Hauge, president of Bellona, receives our war- goal shared by all who assisted us. mest thanks for his undying commitment to the report and his faith in its successful completion, boosting the For information pertaining to Chapter 3, "Russian and moral of the authors and giving feedback and fresh International Programmes," we would like to thank views at every stage of our writing. Matthew Bunn of Harvard University's Managing the Atom project, whose numerous articles and personal We also wish to thank Masha Kaminskaya,Anna Korovina correspondence with Bellona clarified our understanding and Peter Morley, the reports translators, who, in many of the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) programme cases, went beyond the call of duty to offer excellent and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE's) Plutonium suggestions on the structure of the text. Bellona's Vladislav Disposition Agreement. Additionally, he explained the Nikiforov is also to be commended for his additional workings of CTR s Mayak Fissile Materials Storage Facility's research assistance, moral support, and timely comic relief.

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