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Appeal to the Federation Council of the Russian Federation

Photos from various demonstrations across Russia (15.01.2001)

An Appeal To: 

The Speaker of the Russian Federation Council

Dear Speaker Stroev,

As representatives of _______________________________________________, and as world citizens, we urge you to reject the law on "Special Ecological Problems on the Environmental Rehabilitation of Radioactively-Polluted Regions of the Russian Federation, Financed from Revenue from International Trade in Nuclear Fuel," and the related amendments to the law on "The Use of Nuclear Energy," and to the law on "The Protection of the Environment."  We strongly believe that approving such laws will not only bring irreparable harm to your country, but will threaten the safety of other countries.  

Why, you may ask, do we express ourselves so forcefully about a matter seemingly so far away from us? Why are we—citizens of other countries—against the importation of radioactive nuclear fuel into Russia? 

First of all, as a matter of environmental principle and justice, we feel that spent nuclear fuel generated by a country should be reprocessed and stored in that country, and not stashed in someone else’s backyard. It is especially unethical to take advantage of a country’s socio-economic crisis by offering them chimerical profits in exchange for storing materials that present serious dangers to their population. Each country must take financial, technical and social responsibility for its own waste products.  

The history of the nuclear power industry shows that spent nuclear fuel has been primarily used to extract plutonium. However, today plutonium is no longer needed for military purposes, and the use of plutonium as fuel for commercial nuclear reactors is not profitable. Once created, plutonium cannot be used for fuel for nuclear reactors for decades. In the meantime, storing one ton of plutonium costs, according to various sources, costs from $1 million to $5 million a year. According to these costs, then, storing the amount of plutonium that your Ministry of Atomic Energy intends to create—200 tons of plutonium can be produced from the 20,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel that will be brought into Russia—will require annual expenditures ranging from $200 million to $1 billion. This transaction becomes especially unprofitable if you take into consideration the environmental and public health consequences of importing nuclear waste.  

Moreover, we should remember the lessons of history with respect to the reprocessing of nuclear spent fuels, i.e. the large swaths of territory all over the world already polluted in past years and the costs of rehabilitating this land. Already these costs are a drain on the state budget of our respective governments, costs which will only grow for Russia if it produces more plutonium. The only really profitable use for this element is selling it to those who wish to create their own nuclear weapons. In all other cases, plutonium ends up being an incredible burden even for the richest countries. 

Given the fact that in the past decade there have been several incidents where nuclear fuel stored in Russia has disappeared, we feel justified in raising concerns about control over the radioactive materials your government is proposing to import. Needless to say, this plutonium could fall into the hands of the enemies of peace. 

Finally, in our country spent nuclear fuel is called nuclear waste. It is not a valuable substance, as our energy officials claim, but a danger to the health of our land and people. Setting aside the various economic and financial questions connected to the market in radioactive materials, we wish to impress upon you the gravity of the danger in trading in nuclear waste and remind you of your responsibility before future generations.  

Thus, importing nuclear waste presents serious dangers to your public health, environment, economy and even national security as well as that of other countries. 

We therefore hope that you will try to receive and will carefully study all available information on this question—including the opinions of independent and unbiased experts—when this bill is under consideration.  

Please consider the many people both in Russia and in other countries that will be affected by your actions. 

Save your beautiful country from becoming a nuclear wasteland! 

Respectfully yours,

………………