No haste on waste

No longer welcome: nuclear was THE Russian Supreme Court's judgement was toud and clear: no to nuclear
waste. And claiming a pat on its back
was Greenpeace, the international
environmental organisation, which
had moved the Court on Russian plans
to import nuclear waste from the western nations for reprocessing. The landmark judgement was all the more significant as the Court had for the first time
struck down sections of a Presidential
decree.

Though Russian law prohibits the
import of nuclear waste for means of
storage, Boris Yeltsin, its President
decreed last year that the Gorno-
Khimichesky group in Siberia could be
allowed imports. Observed Oleg
Kuznetsov of Greenpeace that while
"temporary storage of spent fuel is not
against the law.... there
was no procedure to
treat the waste". Plans to
construct a reprocessing
plant were rather vague.
Kuznetsov said that the
Russian government had
wanted to import the
waste even before it
could take a decision on
whether the plant should
be constructed. A reprocessing plant would
mean that nuclear waste
can be imported.