Nuke is no good

DO YOU want a nuclear
plant in your
vicinity? This will
be the question which
residents of the
Kostroma district in
north-east Russia
will answer in a referendum to be held on
December 8. The
referendum came about
after a tireless
campaign by In the
Name of Life, a community action group,
which is against
the completion of a
nuclear power
plant in Kostroma.
What irks environmentalists is the
fact that the plant is
coming up in an
earthquake-prone
area. "Its (Kostroma)
main wealth lies in
its abundant forests,
clean lakes and
rivers and unpolluted
air," said Eduard
Gismatullin of
Greenpeace-Russia.
Activists from the group
have so far collected more than 36,000
signatures, much
more than the
mandatory 10,000
signatures to be presented
to the authorities
for undertaking a
referendum, permitted under the 1993
Constitution.