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.
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