11 May 2009
STATEMENT BY JAPANESE AND RUSSIAN ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS
CONSEQUENCES OF JAPAN-RUSSIA NUCLEAR COOPERATION AGREEMENT
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will arrive in Tokyo today. During his visit he will meet Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso. According to media reports, they may sign a new nuclear cooperation agreement between the two countries. The agreement will allow Japanese nuclear material to be sent to Russia.
Japan and Russia have for several years been considering the possibility of extracting uranium from spent nuclear fuel reprocessed in the UK and France and re-enriching it in Russia. The re-enriched uranium could be used in nuclear fuel for Japanese nuclear power plants, but there have also been suggestions that nuclear fuel containing Japanese uranium could be exported to third countries.
It is clear that the Russian uranium enrichment plant in Angarsk will serve as the main enrichment plant for such a deal. Russia is establishing a so-called “international center” for uranium enrichment at Angarsk. The aim of the center is to provide a guaranteed supply of uranium fuel for countries which do not enrich uranium themselves, including for countries under international sanctions such as Iran.
If a deal opening the way for reprocessed uranium to be re-enriched is signed between Japan and Russia, uranium extracted from Japanese spent fuel could be transported nearly 10,000 km to the Angarsk uranium enrichment plant near lake Baikal, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Transportation over such a long distance may become a target for terrorist attack, or cause transport accidents leading to large releases of radioactivity.
Uranium enrichment and the production of nuclear fuel result in enormous amounts of radioactive waste, including depleted uranium, which has to be stored and isolated from the environment permanently. According to Russian environmental groups, there is over 100,000 tons of radioactive waste already stored in Angarsk. The Russian nuclear industry has no plan for disposal of that waste. The waste is stored under the open sky in partly corroded containers and poses a threat of radioactive leakages. Any such leakages would contaminate the region around Angarsk and could also damage the ecosystem around Lake Baikal, the largest reservoir of non-salt water on earth.
There are also concerns that Japan’s proposal to send uranium to Russia for enrichment could further undermine the international non-proliferation regime. Japan cannot be confident that Japanese nuclear material will not be diverted to Iran, or to other countries suspected of developing nuclear weapons. Russia traditionally uses its own resources (including down-blending of highly enriched uranium to the enrichment level of uranium fuel for light-water reactors) to meet its own demand. Uranium sourced from other countries is more likely to be exported. The inadequacy of IAEA safeguards in nuclear weapons states and Russia’s supply of fuel for Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant are grounds for serious concern. No Russian facilities are included in IAEA’s latest list of safeguarded facilities.
Local residents are totally opposed to the plan of establishing an international center for uranium enrichment and new enrichment contracts. Protests have been happening since December 2006. People are demanding that authorities withdraw from new enrichment contracts in order to stop the growth of radioactive waste stockpiles near the highly sensitive Baikal ecosystem. Both Japan and Russia must uphold democratic values and respect the wishes of the local residents. We call on both governments not to sign any agreement that permits the re-enrichment of Japanese reprocessed uranium in Russia.
Contact information:
Green Action: +81-75-701-7223 or +81-90-3620-9251 (Aileen Mioko Smith)
email: amsmith@gol.com
Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center: +81-3-3357-3800 (Philip White)
email: cnic@nifty.com
Ecodefense (Moscow, Russia): +7-985-7766281 or 903-2997584 (Vladimir Slivyak)
email: ecodefense@online.ru