Appeal to the Governments/Parliaments
of Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova on Proposed Transport
of Spent Nuclear Fuel from Kozloduy to Russia
Vienna, Austria
September 25-27, 1998
Signed by 46 Representatives of European NGOs
We, undersigned representatives of environmental
organizations, scientists, politicians, are in strong opposition
to proposed transportation of spent nuclear fuel from Bulgarian
nuclear plant Kozloduy to Russia for the reprocessing. Spent nuclear
fuel is high-level nuclear waste produced by nuclear industry
and its transportation poses significant danger to the environment
and population of the countries through which the spent nuclear
fuel will be transported. According to the agreement between the
governments of Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine and Moldova, signed on
November 28, 1997, in Sofia (Bulgaria) the Kozloduy's spent nuclear
fuel must be transported to Russian reprocessing facility "Mayak"
through Ukraine and Moldova. There were already many protests
by citizen's groups in these countries against the proposed nuclear
transport, even the Moldovian Environmental Minister asserted
that the transportation through the terrotory of Moldova is illegal.
These weren't taken into account by the governmental institutions
in all four countries. Citizens' rights for healthy environment
and access to information are totally ignored by the mentioned
agreement: population of participating countries aren't informed
about the risk of nuclear transportation which, in case of an
accident, could cause a great damage to the environment and public
health. According to the statistical data of Russian Ministry
of Atomic Power, 43% of all the nuclear incidents occurred during
transportation in different stages of nuclear-fuel cycle. Reprocessing
of spent nuclear fuel is the most dangerous process the nuclear-fuel
cycle consist of - largest nuclear accident in USSR happened to
"Mayak" reprocessing facility in 1957 when the amount
of radioactivity that was released to the environment was 2,5
times more than during Chernobyl accident. Reprocessing creates
additional liquid radioactive waste which quantity is 160 times
more, compared to spent nuclear fuel' amount before reprocessing.
According to acting Russian legislative act - decree No. 773 signed
by the President of Russia on July 29, 1995 - waste of reprocessing
will be sent back to Bulgaria. The Bulgarian public isn't informed
about this condition. Total ignorance of public right by the governments
of post-communist countries can seriously damage the process of
establishing democratic traditions in Eastern Europe. The public
will must be respected. Eastern governments should run the public
participation procedures for such a controversial issues through
which public may express its concerns.
We demand to cancel the plan for transportation
of Kozloduy's spent nuclear fuel through Ukraine and Moldova to
Russia, as well as its reprocessing. No more spent nuclear fuel
should be produced or transported by Bulgaria. Investments should
be made into: the finding of a solution for spent nuclear fuel
problem right at the Kozloduy' site immediately; development of
renewable sources of energy and energy-efficiency programs in
Bulgaria in order to replace dangerous and unnecessary nuclear
power reactors.
Signature:
46 REPRESENTATIVES OF EUROPEAN NGOS
Date and Place:
VIENNA/AUSTRIA, SEPT 25-27, 1998
MORE SIGNATURES NEEDED
This appeal was firstly distributed during European
Conference On Nuclear Fase-Out, was held in Vienna/Austria, September
25-27, 1998. We still need more signatures from you - if you support
this letter' position, please send your signature before October
30, 1998 to:
Vladimir Slivyak - ECODEFENSE!/Socio-Ecological Union, Russia.
Fax 7-0112-437286, E-mail: ecodefense@glasnet.ru; Polina Kireva
- For the Earth, Bulgaria. E-mail: ftearth@bulnet.bg
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