Safe Decommissioning of Aged Russian NPPs is Discussed in ROSATOM by Nuclear Experts and Concerned Public

BALTIC NEWSLETTER OF THE GREEN WORLD, № 100

Information periodical of the GREEN WORLD NGO, South Coast of the Gulf of Finland.
P.O. Box 93/7, Sosnovy Bor 188544, Leningrad Oblast,
Tel/fax:: +7 (81369) 72991; е-mail: bodrov@greenworld.org.ru, www.greenworld.org.ru www.decomatom.org.ru

Moscow, 29 February 2008: the concept of a plan for staged decommissioning of Russian NPPs was presented in Rosatom by the international network of environmental NGOs.
After four years of studies dedicated to the world experience of decommissioning old nuclear reactors the public activists from Russia, Lithuania and Norway subjected their vision of the ”Concept...” to the judgment of Russian nuclear experts.
Before that the document was read and commented on by the representatives of GREENPEACE Russia, Leningrad NPP Administration, International Center of Ecological Safety of Rosatom, Lenspetskombinat ”Radon”, ”Atomgrad” Trade Union and by the Head of Administration of nuclear town Sosnovy Bor.
The objective set by the environmentalists is to make the closure of old NPP reactors a timely and transparent, that is safe, process. This can be achieved by the efficient interaction of three sectors of Russian society – authorities, nuclear industry and the public.
Participants of the 2-hour discussion in Rosatom listened to the Concept presentation and saw documentary “NPP Greifswald – halted at demand”, which was produced by environmentalists. The documentary tells about the world’s most extensive experience of solving social, environmental, technical and ethical problems related to the decommissioning of five VVER-440 power units at the mentioned nuclear plant in Germany.
15 persons participated in the Concept discussion; they were experts from Rosatom, Rostekhnadzor, Concern Rosenergoatom, Public Council under Rosatom, also NGOs - Green World (Sosnovy Bor, Leningrad Oblast), Center of Nuclear Ecology and Energy Policy (Moscow) and Gaia (Apatiti, Murmansk Oblast).
In their speeches experts representing nuclear industry agreed with the proposal of environmentalists on the necessity of establishing dedicated decommissioning funds for each plant rather than one fund for all Russian NPPs. In the opinion of environmentalists the individual funds should collect necessary reserves by the target allocations from the nuclear electricity sold; the accumulated money should be spent on solving the whole complex of technological, social and environmental problems related to taking a plant out of operation.
At the same time, the proposal of environmentalists to stop the spent nuclear fuel reprocessing, which was put forward because of the threat from currently used technologies to the safety and health of nature and people, was not supported. In the opinion of atomic experts such termination of activities can result in serious negative consequences for atomic neighborhoods, where the whole social infrastructure is run on the money earned by doing such jobs and where alternative working places are nonexistent. In this way the social problems of Russian citizens living in nuclear neighborhoods are put above the interests of Russian citizens and natural environment existing beyond the boundaries of such cities.
The decision-making mechanism currently practiced in Russia practically excludes an effective influence of society on the solution of atomic industry problems. Taxpayers pay for the building of new NPPs, but they do not have a possibility to influence decisions and choose the most effective and not costly option of solving energy problems. The situation is complicated by the absence of market mechanisms enabling competition between nuclear and other sources of energy.
The cost of decommissioning 31 nuclear power units still operating in Russia puts a challenge of accumulating more than 10 billion Euro in a specialized fund within the coming twenty years. The country does not have such money for NPP closures, and it is not accumulated by the producers of nuclear energy. Speaking about the aged reactors, four of them have been taken out of operation, and 11 continue to work in spite of the fact that their design time limit has expired.
The discussion in Rosatom has not resulted in concrete mechanisms for the interaction of the public and nuclear industrialists on the NPP decommissioning. In spite of that the uncompromising opponents participating in the discussion - representative of the general public and atomic industry experts noted the usefulness of the conducted discussion and importance of future exchanges.
Non-governmental organizations – the Concept developers are planning to organize international hearings on the NPP decommissioning in the autumn of 2008 in Russia. The participation of all stakeholders is foreseen, including the representatives of concerned public and nuclear municipalities of Russia, Lithuania and Germany. Non-governmental organization working in Russian cities, where the spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste are handled, will be invited too.

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