To the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry A. Medvedev, German Counsellor, Angela Merkel, US President Barak Obama, Secretary General of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano

To the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry A. Medvedev,
German Counsellor, Angela Merkel,
US President Barak Obama,
Secretary General of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano

Appeal

We, the representatives of the public organizations, appeal to you in the International Day of Radioactive Waste, September 29, 2010.

We protest against the 1000 nuclear waste rods transfer to Russia from the Centre of Nuclear Research in Rossendorf (Germany).

We believe that this deal is irresponsible and not fare towards the residents of the Chelyabinsk Oblast, where the Mayak Nuclear Facility will reprocess the imported nuclear waste.

As a result of commercial nuclear waste reprocessing Russia has become a place of storage and burial of the radioactive waste of the global nuclear industry.

At the Mayak, during the past 65 years several severe nuclear accidents took place, which lead to the contamination of tens of thousands square kilometres of the Russian land. The waste that is currently being reprocessed continue to leak in the lakes Karachay, Old Marsh, Tatysh, and water reserves of the Techensky and further to the river Ob and the Arctic Ocean.

The radioactive elements became part with biological cycle, as well as the local population that turned into derelicts of the society. People have to live in the radiation-polluted land, and consume radiation-polluted food. The latter causes multiple illnesses and the need for expensive treatment. At the same time the income falls, the social status of these Russian citizens falls as they continue to live in these polluted areas.

Today, the fourth generation of people, who experience radiation in the middle of Chelyabinsk region cancer cases reached 387 casualties on each 100,000 people. Children’s cancer cases reached 14,1 cases among the 100,000 people. As a result, cancer cases growth was 64 percent from 2007 to 2008. The birth anomaly cases reached 47,6 cases for each 1000 newborns in 2008.

We consider it is dangerous to transfer nuclear fuel waste to Russia, where its storage and reprocessing takes place along with leakage of radioactive waste to the environment.

We think that the agreement between the governments of Germany, Russia and the US with the support of the IAEA is immoral and it undermines the fundamental international principle of equality of environmental security among the countries.

We call for Germany, as well as other countries with strong security regulation systems (environmental and anti-terrorism), to support the desision about the isolation of dangerous waste in their territories and not export the weight of this problem to the thrid party countries.

We believe that it is time for a positive change and evolving trend to become responsible of the national radioactive nuclear waste, as for example, it is done in the Check Republic.

We call for you, the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry A. Medvedev, German Counsellor, Angela Merkel, US President Barak Obama as responsible representatives of their nations, and the Secretary General of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano, a to barr the waste transfer from the Centre of Nuclear Research in Rossendorf (Germany) to the Mayak facility in Chelyabinks Oblast, Russia.

We demand to denounce the agreement between Russia, US and the IAEA that legalizes the transfer of nuclear waste between the countries that leades to the negative socio-economic consequences at the territories of the final destication of nuclear waste.

On behalf of Russia:
Natalia Mironova, «Movement for Nuclear Safety», Chelyabinsk
Andrey Talevlin, Fund «For Nature», Chelyabinsk
Aleksey Babin, «Legal Consiousness», Chelyabinsk,
Oleg Bodrov, «Green World», Sosnovy Bor, Leningrad Oblast
Yury Ivanov, chair-men Apatity branch of the Kola environmental center.

On behalf of Norway:
Lars Haltbrekken, "Norges Naturvernforbund/Friends of the Earth Norway", Oslo Norway