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Deception surrounds nuclear waste shipments to Russia

Recycling Atomic WasteNuclear Materials Stored In Siberian Carparks  SPIEGEL ONLINE 13 Oct 09 The largest utility company in Europe, Électricité de France, has been accused of storing nuclear waste in an open air car park in Siberia. An investigative documentary called the “Nuclear Nightmare” that screened on Tuesday in Germany and France accuses the company of sending nuclear waste to a town in Siberia where it is then stored in metal containers in a car park.
The containers, the makers of the documentary — French documentary director Eric Guéret and French journalist Laure Noualhat of the newspaper Libération — report, are in the Siberian town of Seversk, formerly a secret “closed city” where there are several nuclear reactors, plants for reprocessing uranium and plutonium as well as storage and production facilities for nuclear weapons. Although the Russian town now appears on maps, entry into the area is still restricted to locals. Noualhat told SPIEGEL ONLINE that although they visited the outskirts of the city during their research, they were not able to get in themselves. However, they did interview contacts who worked in the nuclear industry inside the city. And apparently the containers can also be seen via satellite images.

It’s Nuclear Waste — But Not As We Know ItT he documentary, which looks into the contentious issues around nuclear waste in Europe, pointed out that France sends around 13 percent of its radioactive waste to Siberia. Research by the documentary filmmakers indicates that, every year, the French firm ships around 108 tons of uranium from Le Havre to Russia.The documentary makers also point out that the situation revolves around a legal loophole — recycled uranium or plutonium is not known as nuclear waste. By law it is merely “radioactive material.” Which is why the international shipping of such waste products is not illegal.

“You have to be careful. It is important to differentiate between radioactive material that is being recycled from actual nuclear waste, as the nuclear industry qualifies it,” Noualhat told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “What we really wanted to show was that we do not recycle 96 percent of this material, as some people pretend we do.” The figure of 96 percent recyclable nuclear waste with four percent being disposed of in high tech storage is one that has been used before by those in the French nuclear industry.

Additionally, Noualhat said, “if (these materials) are so useful, should we really be sending them to the Russians?

Recycling Atomic Waste: Nuclear Materials Stored In Siberian Carparks – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International

October 14, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, France, secrets,lies and civil liberties, wastes | antinuclear, AREVA, EDF, France, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive