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RANSAC Nuclear News, November 24, 2003 Compiled By: Matthew Bouldin A. Nuclear Safety
 A. Nuclear Safety 1. Russian Plant Says Cannot Handle Nuclear Waste From Research Institute Moscow, 20 November: The special Radon institute is not prepared to receive radioactive nuclear waste from the Kurchatov Institute [of Nuclear Physics] sites. A deputy director general of the state enterprise Radon, Yevgeniy Turlak, told ITAR-TASS about this today. "The plant at this moment in time is not prepared to take large amounts of spent radioactive material for storage when all the stores of the Kurchatov Institute are unsealed," he said, commenting on a recent statement by Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov about completely decontaminating all the institute's grounds of radioactive nuclear waste and the shutting down of all its reactors. "Radon currently does not have enough capacity to deal with all the radioactive waste from the Kurchatov Institute sites," Turlak said. He said "talks on a programme to destroy the `nuclear legacy' of the Kurchatov Institute had started as early as 2001. In December 2002, he went on to say, the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry on the orders of the Moscow city government drew up the technical and economic basis of a draft for the rehabilitation of installations polluted by radiation and the grounds of the Kurchatov Institute, in the north of the capital. "This document has not been examined by state experts," he said. According to the Radon leadership, the president of the Kurchatov Institute of Nuclear Physics, Yevgeniy Velikhov, in 1997 "put the cost of the project to completely decontaminate the territory of the institute at 500 million dollars and 10 to 12 years of work". Turlak, however, said that "despite the absence of conclusions by experts, the institute started the partial unsealing of the stores and the removal of the spent nuclear materials". He said that in 2002-2003 at the Radon complex in the Sergeyevo-Pasad district of Moscow Region 800 cubic meters of spent nuclear materials had been transferred. This work was being financed by the Atomic Energy Ministry, Turlak said. "The Moscow city government has so far not met its commitment to finance and settle the budget's debt to our enterprises to the sum of R498m for the work carried out," he said. Return to Menu B. Research Reactor Fuel Return 1. Nuclear Theft Case Raises Fears About Russia As official is tried for taking uranium, U.S. backs plan to send more Moscow -- Nobody knows why Alexander Tyulyakov, a high-placed official at a Russian nuclear facility, kept more than 6 pounds of enriched uranium in his car, his garage and his summer cottage in Russia's northern port of Murmansk. But at a time when the United States is considering shipping highly enriched uranium from 20 Soviet-built research reactors in Eastern Europe countries to Russia, the fact that Tyulyakov, deputy director of Atomflot, a state-owned Russian company that maintains the country's nuclear-powered icebreakers, admitted in court last week to having stored the radioactive material at home raises troubling questions about whether thousands of pounds of uranium would be safe in Russia's nuclear facilities. Under the terms of an agreement with the United States that was signed in Washington on Nov. 7, Russia will retrieve, within the next five to 10 years, uranium from research reactors in 17 countries. These reactors, which are used for such civilian uses as research, materials testing and medicine rather than power generation, are among the 100-plus research nuclear installations that the United States and the Soviet Union placed in about 40 countries around the globe at the height of the Cold War. Russia says it will store the uranium and ultimately blend it down it into a less concentrated form of radioactive material that can be used as fuel in commercial reactors. Officials overseeing the program maintain that this material will be unsuitable for use in either nuclear weapons or so-called "dirty bombs" -- conventional explosive devices packed with radioactive material intended to cause mass panic but that would produce fewer deaths than a nuclear bomb. But nuclear analysts and environmentalists say the Tyulyakov case illustrates how corruption, theft and lax security at Russia's storage and reprocessing sites continue to dog the country's nuclear arsenal and nuclear materials despite a $400 million-a-year U.S. effort to safeguard it from potential terrorists. "This is the first documented case of theft involving the senior management of a facility handling such material," Matthew Bunn, a researcher at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and an expert on the problem, wrote in a recent report on Russia's nuclear security. "This is particularly worrisome, as thefts involving senior managers are among the hardest for any security system to prevent." Tyulyakov was nabbed by Russian security services in August during a sting operation in Murmansk. He now awaits a verdict, expected on Monday, following his trial on charges of stealing, possessing and attempting to sell radioactive substances. Charles Digges, who monitors nuclear safety issues in Russia for the Norwegian environmentalist organization Bellona, said the case showed that Russia does not have adequate security to guard the uranium adequately. "They can't bring all this stuff to Russia without upping the threat of terrorists getting hold of it," he said. Since the end of the Cold War, the United States and Russia have placed a priority on mutual programs to retire hundreds of missiles and their nuclear warheads, improve security at sites where warheads and other sensitive materials are stored and employ out-of-work Russian nuclear scientists who might otherwise be tempted to collaborate with terrorists. The new uranium-repatriation agreement is part of this effort. U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham lauded the plan, saying it would help "reduce the threat of terrorism and prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction." Russia says the imported uranium will go to two factories, Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant in Siberia and Nuclear Reactors Institute in Dmitrovgrad, in central Russia. Both have received security upgrades that were paid for by the Nunn-Lugar program, named for the two U.S. senators who initiated it in 1991. Under the program to date, the United States has financed the deactivation of some 6,000 warheads and nearly 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles in Russia and former Soviet republics. Despite the improved security, the plant in Novosibirsk made headlines in 2001 when Russian security services arrested a group of workers for stealing 1,100 pounds of zirconium tubing, which is used in production of nuclear fuel rods. The workers took the zirconium, worth nearly $70,000, out through the main entrance of the plant and were trying to sell it to undercover security police for $10,000. Nevertheless, Nikolai Shingaryov, a spokesman for the Russian Atomic Ministry, expressed confidence that nothing would happen to the repatriated uranium at either facility. "These are high-security facilities. No one can get in. They are properly guarded," said Shingaryov. The Dmitrovgrad facility has already received nearly 1,800 pounds of nuclear fuel, including about 100 pounds of highly enriched uranium that the United States and Russia airlifted from a poorly secured research reactor near Belgrade, Serbia, in August 2002. Russia had provided the fuel to the then-Yugoslavia in 1976. Paul Longsworth, the U.S. Energy Department deputy administrator for defense and nuclear nonproliferation, said that security at the Russian sites, while less than perfect, was far better than at the reactor sites where the uranium is currently stored. "I think we're pretty confident," he said. Experts regard research reactors that both the United States and the Soviet Union sprinkled around the world -- in countries ranging from Laos and Vietnam in Asia to Congo and Ghana in Africa -- as one of the most vulnerable sources of potential weapons materials. During the Cold War they were, in essence, rewards that the superpowers doled out to cement friendships, and they became a dangerous sort of status symbol. The facilities often had lax security, and although each one had scores of kilograms of highly enriched uranium fuel -- not the thousands of pounds of fuel found in big commercial reactors -- the uranium was in a form more easily transformed into weapons and more easily stolen. "The concerns here are not the quantity of the material, it's the quality and the portability," said Laura Holgate, a vice president at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a private research group that has been involved in securing Russian sites and employing its scientists. Harvard's Bunn agreed. "With some of these reactors, you're talking about backpack-sized packages of material. You can move it in a pickup truck," he said. Longsworth said that the Russian facilities would be receiving uranium in several different forms. The most dangerous is a pure form of highly enriched uranium that is used as fuel in several types of research reactors and is among the easiest materials to use for building crude atomic bombs, requiring less than 40 pounds. It is used to build the most reliable type of nuclear weapon, known as a gun-type bomb. The weapon involves shooting a convex chunk of highly enriched uranium into another, concave shaped portion of highly enriched uranium at high speed, which begins the explosive fission process. That is the type of weapon the United States dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, killing about 140,000 people. Longsworth said that some of the uranium that would be repatriated to Russia would be spent or partially spent reactor fuel. It is less enriched, but can still be reconcentrated to produce weapons-grade material relatively easily. He added that the United States was prepared to provide the funding for uranium repatriation. There was still some foot-dragging within Russia, he said, including concerns about allowing U.S. officials to observe certain Russian nuclear facilities, which would be required if the United States was providing money for security. Bureaucratic hurdles in Russia and a lack of consistent, high-level support for the program in either Russia or the United States have prevented most Russian nuclear sites from receiving comprehensive security upgrades, experts in Moscow and Washington said. So far, security at only 41 percent of Russia's nuclear storage facilities has been improved, leaving 600 tons of potentially vulnerable nuclear material in Russia -- enough for tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, Bunn said. But as Tyulyakov's case showed, even a top-to-bottom security upgrade that puts a Russian nuclear facility on a par with many Western nuclear storage sites may not be enough to prevent theft. Atomflot, the state-run company where Tyulyakov worked, handles tons of weapons-grade uranium as it refuels and maintains Russia's nuclear-powered icebreakers and reprocesses nuclear waste. It was one of the first Russia's nuclear facilities to receive a comprehensive security upgrade under the Nunn-Lugar program. Russian naval vessels, an elaborate double fence system with intrusion detectors and manned guard towers guard the facility's perimeter on land and on water. None of this was enough to prevent an apparent high-level uranium theft, say both prosecutors in the Tyulyakov case and environmentalists who have been critical of Russia's security. "Sensors, fences, radiation detectors, weight machines, surveillance -- I can't emphasize too much that the comprehensive upgrades are only as good as the people who operate them," Digges said. "If they don't turn them on in the morning, someone can leave with nuclear materials of some kind. If the guy in charge wants to steal nuclear materials, he can easily do it." "The U.S. thinks Russia is more under their (political) control compared to Serbia, Romania and Uzbekistan. I doubt that very much," noted Vladimir Slivyak, head of Ecodefence, a Moscow environmental group. "The reality is that material in Russia is as unsafe as it would be in Serbia or Romania." Digges said uranium-235 and uranium-238, which the prosecution said was found in Tyulyakov's possession, is "the kind of stuff that would make you sick if you handled it, it would give you radiation burns, lung cancer if you inhale it. If you strapped it to enough dynamite, you could create a dirty bomb." "The only reason a guy would have uranium-235 at home is to sell it to a bunch of terrorists," Digges added. Anna Badkhen reported from Russia and James Sterngold reported from the United States Return to Menu C. Chemical Weapons Destruction 1. Gorny Chemical Weapons Destruction Facility Launches Lewisite Disposal Plant SARATOV, NOVEMBER 24 (RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT ALEXANDER LYOGKY) - The chemical weapons destruction facility in the settlement of Gorny in the Saratov region (Volga area) has launched a lewisite disposal plant. It highlights the start of the works' second stage, RIA Novosti learnt on Monday from the public relations center of the facility. In December 2002 it began eliminating the yperite reserves and now has completed this work. Now is the turn of lewisite. Both the poisonous agents have been kept for dozens of years in the local army unit and were destroyed in a primitive way as their shelf life expired. Now Gorny keeps over 250 tons of lewisite. The disposal process will take two years and be over in December 2005, said the public relations center. Chemical weapons disposal work over, the facility will be degassed and its equipment disassembled. After that the chemical weapons destruction plant will change specialization. Return to Menu D. Multilateral Threat Reduction 1. Countries Form Working Group on Russia Chemical Weapons Disposal Plant Canada, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States have created a working group to coordinate the construction of a chemical weapons disposal plant near the Russian city of Shchuchye, Interfax reported last week (see GSN, Nov. 21). The group is expected to meet four times a year, with the next meeting scheduled to be held in Moscow in late January. At that meeting, to be chaired by Russia, the four countries will discuss the state of funding for the Shchuchye facility and other construction and cooperation issues (Interfax/BBC Monitoring, Nov. 19). Return to Menu 2. Norway, Russia Cooperate In Radioactive Waste Processing MOSCOW, NOVEMBER 24, 2003. /RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT ALEXEI BEREZIN/ -- Within the framework of a special programme, Norway and Russia do joint work setting up permanent centres for processing radioactive waste at a plant of the North fleet, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said after talks with his Norwegian counetrpart Kristin Krohn Devold. "Cooperation between the two defence ministries is very close and trustworthy", Sergei Ivanov said. Norway plays an active role in the programme of environmental management cooperation in the Arctic region, he added. "Within this programme Norway allocates large sums for environmental rehabilitation in the North, in particular, for the utilisation of Russian nuclear submarines withdrawn from Navy service", said Sergei Ivanov. Return to Menu 3. Russia And Great Britain Signed Contracts About Nuclear Storage Facilities� Safety Upgrade The Russian Atomic Ministry, or Minatom, and the UK Department of Trade and Industry signed four contracts aimed at solving nuclear and radiation safety problems in Murmansk region. It happened during the IAEA 17-th Contact Expert Group meeting held in Murmansk. RIA Novosti reports this as said by Viktor Akhunov, the head of department for ecology and decommissioning of nuclear facilities of Minatom. Akhunov said three contracts would deal with rehabilitation of the radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Andreeva Bay, in particular, construction of roof over the dry storage section, examination of room # 5, and integrated inspection of the facility on the whole. The forth contract is to develop an onshore spent nuclear storage facility, which is now stored on board Lotta technical support ship. The Great Britain allocated $8m as the first tranche for the Andreeva Bay rehabilitation. Akhunov believes, it is time to switch from the retired nuclear submarine dismantling problems to the shipment and disposal of spent nuclear fuel stored in on-shore bases, especially in Andreeva Bay. There are 116 nuclear submarines taken out of service in Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions; 58 of them were completely scrapped, and 16 are under dismantling now. �This makes a half of all nuclear submarines destined for disposal in the region, and we will solve the problem soon�, Minatom�s official promised. He stressed that the spent nuclear fuel shipment problems were more complicated than nuclear submarine dismantling. Before the operations start the risk and environmental impact assessments should be done and the infrastructure and safe conditions for the storage facility personnel should be created. �We would like to have the first train with spent nuclear fuel leave Andreeva Bay in 2005 already, but only after all safety relevant documents are approved by the independent regulators�, Akhunov said. Return to Menu 4. Russian-German radwaste disposal cooperation discussed in Moscow The workshop organized in Moscow by VNIPIPT Institute (the All-Russia Research and Design Institute of Industrial Technology) discussed progress and results of the Russian-German cooperation in the field of disposal of radioactive waste. The workshop was attended by experts from the German Ministry of Industry and Trade, Federal Agency BGR, representatives of scientific institutions of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk, Chelyabinsk, and Mining and Chemical Combine's (MCC) experts. As Nuclear.Ru was informed by the MCC public relations bureau, when the issue of deep geological repository of radwaste was under discussion the main attention was paid to research and surveys to confirm aptness of geological and hydrogeological conditions at sites Itatsky, Kamenny and Yeniseisky as regards the requirements of radwaste underground isolation for future construction of an underground research laboratory in the Nizhnekamsky granitoid rock mass 25 kilometers from MCC. In the frames of this initiative MCC organizes and directly participates in all work including surveys, surface and geodetic studies. During the workshop the German experts were familiarized with a 3D model of one of the surveyed sites built basing on the results of surveys conducted by the Russian experts. The discussion resulted in the identified areas for further joint work and proposals to be incorporated into the 2004 international cooperation plan. Return to Menu 5. Report Chides Governments on Stockpiles LONDON, Nov. 18 � Western governments and Russia are moving far too slowly to stop terrorists from acquiring deadly ingredients to build unconventional weapons, a major international report concluded Tuesday. Of a total of $20 billion pledged by the Group of Eight last year to secure stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological materials, "only a tiny fraction" has been spent or even allocated to specific projects, it said. "The threat is outpacing the response," Sam Nunn, a former United States senator, said in an interview here. Mr. Nunn leads the Nuclear Threat Initiative, an antiproliferation watchdog that largely paid for the study by 21 security research groups. Mr. Nunn said the war in Iraq had distracted the United States and diverted resources from securing unconventional weapons materials in regions like the former Soviet Union. According to the study, there are some 100 poorly protected research reactors, spread across 40 countries, containing weapons-usable uranium. "The global community remains alarmingly vulnerable to catastrophic terrorism," it said. "Around the world, and particularly in the former Soviet Union, materials and weapons of mass destruction are insecure, often protected only by a padlock or an unpaid guard." "To construct a nuclear bomb, terrorists would need to steal only a small amount of nuclear material, about enough to fit in a suitcase," it added. Mr. Nunn said terror groups were less likely to acquire unconventional weapons from a government than to get the materials from ill-secured research sites. "The most likely source of terrorist weapons probably does not come from a state that has spent 10, 15, 20 years trying to get their own weapons � they're not likely to turn around and give it to Al Qaeda," he said. Apart from money, the report said, "Russian bureaucratic foot dragging" is also hampering progress. Mr. Nunn said the rate of success in securing such sites was too slow. "At the pace we're going, you're talking about 20 years," he said. "I don't think we've got that long." Return to Menu E. U.S. -- Russia 1. Kelly, Losyukov To Meet In Us Over NKorea Nuclear Issue WASHINGTON, November 24 (Itar-Tass) - American Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov will hold consultations in the American capital on Monday, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said. He told reporters that Kelly and Losyukov would discuss prospects for settlement of the North Korean nuclear issue and possible dates of the second round of six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear programme, in which two Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan take part. Kelly has toured Japan, South Korea and China. He said the meeting with Losyukov would give a fuller notion of stands of the participant in the negotiations. The first round or the six-party talks in Beijing in August has not led to any accords. However, Washington and Pyongyang recently have eased their positions. American President George Bush proposed in October providing written multilateral guarantees to North Korea in exchange for its scrapping its nuclear potential. Pyongyang has made clear later that it was ready to abandon its earlier demand of a non-aggression treaty with the U.S. Return to Menu F. Russia -- Iran 1. Britain, Russia Say Iran-IAEA Cooperation Process Should Not Be Harmed Vienna, Nov 21, IRNA -- Britain and Russia stressed here on Friday that the process of Iran�s cooperation with the Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should not be harmed. British envoy to the IAEA board meeting Peter Redmond Jenkins said no measure should be adopted that would damage present legal framework of discussions with Iran. Jenkins said a basis should be laid for Iran�s new positive approach towards cooperation with the IAEA. He said that if Iran continues to show further violations and concealments, the IAEA board would investigate reference of the country�s case to the UN Security Council. Certain diplomats believe that contrary to the US statement, Britain�s statement stressed cooperation and complete settlement of the issue. Meanwhile, Russian envoy Grigory V. Berdennikov said in a statement, read out at the board, that the discrimination raised against Iran should be removed. Berdennikov said that based on November 10th report of the IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, no evidence has been found to substantiate any link between Iran�s nuclear activities and nuclear arms program. He said it would be better for the board to support ongoing cooperation between Iran and the IAEA. He added that it would be better to abandon old and invalid hostile approaches towards the issue. Canada and New Zealand are to read out their statements on Iran at the meeting and the board resolution is to be investigated on Wednesday. Return to Menu G. Russian Nuclear Forces 1. Russia And Norway To Hold Joint Wargame MOSCOW, NOVEMBER 24, 2003. /RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT ALEXEI BEREZIN/. Next year Russia and Norway will hold joint military exercises, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said after the talks with his Norwegian counterpart Kristin Krohn Devold. "We have agreed that in 2004 we will hold joint antiterrorist exercises on a small scale, say a platoon", Sergei Ivanov said. According to him, the exercises will act out antiterrorist operations and the elimination of effects of emergency situations. The Russian defence minister also said that a squadron of Russian Su-27 warplanes recently paid a visit to Norway. Return to Menu 2. One Of Rhs Stolen In Murmansk Region Delivered To Storage Site One of two radioisotope heat sources (RHS) from tampered lighthouses in Murmansk region has been delivered in a special container to the storage site belonging to the RF NAVY Northern Fleet radiation and chemical protection division. RIA Novosti reports this as said by RF NAVY Northern Fleet spokesman Igor Babenko. He said the work is underway to remove and place in storage the second radioisotope source. After all operations have completed the RHSs will be placed on special vehicles and shipped for disposal of. The RHSs were detected by the surveying division of the Russian NAVY Northern Fleet on November 12 and 13, after unknown individuals had stolen them from the radioisotope (radionuclide) thermoelectric generators (RTG), which supported operation of lighthouses in Olenija Bay and the isle of Yuzhny Goryachinsky in the Kola Bay. An RHS is the 1-liter-size can containing strontium-90 with half-life of 26.5 years. RHS surface temperature can be 500 degrees Celsius. On the ground the RHS radiation dose rate is up to 1,000 roentgens per hour. It is dangerous to stay closer than 500 meters to a RHS. Return to Menu H. Russian Nuclear Industry 1. Atomic Energy Ministry Dissatisfied With Volume Of Investments RBC, 21.11.2003, Moscow 14:53:24.The Ministry of Atomic Energy is dissatisfied with the volume of investments in the atomic energy sector that was recommended by the government for 2004, Alexander Rumyantsev, the head of the ministry, reported at a news conference today. According to him, a total of RUR23bn (about $772m) in investments will not be enough for spurring the development of the sector so as to meet the requirements of the 2020 Russian Energy Strategy. The official believes it is necessary to work out auxiliary mechanisms for attracting funds, particularly for building direct-action emergency facilities within the existing atomic energy stations. Originally, the ministry proposed the volume of investments at RUR35bn ($1.17bn), and lowered it to RUR27bn ($906m) later. On the initiative of the Economy Ministry, this figure was subsequently reduced to RUR23bn ($772m) and approved by the government. Return to Menu 2. Ayatskov Says His Goal Is To See The Nuclear Output Doubled By 2020 The pace of nuclear power development is far from desirable, therefore "Minatom has to find out where to get money to expedite this development", the RF Minister of Atomic Energy Alexander Rumyantsev said to the press-conference when answering the question by Nuclear.Ru about the development of an investment mechanism for nuclear power and nuclear fuel cycle. This topic was discussed by the Union of Nuclear Power Territories and Enterprises (UNPTE) meeting on November 21. "All the time we are going circles: the budgeted funds are not enough so we must attract investments, but it is difficult for a federal entity, therefore, the floating is necessary", Rumyantsev said noting that the main issue was how to retain the state control and safety while integrating into the market economy. Rumyantsev believes Minatom "spins off slowly in the current realia, it is not as active in the market as could be". "We must reform more stirringly", the Minister said. He also noted that he agreed with the criticism expressed by the UNPTE chair of the board Dmitri Ayatskov on a rather slow pace of nuclear power development. According to Rumyantsev, Minatom is not happy with the funds under the Rosenergoatom's investment program, which had been reviewed by the RF Government meeting on November 20, because it "will not give an opportunity of budging on the large scale" the planned completion of nuclear power units' construction. In his turn D. Ayatskov stressed that recently UNPTE had done a great job lobbying Minatom's interests at different level of power, but, as he said, it was enough for the current moment. "If Minatom fails to double electricity output by 2020 I'll consider it the work poorly done on my part", the governor said. Return to Menu 3. Nuclear Energy Minister: Share-Holding Companies Should Work In Lieu Of The Lack Of Investments MOSCOW, November 21, 2003. (RIA Novosti) - Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev believes that the creation of share-holding companies is the best solution of the problem of the lack of investments into the atomic energy industry. He expressed this opinion at the news conference in Moscow after the end of the session of the Union of Territories and Atomic Energy Enterprises. "One of the ways to attract investments into the development of the atomic energy industry is to create share-holding companies in this industry," said Rumyantsev. "But the one-hundred share-holder remains the State." He named the TVEL and Tekhsnabexport companies as successfully working in this sphere. Rumyantsev said that the Rosenergoatom concern "cannot attract investments at the present time, because it cannot guarantee the return of the investments, though the atomic energy industry is a profitable section of the electric energy industry." The minister said that the session of the Union of Territories and Atomic Energy Enterprises took a decision to address the Russian President and Government with the initiative of working out and adopting a federal targeted programme for the development of the atomic energy industry and the nuclear-fuel cycle for a medium-term perspective. "The present situation calls for a new approach to running the development of the Russian nuclear energy industry. For this purpose the energy strategy of Russia should have efficient implementing mechanisms in the atomic energy industry. It is necessary to prepare and carry out flow-line production, to train personnel beforehand, and to give sufficient work to Russian machine-building and civil engineers. Otherwise, economic efficiency disappears," says the address to the President. Return to Menu 4. We Help The Customer To Enter Nuclear Power, Kuzin Says The annual science-and-practice conference "Small-Power Generation-2003" was held on November 12-13 in the city of Obninsk. It was organized by JSC Malaya Energetika and supported by Minatom of Russia, the Ministry of Energy of RF, RAO EES of Russia, the State Committee for Construction of Russia, the Moscow Chamber of Commerce. It was attended by about 200 experts from 70 organizations and companies of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Lithuania. During the conference Malaya Energetika's Director General Yevgeni KUZIN answered Nuclear.Ru's questions in the exclusive interview. Nuclear.Ru: "Small-Power Generation" conference is held annually. What are the prospects of practical implementation of the discussed projects? Ye. Kuzin: In practice, each year new approaches emerge as regards implementing of small-size power generation projects both in terms of technologies and funding mechanisms. Generally, everything is changing rapidly in Russia. Therefore, the communication between professionals involved in these issues is very useful at each stage: starting from drawing out a fundamental concept and small-size power generation approach and ending with practical implementation under existing legal frames. That's why the number of the conference participants grows year by year. Nuclear.Ru: At the conference you made a presentation of the small-size nuclear co-generation plant based on the floating unit with KLT-40S reactor installation, which passed the state-level expert examination in the late October. What is the project's future? Ye. Kuzin: As the experts involved in the project noted at the conference, it is ready for practical implementation. We are waiting for the Rosenergoatom's next year financial program approval. So, we will structure our activities depending on the amount of finance allocated. Next year we plan for the launching of the floating power unit sections. This means the beginning of construction process. Nuclear.Ru: But Rosenergoatom's money won't be enough for all construction stages. Do you plan for attracting investments and how? Ye. Kuzin: One of the options is the China's initiative, which announced its readiness to credit construction of the leading floating power unit. Nuclear.Ru: What projects have already been implemented by Malaya Energetika? Ye. Kuzin: During last three years Malaya Energetika has implemented several construction projects of modular power sources under orders of Minatom of Russia, in particularly, on Novaya Zemlia test site. These are diesel-powered modular boilers. I would like to note especially the fact that these projects were implemented during the shipping season, i.e. just within three months a from-the-scratch boiler unit was arranged for in Novaya Zemlia. We think that, in addition to our major project - floating nuclear power plant - this area (the modular power sources) shall have the right to exist because it is naturally conditioned by the present day economics. Nuclear.Ru: What about the project of nuclear water desalination complex? Ye. Kuzin: It still exists as a project. Today we are legally formalizing it. The first stage is the marketing; the second stage is the seeking for a customer. The interest has been shown by Thailand, China, and Indonesia with they being ready not only for scientific and technical cooperation but also for practical implementation of the project provided it is implemented in Russia first. In other words, we need to build the pilot facility here in Russia. Still, nuclear power installation technology has been demonstrated through nuclear icebreakers for a long time. It has to be viewed in terms of the power unit. A question was asked at the conference: wouldn't it be easier to rebuild an icebreaker into the power plant? It turns out that it would not. We worked on this issue and it came out that it would be more expensive than to build a new power unit. The same is true for rebuilding of a nuclear submarine into a power unit; it is more expensive than to build a new power plant in terms of regulations, equipment modifications, etc. Nuclear.Ru: Do foreign customers, besides the said above, turn to you asking to develop a small-size power generation project? Ye. Kuzin: Not to develop but implement a project, because for a country which does not possess the nuclear technology and infrastructure it's senseless. To go on your own for such a project you have to have or create an infrastructure to operate the facility in the safe manner. Our floating NPP project does not require the foreign customer to have any infrastructure. We have it already. We come up with the project, which is Russia's property and incorporates advanced technologies and helps the customer to "enter" nuclear power. We propose the foreign partner to participate in monitoring, training of monitoring experts that facilitates the improving of competence of people involved in nuclear power. For instance, why should Indonesia have the infrastructure enabling it to build a floating nuclear power unit when it can just participate in construction? Indonesia has good shipbuilding yards where the hull of the vessel could be built. There is an operating organization-like infrastructure, which today oversees operation of a small pilot-industrial reactor or laboratory. It's quite natural that these people would like to improve professionally and expand their activities. The implementation of a project like the floating NPP would give them such opportunities very quickly. Nuclear.Ru: It means that the floating NPP abroad will remain the Russia's property. What other features the commercial model of the project implementation for foreign customers has? Ye. Kuzin: The plant itself may be owned by a commercial company, a consortium, for instance, which financed the deal including the construction of the power unit. And the commercial model will be as follows: the floating nuclear power unit is owned by Russia; shift crews are Russian; the customer buys electricity, heat, fresh water under the long-term agreement. This scheme does not require the country where the power unit is operated to create the infrastructure to support the operation; it ensures nuclear non-proliferation and unobstructed return of the power unit and INF (irradiated nuclear fuel) to Russia. Return to Menu I. Official Statements 1. Czech Republic Joins UK in Russian Chemical Weapons Destruction Two States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom, announce the contribution of the Czech Republic to a project led by the United Kingdom�s Ministry of Defence to assist the Russian Federation in destroying its lethal chemical weapons stocks. The Czech Republic will provide approximately EUR 60,000 towards construction of an electricity substation that will support the chemical weapons destruction facility at Shchuchye, in the Urals, Russian Federation. Around 11.2 thousand tons of chemical weapons, or about 28% of the declared Russian stockpile, will be destroyed at Shchuchye. Several States Parties are committed to providing support to Russia to help it meet its obligations to destroy its CW stocks, including Canada, the European Union, Germany, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. Destruction of chemical weapons stocks is a key requirement of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), not least because of the risk of proliferation. The Chemical Weapons Convention, banning chemical weapons, entered into force in 1997 and mandated the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to eliminate chemical weapons forever, to verify the timely destruction of all declared chemical weapons, to monitor the non-diversion of dual-use chemicals, to facilitate the mutual assistance and protection afforded to all Member States, if any Member State is threatened by or attacked with chemical weapons, as well as to promote the peaceful uses of chemistry. The OPCW now numbers 157 Member States. Return to Menu 2. On the Signing of a Memorandum of Understanding Between Canada and Britain on Assistance to Russia in the Destruction of Chemical Weapons The signing took place in Moscow on November 19 of a Memorandum of Understanding Between Canada and Britain on Assistance to Russia in the Destruction of Chemical Weapons. Under this document, Canada will direct 33 million Canadian dollars for the purposes of assistance in the destruction of the stockpiles of chemical weapons in Russia. This will be done through the Russian-British Intergovernmental Agreement on Assistance by Britain in the Implementation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction in Russia of December 20, 2001. The Memorandum creates a legal base for cooperation during the period before the signing of a Russian-Canadian intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the framework of the Global Partnership, on which the negotiations are continuing. The funds being allocated by Canada in accordance with the Memorandum will be used to finance the construction of a railway at the chemical weapons destruction facility in Shchuchye, Kurgan Region. This is one more step in the implementation in practice of the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, the initiative put forward by the G8 leaders last year at the summit in Kananaskis, Canada. The Memorandum contributes to the start of full-format cooperation with Canada in carrying out specific projects in a priority Global Partnership field - the destruction of chemical weapons. Such an approach corresponds to the Global Partnership Action Plan approved at the beginning of this past June by the G8 leaders in Evian, France. Return to Menu 3. Transcript Of Russian Minister Of Foreign Affairs Igor Ivanov Interview With Cnn, Moscow, November 18, 2003 (excerpted) [...] *QUESTION: *Iran has fulfilled the requirements put forward by the US. But the US is displeased all the same. Secretary of State Colin Powell said today Iraq is still intent on producing nuclear weapons. How do you look at the situation? *FOREIGN MINISTER IVANOV:* First of all I know of not a single country in the world that would advocate that Iran should possess nuclear weapons. We were all against nuclear weapons appearing in Iran and for its nuclear programs bearing an exclusively peaceful nature. This was from the outset our position, to which we have adhered. IAEA adopted a resolution embodying three provisions. First, that Iran should provide full information on all the previous and current nuclear programs being implemented in the country. Second, that Iran sign the Additional IAEA Safeguards Protocol. Third, that Iraq suspend uranium enrichment. Russia together with other countries actively worked with the Iranian leadership to get the fulfillment of all these provisions. We note with satisfaction that Iran gave consent to fulfill them. It has already furnished the IAEA with information on the previous and current nuclear programs, which is now being studied by IAEA inspectors. We shall wait for their assessments. Iran has notified the IAEA in writing that it accedes to the Additional Safeguards Protocol. In Moscow the representative of the Iranian leadership declared that Iran is suspending uranium enrichment. Therefore we consider that all the conditions, set forth not by Russia or the US or France, but by the IAEA, have been met. Now our task is to see that this Iranian stand becomes consolidated. If something in Iran's position does not satisfy somebody, it is important to understand what exactly. It seems to me that there should be no artificial whipping up of tensions; it is important to ensure that Iran keeps its pledges. This requires strict control, to be exercised by the IAEA. We shall be guided by the conclusions and analyses which will come from the IAEA representatives. *QUESTION: *Why then is the US still expressing its displeasure? *FOREIGN MINISTER IVANOV:* It's hard for me to say. I think the decisions which the Iranian leadership took came as a bit of a surprise for Washington. It is not easy for the US to readjust the line it has been pursuing for the last few years. *QUESTION: *So Iran has done too much in this field? *FOREIGN MINISTER IVANOV:* Anyway, for some people it came as a surprise. *QUESTION:* How do you see the idea of imposing sanctions against Iran? *FOREIGN MINISTER IVANOV:* I now see no grounds to impose sanctions against Iran. On the contrary, if it fulfills all the obligations it has assumed to the IAEA, the world community in accordance with international agreements is duty bound to render Iran assistance in developing nuclear programs for peaceful purposes. This is an obligation of the international community. Russia will continue to cooperate with Iran, including in the nuclear field. [...] Return to Menu J. Links 1. Article of Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Ivanov, Published in the Newspaper Vremya Novostei on November 24, 2003, under the Heading "In the Face of Common Challenges" Return to Menu 2. Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators Return to Menu 3. Russia and Iran Return to Menu 4. NIS Nuclear Trafficking Database: What's New Return to Menu 5. The Future of Ballistic Missiles Return to Menu DISCLAIMER: Nuclear News is presented for informational purposes only. Views presented in any given article are those of the individual author or source and not of RANSAC. RANSAC takes no responsibility for the technical accuracy of information contained in any article presented in Nuclear News. RANSAC's Nuclear News is compiled two to three times weekly. 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