Published on 24.09.2009 by .

Today, over 36,000 signatures of Russian citizens under the petition protesting construction of nuclear power plant in Nizhny Novgorod region were handed to the Russian President’ Administration. The signatures were collected among the inhabitants of the 30km zone around the proposed construction site, in Murom town of Vladimir region and Navashino town of Nizhny Novgorod region. Prior to handing the signatures to the President Administration, the environmentalists presented them to the media at the Independent Press-Center in Moscow. The press-conference speakers included Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman of Ecodefense, Vasily Vakhlyaev, member of the Murom City Council, professor Alexey Yablokov of the Russian Academy of Science, and Sergey Ovchinnikov, a farmer form Nizhny Novgorod Region.

According to Vakhlyaev, the results of the public opinion poll
indicate that 95% of the Murom residents strictly oppose the
construction of the nuclear power plant in 20 km from their town. The
City Council adopted a desicion to hold the public hearings on the NPP
to be located in Navashino, he also said. The hearings are scheduled
for September 28, and their results will be delivered to the federal
authorities, the media, and Rosatom, whose officials are invited to
take part in the hearings.

Vladimir Slivyak of Ecodefense reported on numerous shortcomings of
the Nizhny Novgorod NPP project. For instance, it is unclear what are
plans for nuclear waste treatment. According to the project
documentation, spent nuclear fuel will be transported to a
'regeneragion plant' which does not exist and is not planned to be
built. Thus, high-level radioactive waste which will present danger
for at least 240,000 years and for which there is no safe disposal
technology, may  remain in Nizhny Novgorod region forever. So, what is
actually under discussion – a nuclear reactor or nuclear waste dumping
site? It looks like both.

The proposed construction site is located at karst rocks which may
lead to karst rocks failures and collapses. The project materials miss
such data as analysis of nuclear fuel transportation that will affect
the region, reactor decommissioning after its lifetime expired,
analysis of the regional development option without nuclear plant.
Ther is also no calculation on emissions of such radioactive isotopes
as thritium and carbon-14 during regular operation of the plant. All
this information is an essentual part of the Environmental Impact
Assessment, but Rosatom found it possible to ignore legal requirements
for the EIA.

“It's necessary to push federal officials to follow the legislation on
public participation. In this case, that would mean stopping
construction of a dangerous and expensive nuclear plant which will
produce nuclear waste and release radioactive substances even at
normal operation. Implementation of up-to-date energy efficiency and
saving technologies in Russia would save twice more energy that all of
country's nuclear reactors produces today», said Vladimir Slivyak of
Ecodefense, Russian environmental group campaigning against nuclear
reactors.

Nuclear energy has direct effect on sickness and death rates,
academician Alexey Yablokov said at the press-conference. This is
proven by various research data in Germany and other countries. He
also stated that simple nationwide switch to energy-efficient light
bulbs would save so much energy that new nuclear reactors will not be
needed. Yablokov called for cancellation of the nuclear energy
development program in Russia as dangerous, expensive, and
uneffective.

On September 1, over 3,000 of Murom town’ residents took part in
anti-nuclear rally where both local authorities and activists of
Ecodefense criticized the project of nuclear plant and urged local
citizens to not be afraid to raise voices. (Watch/download video at
http://antiatom.ru/en/node/1272 )

Data of the national opinion pool surveyed by one of Russia's largest
research company ROMIR (branch of the Gallup international) in late
2007 show that 78% of the country's residents are negative about plans
to construct new nuclear plants. Poll was sponsored by the Heinrich
Boell Foundation and Ecodefense.

For more info: in Moscow - +7(985)7766281 or +7(903)2997584,
{ " href="/mc/compose?to=">http://antiatom.ru