Bulgarian and Russian environmental groups released today an antinuclear appeal to governments and parliaments of Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Romania signed by hundreds of concerned organizations worldwide. 200 representatives of environmental, scientific and political organizations from all over the world signed the appeal to politicians of 5 countries to cancel plans for transportation of high-level nuclear waste from Bulgarian nuclear plant Kozloduy to Russia, through Romania, Ukraine and Moldova. "People from all over the world supported us today saying: No nuclear transport and reprocessing should be allowed anymore for its highly negative environmental, political and financial impacts," said Polina Kireva of "Za Zemiata", bulgarian environmental group, at today's press-conference in Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (Sofia, Bulgaria).

Contract between Russia and Bulgaria, signed December 1997, allows transportation of spent nuclear fuel from Bulgaria to Russia for reprocessing. But it can not solve problem with disposal of nuclear waste for which presently there is no storage in Bulgaria. According to Russian president' decree (Nr.773/29.06.1995), waste formed during reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel must be sent back to country which produced this fuel. Additionally, amount of waste which Bulgaria will have to accept back will be of much larger amount because of specifics of reprocessing technology.

Russia and Bulgaria promotes plutonium production, increase the risk of nuclear proliferation and stimulate nuclear terrorism, said environmental activists at Sofia's press-conference. "Nuclear reprocessing allows to produce plutonium out of spent fuel, this plutonium can be used in nuclear weapon," says Vladimir Slivyak of ECODEFENSE!, Russian environmental group. "Additionally, there is high risk that nuclear fuel can be smuggled during transportation and then will leak into the hands of terrorists. It's already happened to Russia and Luthuania in 1990s when fresh and spent nuclear fuel disappeared during transportation," he adds.

Russian-Bulgarian nuclear contract promotes environmental catastrophes. Spent fuel will be transported from Bulgaria to Russian reprocessing facility Mayak, Chelyabinsk, where in 1957 the greatest nuclear accident happened to USSR. Explosion of tank with radioactive waste resulted in radioactive release of 2-3 times higher amount compared to Chernobyl accident. "'Mayak' is absolutely most dangerous nuclear facility in Russia today," stated director of Russian nuclear regulating body GAN Mr. Vishnevsky when met environmental activists (Moscow, October 20, 1998). "Reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel is the most dangerous and economically ineffective among all the businesses nuclear industry involved in."

Bulgaria presently pays US$620 per kilo of spent nuclear fuel sent to Russia, this price does not include transport expenses. According to Russian nuclear minister Mr. Adamov this price will be increased to US$1000 per kilo in the nearest future. "It's just "wasting money", nuclear waste don't disappear - it's always come back in one form or another," Polina Kireva disgracely stated, "We are trying not to let new government to continue with mistakes the old one did when built Kozloduy. Money should be used to find solution for problem in Bulgaria and stop polluting neighbors."

Meanwhile in the end of October the representatives of environmental organizations from Central and Eastern Europe visited Brussels where they talked to European Commission's representatives and members of European Parliament. The environmentalists presented a report "Real ways to reduce the nuclear risk in Eastern Europe", where in the main recommendations is stated that : "The reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel in Russia should be immediately prohibited to all member states and accessing EU countries and should form part of the accession negotiations. Management of all radioactive wastes should conform to state of the art practises within the European Union." The report was presented for the first time in front of the Bulgarian media at this press-conference by Petko Kovatchev of Bulgarian Information and Education Centre on Ecology, a participant of meeting in Brussels.

For more information and contacts:
Polina Kireva ( 3-592 -658216, Sofia)
Vladimir Slivyak (7-095-7766546, Moscow)