The law opens up for the underground storage of radioactive waste materials in the regions and leaves the regional and municipal administrations with a major responsibility for financing the storage facilities.
The regional parliament – the Duma – approved the law amid massive protests from environmental organizations in the region. The new legislation is believed to have potentially serious consequences for people in the far northern region. Murmansk Oblast has a number of nuclear installations, both nuclear submarines, icebreakers and the Kola NPP, all of which leaves behind lethal waste materials.
Leader of the local Nature and Youth organization, Vitalii Servetnik, maintains that the local politicians have prepared the ground for turning Murmansk Oblast into a “nuclear dump”. Numerous requests from the locals have been ignored and neither the law, nor the proposed amendments have been discussed the way they should have, he adds in a press release posted at the organization’s website.
Andrey Zolotkov, leader of Bellona Murmansk, says he now expects that regional authorities in the near future will have to handle the question of building a major storage facility for the radioactive wastes, Bellona.org reports.
