Vienna, Austria
On behalf of the IAEA I welcome you to this meeting. We are pleased that the Nordic countries have taken the initiative to the meeting and that Sweden and Norway have been willing to fund it. We are pleased that the Government and authorities of the Russian Federation have responded so positively and are ready to share their experience and their problems. We are pleased that several other interested governments are participating.
For the next two and a half days you will study a vast material presented by our Russian colleagues and try to develop a clear and comprehensive picture of the radioactive waste management situation in Russia, of the environmental implications and of political-economic- legal factors that are relevant.
It is not an academic study. The goal is to try to lay a basis for an increased and productive co-operation between the Russian Federation and several other Members of the IAEA. It will call for a clear identification of waste management programmes in Russia and of the various institutions who carry responsibility. It calls for an identification of specific areas in which increased co-operation is desired and can be useful.
The IAEA is pleased to serve as the forum and host for the seminar and to assist with secretariat functions and, if possible, as a catalyser. The Agency has a general responsibility in the field of waste management and waste disposal. In the last decade it has considerably strengthened its activities in these areas.
The starting point is that our generation has the responsibility to safely manage the waste which it generates and must not leave the problem to our children. We cannot harvest the energy and leave the waste to our successors. We are aware that the cold war and the nuclear arms race lead to practices which are unacceptable - in several countries. Large land areas were contaminated and must be cleaned up - if this is possible. To the public and to succeeding generations it does not really make any difference if contamination has a military or non- military background. We need to come to grips - and help each other to come to grips - with any radioactive contamination.
As a general background to your discussions, let me point to some activities of the IAEA in the fields of management and disposal of radioactive waste.
As a parallel to its nuclear safety standards (NUSS) the Agency is working out a series of safety documents called radioactive waste management safety standards (RADWASS) to give guidance to Member States in the field of radioactive waste management.
In March of this year the Board of Governors of the IAEA approved two documents of great importance:
"The safety fundamentals" (SS.111-F): "The principles of radioactive waste management"; and
"The safety standards" (S-1): "Establishing a national system for radioactive waste management:.
Like the NUSS documents these documents, hopefully will guide governments in their policies and practices - but they will not legally bind them. Binding international rules concerning Radioactive Waste Management will come with the Convention that we expect to be worked out during the next two years. The work will start this summer.
In two specific areas there exist international rules which are generally accepted. The first is the London Dumping Convention which regulated the dumping of LLW in the marine environment. Although no negative effects had been identified from this dumping, the parties decided not long ago to prohibit all sea dumping of radioactive waste. This decision evidently closes one of the disposal options which was earlier available.
The second area I have in mind is export of nuclear waste. Guidelines have also been worked out - within the IAEA - concerning such export. The purpose is to prevent that nuclear waste be irresponsibly dumped in poor countries. It is possible that these guidelines may be transformed into a Convention.
The IAEA is not only engaged in norm-making but also in providing for the exchange of experience and services and assistance to Member States in the field of nuclear waste. The disposal arrangements are often unsatisfactory in developing countries and some of the IAEA technical assistance is directed to improving these conditions. However, the Agency's services in this field are by no means limited to developing countries.
Upon request of any Member State the Agency will provide international independent peer review of their arrangements in the field of waste management and disposal (WATRAP). This service is directed especially to large established national radioactive waste management programmes or to specific aspects of such programmes. It provides a means to compare such programmes with international standards.
This is the general background. Let me now turn to the specific area which today is the subject of our attention and for which you all have come here.
It has become evident that nuclear activities within the former Soviet Union have left a legacy which raises difficult questions regarding treatment, storage and disposal of radioactive waste as well as environmental restoration. These matters, to be sure, are part of a broader legacy which must be tackled concerning the economy and the environment. Our Russian colleagues are facing formidable tasks and it is quite appropriate that the IAEA and its Members provide them with co-operation and assistance. The more so as some of the problems cause direct concern also outside the borders of Russia.
When we meet here today we have already a good deal of positive experience of such co-operation in specific areas.
One set of activities of broad geographical scope is a series of workshops sponsored by the Agency concerning "Environmental Restoration in Central and Eastern Europe". These workshops focus especially on the radioactive contamination which has resulted from mining and milling of uranium ores and which now calls for restoration.
Another set of activities which has recently begun and which has also a broad geographical scope relates to the Planning and Management of Decommissioning WWER-type Nuclear Power Plants. Some of the 27 WWER-440 type reactors are ageing and will soon be decommissioned. However, the project embraces problems connected with all WWER reactors including the WWER 1000 type - regardless of when in the future the decommissioning is envisaged.
The questions linked to the disposal of radioactive wastes and equipment in the Barents Sea have been the subject of information exchanges between Russia and other countries for several years and the IAEA has been involved as well. Co-operation - especially exchange of information - has centered in the Rovaniemi Process for countries with territory north of the Arctic Circle and in the Barents Region Nuclear Working Group regarding nuclear activities in the Euro-Arctic Barents Sea Region.
The IAEA has been specifically engaged through a Co-ordination Research Programme on modelling the radiological impact of radioactive waste dumping in the Arctic Seas. The Agency has also initiated the International Arctic Seas Assessment Project (IASAP). This project will examine risk to human health by radioactive waste dumped in the Kara and Barents Seas.
The Arctic area and Murmansk region which I had occasion personally to visit a little over a year ago is faced with many problems of radioactive waste management and disposal. One of them we know concerns the decommissioning of nuclear-powered submarines in very large numbers. This activity presents a challenge in terms of logistics, quantity of materials to be handled, what materials must be treated as radioactive waste and what can be recycled. Not least problematic are the economic aspects.
The procedure of nuclear fuel production and reprocessing in the former Soviet Union has been the subject of changes, which in turn have led to an accumulation of spent fuel as well as wastes at several locations. The expansion and construction of new storage facilities will have to be considered in the Russian Federation to maintain the production in a safe way.
I hope that meeting under IAEA auspices and drawing on the Agency's limited but independent resources and its rather large experience will facilitate for the States represented here to organize co-operation in which their own large resources and experience can come to play for the benefit of all.
In a recent very specific case it seems to me this is exactly what is happening. I have in mind the case of Paldiski in Estonia where two naval nuclear reactors used for training in the Soviet period are now being decommissioned. In an agreement between the Russian Federation and Estonia regarding Paldiski, provisions are made for an international expert reference group to assist the parties in various ways. This group is operational and had a useful meeting here at the Agency two weeks ago, offering advice, recommending procedures and work in conformity with good international practice.
The present meeting has a broad scope and it offers an opportunity for a wide group of experts to examine nuclear waste and fuel management issues in Russia in an international setting. I trust you will make use of the days here first, to gain a clear view of the nuclear waste management and environmental problems that have arisen and continue to arise from a wide spectrum of activities; second, to discuss how these problems can be practically addressed and resolved in a systematic manner. It is a heavy task for the many Russian authorities represented here. It would be good if constructive ways could be found in which the other States represented here and the IAEA could help in the process. It could even mark the beginning of greatly enhanced international co-operation in the area of nuclear waste management.