Radioactive Grave In One Kilometer From The Baltic Sea And 40 km From St. Petersburg

On Friday, December 27 at 15 o'clock, in the administration building of Sosnovy Bor, public hearings on the preliminary EIA materials on "Point of disposal of radioactive waste" (PDRW) were held. Burial place is offered in clay at a depth of 50 m, between two water horizons. It is approximately 3 km from the residential area (village Rakopezhi ), 1 km from the Baltic Sea and 5 km from the pine forest.

More than 2 years is a discussion on this project ongoing. Independent experts, nuclear scientists, representatives of public organizations of Sosnovy Bor, as well as the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, representing the Communist Party, Just Russia, Yabloko party, come out with harsh criticism of the project. The main arguments of opponents can perhaps be grouped as follows:
 * Inconsistency of spatial and temporal scales of potential negative impact of PDRW and extent of public hearings.
 * Inconsistency of EIA PDRW to many regulatory documents.
 * Insufficient knowledge of geology of the alleged placement for the one kilometer tunnel.
 * The lack of safety assessment by a body independent from Rosatom of the complex situation: on the southern shore of the Gulf there are already built 9 and being built 4 more nuclear reactors.
 * Reality that PDRW would become an element in international infrastructure for making money for the provision of waste disposal facilities for Europe (not only for Russian waste).
 * Lack of opportunities to control at municipal and regional levels (only federal level of control) for geography of sources of radioactive waste.

Preliminary EIA on the site of the national operator for radioactive waste (in Russian): http://norao.ru/Files/%D0%9F%D0%9E%D0%92%D0%9E%D0%A1%20%D0%9B%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%9F%D0%97%D0%A0%D0%9E%20%D0%B4%D0%BB%D1%8F%20%D0%9E%D0%A1%2020112013.pdf

New tactics in promoting PDRW Rosatom manifested this the current year - the suppression, manipulation, discrediting of the opponents, blocking the alternative viewpoint on the municipal level.

To facilitate the passage of public hearings on PDRW, there were invited experts who developed the new procedure of public hearings, instead of the procedure which has worked successfully for many years. Majority of the "United Russia" municipal deputies, in violation of decision-making procedures adopted this new procedure. Attempt to challenge the illegality of such a decision in a local court was not successful.

To implement this tactics Rosatom employed Moscow dirty political technologists who have been working in Sosnovy Bor already for six months. In their arsenal: discredit opponents ("foreign agents", etc.), blocking access of the opponents to municipal sources and mechanisms of dissemination of information. Daily Television shows on municipal TV with agitation for PDRW with manipulative scenarios. A special "social organization " (Bingo) "Clean City", which works among the masses ...

They also registered a new newspaper "People's Lighthouse" logo for which was stolen from newspaper of the opponents of the PDRW Project. This new newspaper is disseminated from the administration building of Sosnovy Bor.

In the process of promoting the project PDRW is involved, unfortunately, Alexander Nikitin (Environmental rights center "Bellona", a member of the Public Council of Rosatom).

"I support the construction of Point of disposal of radioactive waste" (PDRW)" - a lengthy interview with him under the rubric "expert opinion" is published in the municipal newspaper 'Tera Press' on December 19, 2013. In the near future the material will appear on the newspaper's website.

Unfortunately, Alexander Nikitin did not discuss PDRW with the public of Sosnovy Bor which has a different point of view. Nikitin's view from Oslo (and Moscow?) on the problem of radioactive waste disposal site in Sosnovy Bor differs from view of those who live in 5 km from the largest nuclear complex on the Baltic Sea shore, where by now nine reactors are built and four are under construction (VVER- 1200) ...

We invite the public to study environmental EIA materials at the above mentioned website and participate in public hearings.

You can reach Sosnovy Bor:
 * From the Baltic train station. Kalishche direction. About 2 hours
 * 401 bus from the metro station Avtovo, journey time approximately 1 hour 45 minutes.
 * 402 bus from the metro station Parnas, journey time approximately 1 hour 25 minutes
 * 820 bus from the metro station Kupchinskaya, the journey takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

At the moment Russians do not need a permit to enter Sosnovy Bor.