U.S. to send nuclear waste to Russia
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has submitted an application to the US Department of State to send a shipment of nuclear waste to Russia, MBH Media reports, citing Vladimir Slivnyak, a representative of the public organization Ecodefense.
"It is difficult to say with absolute certainty what it is being prepared there. We recently received a document from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. We know that there is a process of coordination for transportation, quite possibly with the same waste (as from Germany)," Slivnyak said.
According to the document, on January 30, the commission was contacted by TAM International Inc, which plans to send to Russia 10 tons of "low-enriched uranium hexafluoride heels".
"Assurances from Russia that the material will be subject to all of the terms and conditions of an agreement for cooperation, are required. Your assistance in obtaining the necessary assurances will be appreciated," the document states.
Last year, the European company Urenco resumed export of nuclear waste to Russian. By 2022, the company plans to transport to Russia 12,000 tons of nuclear waste produced by the German uranium processing plant located in the city of Gronau. It is expected more than a thousand containers (about 20 trains) will be shipped to Russia.
The first batch of nuclear waste was delivered to the port of St. Petersburg by the ship "Mikhail Dudin" back in November 2019. The unloading took place only 500 meters from the residential area on Kanonersky island, which is home to more than four thousand people. Another consignment of dangerous waste arrived at the end of December 2019. The last shipment was received on March 18.