RUSSIA: Russia signed a deal with European nations and the United States yesterday to clean up one of the world's largest nuclear dumping grounds, but expressed regret that Washington had unilaterally opted out of a key clause in the agreement, writes Daniel McLaughlin from Moscow.
The accord governs the spending of billions of euro to help Moscow dispose of radioactive waste and nuclear fuel from more than 100 rusting atomic submarines abandoned by the Russian navy on the Kola Peninsula, in the north-west of the country.
Nine European states, along with the United States, the European Union and several major financial organisations, signed the deal in Stockholm.
Sweden and Norway have pushed hardest for major international action to protect the Barents Sea and Arctic Ocean around Kola.
Russia broke a deadlock in talks on the agreement in January, by agreeing to waive taxation on specialist clean-up equipment imported to Russia by partner states.
National governments and the EU have already pledged €110 million for the project, and Group of Eight countries have promised $20 billion over 20 years.
"We can finally see before us the complex job of rehabilitating the territory of former Russian naval bases," the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, said after the signing ceremony. "It's obvious that all these strands of co-operation directly affect the safety, health and well-being of the people of northern Europe." He praised the Swedish Foreign Minister, Ms Anna Lindh, for her commitment to getting the accord signed.
She said the deal was of vital importance to future generations of Europeans. "Nuclear waste is one of the very greatest threats we have today, and if we are not doing anything to solve it, it is not a question of if, but when, we will have a great catastrophe," Ms Lindh said.
A Norwegian environmental group, Bellona, which keeps a close eye on the activities of Russia's Northern Fleet, says the Kola Peninsula is littered with more than 100 abandoned nuclear submarines, about 300 atomic reactor cores and thousands of spent fuel elements. Many are leaking and pose a threat to the region's delicate ecology and important fishing grounds.
The waters off Kola gained international notoriety from the sinking there of the Northern Fleet's Kursk nuclear submarine in August 2000, when explosions ripped through the vessel and killed all 118 people on board.
Russia raised the submarine and removed its reactors, and its nuclear fuel is about to be moved by train from a Barents Sea port to a reprocessing plant in central Russia.
Mr Alexander Nikitin, chairman of Bellona in Russia, said the accord was vital for north-west Russia and the residents of its towns and cities.
Murmansk, Kola's focal point, is the most populous city in the Arctic Circle, with some 380,000 residents.
"It is not simply one of the most polluted places in the world, but one of the most potentially dangerous, because nowhere else has such a concentration of abandoned nuclear material," Mr Nikitin told The Irish Times.
"The agreement is a very important step, after about eight years of talks between experts on this issue. You can't overestimate its importance."
But he said it would be a major blow if the United States maintained its opposition to a protocol governing attribution of financial responsibility for any mishaps during nuclear clean-up operations.