(January 19, 1996) The state-run utility Taiwan Power (Taipower) has announced that it plans to send low-level radioactive waste to Russia.
(445.4413) WISE Amsterdam - According to Chen Fan-hsien, a Taipower director, the utility firm is slated to deliver the first shipment - from 2,500 to 5,000 barrels - to Russia this summer between June and August. Details are still under negotiation.
Russia authorities, however, have denied the reported plan, saying that any contract on dumping Taiwan's radwaste in Russia would violate Russian law. "The law on the environment says no radioactive waste can be brought into Russia, so this delivery just cannot happen," Ministry spokesman Georgy Kaurov said. "The ministry is not getting involved with it."
Officials in the Russian harbour of Murmansk had announced in November last year that nuclear waste from Taiwan would arrive in Murmansk in April. Taiwan then denied this, saying it still had not decided where to dump its waste (see WISE NC 443.4384). Taiwan currently dumps its waste on Orchid Island, off Taiwan's southeast coast, but the site will be full in less than two years and the construction of new radwaste facilities in Taiwan is opposed by local environmentalists. Taiwan has also considered sending nuclear waste to China and the Marshall Islands.
Sources: Reuter, 3 & 4 Jan. 1996
Contact: Anti Nuclear Coalition for Taiwan, Box 843, Tunghai University, Taichung 40704, Taiwan.
Tel & Fax: +886-4-359 5622