Ozersk - Russia's oldest nuclear plant "Mayak" under investigation
Ozersk is also the hometown of one of WECF members, Planet of Hope
15.04.2005 |Sascha Gabizon
Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov ordered the investigation earlier this week, and a team of experts from his office and the Federal Security Services (FSB) arrived on the site on Thursday. The Mayak facility stores and reprocesses spent nuclear fuel from Russian atomic power stations and nuclear submarines. It is also planned that Mayak will reprocess fuel returned from Iran's Russian-built Bushehr atomic power station.
The criminal case against Mayak was launched after prosecutors checked radiation levels and concentrations of toxic agents in the rivers around the plant, which is located in the Ural mountains. Inspectors found that the radiation level in the river Techa exceeds the allowed level by an order of several hundredfold. In 2004 alone, Mayak was found to have dumped more than 60 million cubic meters of toxic waste into the Techa. Mayak officials deny any wrongdoing, saying that the plant operated in line with all safety requirements. If convicted, the plant's managers face up to five years in prison. In 1957, Mayak was the site of major ecological disaster that many ecologists said was second only to the Chernobyl catastrophe.
A highly radioactive liquid waste spilled over from Mayak's storage pools, contaminating thousands of square kilometers. Hundreds of thousands of local citizens have been affected by the disaster, which the Soviet government attempted to cover up. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mayak became a major target for Russian ecologists who have persistently demanded that the plant be shut down and the people living in the contaminated zone be resettled.
Russian ecologists have also frequently reported new leaks at the plant,with authorities consistently denying those reports.
On Thursday, Russia's chief ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, sent a letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov outlining a program to solve the problems arising from radioactive leaks at Mayak.
Greenpeace will also launch an international campaign to bring global attention to the situation, the coordinator of the Russian branch of the ecological watchdog, Vladimir Chuprov, said on Thursday.
(By Nabi Abdullaev in Moscow)
