Russia Readies 2nd ‘Burial’ of Nuclear Waste in Sea of Japan

Ignoring a storm of international protest, Russia pressed ahead Tuesday with plans to dump more radioactive waste in the Sea of Japan.

Russia’s “sea burial” of 32,000 cubic feet of liquid nuclear waste off the Japanese coast Saturday provoked angry protests from Tokyo and Washington. Only one of three international nuclear watchdogs was warned in advance.

But Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency said Tuesday that a TNT-5 navy logistics ship had docked to a TNT-27 tanker carrying another 25,000 cubic feet of waste and was preparing to pump it into the same area.

“We have no facilities to process and bury waste in a safe place. If Japan helps build facilities to bury nuclear materials, we will be very grateful,” Tass quoted Capt. Valery Damilyan, head of the Pacific Fleet’s chemical service, as saying.

Russian officials said at a news conference Monday that they have to store just over 700,000 cubic feet a year of nuclear waste aboard aging ships, because the building of onshore storage sites was suspended in the 1960s. They said international aid is needed to help build new sites.

One of the storage tankers is close to breakdown, they said, and the risk of its sinking near residential areas on the Russian coast forced them to organize the dumping at sea.

“The waste was dumped evenly and, according to the rules of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the concentration of radioactive waste is within safety limits,” Damilyan said.

In Tokyo, the Russian ambassador was summoned for the second time in 24 hours to hear Japanese government protests of his country’s dumping of nuclear waste.

“The Japanese government will strongly demand Russia stop dumping once and for all,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Masayoshi Takemura told reporters.

Moscow and Tokyo signed an agreement last week, during a visit to Japan by Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, to work to end nuclear contamination of the world’s oceans.

Washington added its voice to Tokyo’s. “We urge the Russian Federation to halt the dumping of low-level (nuclear) waste and to honor the existing moratorium,” State Department spokesman Mike McCurry said.