Russian enviros are alarmed by a government proposal to import 20,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel from European and Asian countries for storage and eventual reprocessing in Siberia. The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry hopes that the scheme will earn it $21 billion over the next 10 years, as countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and South Korea run out of secure storage sites for spent nuclear fuel. Environmental groups argue that Russia risks being turned into a nuclear dumping ground for richer countries. U.S. officials also oppose the plan, for fear that it would add to Russia’s stockpiles of plutonium, a key ingredient used in building nuclear bombs.
