Walking down Nevsky Prospect at midday on Monday, you were more than likely to be stopped by people in white coats and gloves and asked: "How about taking some nuclear waste home?" There was even a choice of the waste you could get - Taiwanese or Swiss. And the lines formed. Of course, the waste was bricks wrapped in paper bearing nuclear-hazard stickers. But the goal was to raise the alarm that the Duma, when it reconvenes in the fall, will be discussing whether Russia should lease its own land to other countries for the storage of their nuclear waste, until the half-life of the element has expired.

In the case of uranium - which would constitute the bulk of waste imports to Russia- the half-life is 150,000 years, making for a long lease. After collecting their waste, participants had the opportunity to sign a petition, which - if it reaches 2 million signatures - will require the Duma to put the import issue to a popular vote.

According to environmentalists' statistics, Russia currently boasts a nuclear waste load of six billion Curie - the equivalent of 120 Chernobyls. Added to that, there are 14 tons of irradiated fuel coming from Russian nuclear power stations, which need to be recycled.

Should the Duma vote for the proposition, it would mean adding all of that to the imports of 20,000 tons of foreign nuclear waste between 2001 and 2030, and the construction of several new storage facilities, e.g. in Sosnovy Bor, Penza, Tomsk and even one on the Kuril Islands. The "waste products" - which were also handed out with a loaf of bread as symbolic compensation for taking the waste - went like hot cakes.

"We thought people would try to make fun of it, but of course observing such a demand for "nuclear waste" is distressing," said Alexander Karpov of the Natural Science Society, one of the project's organizers.

"I support the idea of putting environmental issues and the import of nuclear waste in particular to a referendum, because people should have a chance to express their views and say that not just money but their own lives are worth a lot," said passerby Sergei Osnovin, deputy director of the enterprise Sokol.

"I am against building new storage facilities near St. Petersburg where I live and my children will live. Turning a great historical center into a nuclear cemetery isn't smart."

Svetlana Mikhailova of the "Nevsky Angel" charity foundation added her signature to the petition as well.

"If we don't protest we don't have any right to complain," she said.

A consortium of local environmental and human rights groups, including the local branch of Greenpeace, the St. Petersburg Gender Center and Citizens' Watch provided the steam for Monday's shenanigans as well as for the more serious drive for the referendum to protest the import of foreign nuclear waste to Russia.

Currently Russian environmental law forbids the import of nuclear waste - but that is a new law. Until 1995, trains from Finland loaded with waste from the Lovissa nuclear plant traveled through St. Petersburg on their way to the overloaded waste-conversion facility Mayak, in Chelyabinsk. Currently trains filled with waste are backed up as much as 20 kilometers.

Recently, though, the idea of renting space for foreign nuclear waste has been gaining a constituency in the Duma. Vladimir Klimov, a member of the Duma's Power, Industry and Transport Committee, stresses that spent nuclear fuel is not actually nuclear waste. He adds that money charged for the storage would solve numerous financial problems in Russian industry.

Those working at Russian nuclear power stations don't necessarily share Klimov's views.

"We have by far enough of our own waste we need to store," said Natalya Malevannaya, head ecologist at the Leningrad Atomic Energy Station, or LAES.

Malevannaya supported the idea of building the new storage facilities, and said this could be the best way to improve the current situation.

Environmentalists, however, doubt the safety of new storage facilities, as they recall accidents involving the leakage of nuclear waste.

"I know there have been accidents, and if there will be more storage facilities, this will mean more accidents," said Varya, a local supporter of Green peace, who would not give her last name.

"Absolutely anything may happen, if you consider the period of the half-life of uranium: 150,000 years. Who on earth can guarantee the complete impenetrability of the containers for even several hundred years?" Karpov said.

"Also, if the import of nuclear waste becomes legal, there will emerge illegal deals with companies trying to save money on safety."

"And given the current political situation, I don't feel safe. There is also a chance that storage facilities may become a target for some insane terrorist."

By Galina Stolyarova
STAFF WRITER
"St. Petersburg Times"