145 



problems so that our government leaders can ensure that U.S. as- 

 sistance is used effectively. 



The issues that I've talked about today are all considered non- 

 traditional intelligence issues. They don't constitute the bulk of our 

 work, as Senator Murkowski indicated, but they are important 

 areas of interest to the President, the Congress, and others in our 

 government. In an era of declining budgets, it will be a special 

 challenge for us in the Intelligence Community to enhance our ca- 

 pabilities in some of these newer areas while continuing to monitor 

 more traditional concerns such as proliferation, terrorism, regional 

 disputes, the former Soviet Union, and aspects of international eco- 

 nomic affairs. 



Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Senator Murkowski. Thank you very much, Mr. Gates. 



I think you've certainly laid out the situation as it exists, and 

 certainly highlighted the exposure. I wonder if you can provide us 

 with any explanation relative to the prevailing lackadaisical atti- 

 tude that has been evidenced in the Soviet's disposal of high level 

 nuclear waste, recognizing that they have a knowledge of their ex- 

 posure if nuclear wastes are improperly disposed of. Can you en- 

 lighten us at all on why there was not more consideration given to 

 the proper disposal of this waste? 



Director Gates. Well, it's hard to say, but I would speculate that 

 the primary reason, particularly during the period of the worst pol- 

 lution, in the 1940's and 1950's, had to do with the urgency of the 

 tasks of producing nuclear weapons and the single-mindedness 

 with which that was undertaken by the Soviet government at the 

 time, without regard for the costs, either financial or environ- 

 mental or the impact on human life, in terms of exposure of indi- 

 viduals to radioactive contamination and so forth. Over the years, 

 there was some gradual improvement in Soviet handling of radio- 

 active wastes, but it was throughout decidedly inferior to the han- 

 dling of that waste elsewhere in the world. For example, the Sovi- 

 ets moved from dumping radioactive waste, high levels of radio- 

 active waste, into rivers; they moved from that to dumping them 

 in lakes, and then into storage containers; and now this new meas- 

 ure that I described of turning it into glass to immobilize it. So 

 there have been some improvements over the years, but fundamen- 

 tally these measures have been decidedly inferior to those in the 

 West £ind have clearly been inadequate. 



Senator Murkowski. I wonder if you have any information rel- 

 ative to the health effects on the residents of the areas. It's a vast 

 area. I gather there is not much documentation. But I can recall 

 a meeting I had in Washington with a gentleman by the name of 

 Nikolai Vorontsov who was the former environmental minister of 

 the Soviet Union. He made some starting revelations about the 

 health effects on residents, but much of that information has not 

 been able to be substantiated because of lack of any centrahzed 

 documentation. 



Director Gates. We don't have any independent assessment of 

 the impact on the population. There have been some studies, we 

 understand, done by Soviet authorities in the past, but it's our be- 

 hef that these studies are probably deeply flawed because of the 

 unreliability of the data gathering and the way in which the stud- 



