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A few observations. Visual inspection of the Russian Arctic coast 

 reveals endless debris; barrels in great piles, mining equipment 

 abandoned on the beaches, old vehicles, bulldozers; just an incred- 

 ible array of materials abandoned, the contents of which probably 

 no one knows nor has looked at for a long time. In speaking with 

 Russians who work along the Arctic coast, they say tins is a condi- 

 tion that is endemic in the Russian Arctic, just great piles of un- 

 identified but probably undesirable materials along the beaches 

 and along the immediate shoreline. 



In visiting with Russian medical personnel, I was talking re- 

 cently with some people who are circuit riders. They visit villages 

 to carry out medical services in relatively small communities on a 

 periodic basis. Their comment was that particularly in sections of 

 the Arctic north, in the villages, there are many instances of people 

 with illnesses that stem fi-om radiation exposure. Particularly these 

 individuals were reporting on the diamond mining region where 

 nuclear explosions were used apparently to fi"acture strata down 

 one kilometer, to a kilometer and a half below the ground, and the 

 local people evidently become exposed to high levels of radiation in 

 the course of their work or in working in the immediate area. 



All this is compounded by the extreme secrecy which has charac- 

 terized the handling of such information in the past. The medical 

 personnel report, for example, that they never discussed what they 

 observed in the way of radiation impact with any other people, be- 

 cause this was information, the dissemination of which could land 

 you in prison. And so the medical people said they did not even 

 talk of these findings with other doctors. However, they are in their 

 records. They were required to keep careful records of what they 

 observed and the types of treatment and problems that they were 

 dealing with, and if those records could be secured, translated, ana- 

 lyzed, we probably could learn a great deal about problems that are 

 of relevance to the Arctic. 



I was interested that one of the Russian officials during our 

 meeting when we talked about pollution said that until last year 

 such information as the impact of auto emissions on air quality in 

 cities was instantly classified as secret information, not available 

 to anyone. I read recently of another facet of this issue. A Russian 

 scientist commenting on the Russian nuclear energy program, 

 pointed out that all accidents and mishaps were secret so that if 

 operators in one plant made an error of some sort, the operators 

 in other plants could not be informed of it because of the classified 

 nature of the information, and so they were in danger of making 

 the same mistake over and over again. This strictly classified infor- 

 mation could not be shared even within the nuclear industry itself. 



A few recommendations. The central government agencies are 

 eager to be principsd players in goiy joint efforts to evaluate, mon- 

 itor, mitigate or clean up pollution in the Arctic. In the course of 

 our discussion, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources in 

 Moscow was identified as a key Russian agency that should be 

 central to any activity that would occur. It was interesting to us 

 that in response to that suggestion the representatives of the re- 

 gional branches of the Academy of Sciences said in a very nice way, 

 they don't think we should work with those people, because they 

 never get anything done. And in any case, the probably would take 



