545 



From the Authors 



Recently, the world public has been vigorously discussing the problem of the former USSR's 

 disposal of radioactive waste (RW) in the seas adjacent to the territory of the Russian Federation. 

 This debate has drawn upon reports based on rumors and unverified information, which substan- 

 tially distorts the actual picture and creates a pretext for various forms of speculation. 



In October 1992, in order to obtain objective information and subsequently ensure Russia's 

 compliance with obligations under international treaties which it signed as successor to the Soviet 

 Union, the President of the Russian Federation formed a Governmental Commission on Matters 

 Related to Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea (hereafter the Commission). The Commission in- 

 cluded representatives of the Russian Ministry of Nature, the Russian Ministry of Defense, the 

 Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Russian Ministry of Public Health, the Russian Ministry 

 of Atomic Energy, the Russian State Committee for the Supervision of Nuclear and Radiation 

 Safety, the Russian State Committee for Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision, other 

 ministries and agencies, and representatives of administrations of nonhem and far eastern areas of 

 Russia (cf p. 55). The Commission formed a working group and an expert group (cf p. 56). The 

 working group was subdivided into subgroups: data collection, radiology, international law, and 

 archives. Members of the working group made trips to deployment locations of ships and vessels 

 of the Russian Navy and Russian Ministry of Transportation. In response to Commission 

 inquiries, central agencies of federal executive power and the administrations of Primorsky 

 Territory, Arkhangelsk, Kamchatka and Murmansk Provinces furnished a large volume of factual 

 material. 



All these data formed the basis for the Commission's report, submitted to the President of the 

 Russian Federation in February 1993, on the results of the work performed. 



When the text of the Commission's report was processed into a White Paper, it was edited 

 for publication; moreover, minor cuts of a non-substantive nature were made, the Commission's 

 suggestions to the President and the Government of the Russian Federation concerning plans for 

 specific measures to establish monitoring and processing of liquid and solid RW were deleted, and 

 some comments separate fi-om the text were also added. 



In the future, some data presented below on calculations of the amount of radioaaive con- 

 tamination of seas must be organized, since the level of radioactivity of submerged reactors was 

 not determined precisely at the time and the Commission was forced to rely on expert estimates. 



In our opinion, the data provided fully and objectively reflect the situation with RW disposal 

 in the seas adjacent to the territory of the Russian Federation. 



