I want to acknowledge to my colleagues who do not know Dr. 

 Yablokov, in reading the reports as I do every morning, last week, 

 I came across three articles, each of which documented problems 

 inside of Russia. In each of the articles, which were criticizing Rus- 

 sia on its chemical weapons levels, on low priority on smaller nu- 

 clear weapons, and on decommissioning nuclear submarines, they 

 quoted one individual and that is the individual appearing before 

 us today. Dr. Yablokov. He is the leading authority in Russia on 

 environmental matters and has the ear of President Yeltsin, which 

 is all the more reason why we need to understand and work with 

 him and share his perspectives. 



While we are beginning to reveal the location and quantity of nu- 

 clear contamination worldwide, still little is known about the short- 

 and long-term effects of dumping radionuclides and other toxic 

 waste in the oceans, the health risks that may occur, and the im- 

 pact to the ocean ecosystem as a whole. 



Since 1992 and 1993 when this problem was first brought to us, 

 there has been committee after committee, council after council, 

 conference after conference, international meeting after inter- 

 national meeting to determine what impact this waste may have on 

 the environment. But the truth is, there has been insufficiency in 

 funding, insufficiency in leadership, and insufficiency in commit- 

 ment to address this issue head-on with our international friends. 



If we are to successfully address the problem, greater inter- 

 national cooperation is an imperative. The final report issued by 

 the Office of Technology Assessment just recently, just several 

 months ago, on nuclear waste in the Arctic stressed this point em- 

 phatically and called for increased expansion of international ef- 

 forts. We need to go beyond the Arctic region in this cooperative 

 effort. 



I am happy to be here also as the chair of the Oceans Task Force 

 of the United States branch of GLOBE USA, Global Legislators for 

 a Balanced Environment, working with our counterparts in the 

 Russian Duma headed by Nicholai Veransoff, the Japanese Diet 

 headed by Akiko Dimota, and the European Parliament headed by 

 Carlos Pimento and Tom Spencer. We are working together in the 

 parliaments and legislative bodies of each of those nations and bod- 

 ies on these common environmental problems. 



I am also serving this year as the U.S. Vice President for 

 ACOPS, the Advisory Committee on the Protection of the Seas. 

 Through these two international organizations, we are successfully 

 coordinating international efforts in regard to the world's oceans. 



Finally, we are in the process of establishing an exchange pro- 

 gram between Members of this Congress in a bipartisan manner 

 with members of the Russian Duma who are working on defense 

 issues as well as environmental issues in the context of the post- 

 cold-war era. 



Today, we are honored to have this distinguished panel of ex- 

 perts from the Russian Federation and Norway, and policy makers 

 and technical experts from throughout our country. In addition to 

 Dr. Yablokov, we will hear from Kare Bryn, Director General/Am- 

 bassador of the Resources Department of the Norwegian Ministry 

 of Foreign Affairs who will give us the international perspective. 



