16 



Mr. Weldon. Are there any other opening statements? With 

 that, Dr. Yablokov, welcome. 



STATEMENT OF DR. ALEKSAI V. YABLOKOV, RUSSIAN FEDERA- 

 TION, INTERAGENCY COMMISSION ON ECOLOGICAL SECU- 

 RITY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL 



Dr. Yablokov. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I ask somebody to 

 show some pictures, if it is possible. It may be more informative 

 than my written presentation. 



I have to say that I deeply appreciated your invitation. I greatly 

 appreciated such possibility to express my understanding of this 

 situation, because the situation with Arctic pollution is not only a 

 Russian problem. It is a problem for all Arctic countries, including 

 the United States, Canada, and maybe even not only the Arctic but 

 all countries which belong to the Northern Hemisphere. 



For example, you know not only pollution from military Russian 

 source but also from Great Britain is detectable, even in the Kara 

 Sea, in the White Sea, especially in the Barents Sea. 



This is the last minute before dumping of one of the nuclear sub- 

 marines near shore in the new land. The dumping place is only 20 

 meters deep. It is a last minute life of submarine. So the 17 sub- 

 marine was dumped near new land. The last expedition shows that 

 only near submarine some radioactivity was slightly higher than in 

 the Kara Sea, so it does not create immediate danger. We have 

 time. We have time, maybe several years to improve the situation. 

 I hope that in several years, we have the possibility to erase all of 

 this submarine and to blaze it into safety deposition. 



Mr. Weldon. Dr. Yablokov, you have to excuse us. Do you have 

 these technical problems in Russia? 



Dr. Yablokov. Yes, of course. It is typical. [Laughter.] 



Dr. Yablokov. In my written text, you can see a more detailed 

 explanation of what the Russian Government has done and tried 

 to do in this direction. Some visible activity, especially in the last 

 year. Just in the last month, my government approved a special 

 Federal program to overcome the nuclear waste problem. It is a 

 big, big project, many pages, but only $1 billion which they allo- 

 cated to spend during 10 years. It is nothing, if you count the prob- 

 lem which we are facing and what we need for this problem, for 

 radioactive contamination of the Arctic. 



We will have a possibility to show my picture, or I can talk with- 

 out the picture. 



Mr. Weldon. If you can proceed, we will try to get it corrected. 

 I think the light bulb went out. But if you can proceed without the 

 photo, we will try to get it corrected and then put it up. Do you 

 have photos you can pass around. Dr. Yablokov? 



Dr. Yablokov. Yes. I will continue without pictures. 



What we have to do, the scale of problem, we understand it is 

 an enormous scale of problem, not only nuclear submarines which 

 were dumped but also three installations in Central Siberia which 

 produced military plutonium have an enormous amount of radio- 

 active waste which are going to the Arctic Ocean, because as you 

 recall, the northern slope. Asia has some slope to the Arctic Ocean 

 and all waste is going to the Arctic sooner or later. 



