41 



And, in fact, the Bellona Foundation, which is here today, has a 

 report which they will share with you on land-based problems. 

 They were the target of an action by the security functions in Rus- 

 sia to confiscate their documentation, but they have photographs 

 and documentation which they will give you. 



Mr. Ortiz. 



Mr. Ortiz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me commend you for 

 doing a great job. I know that you are very interested in the seri- 

 ous problems that we have worldwide. 



Dr. Yablokov, I am happy to see you here again. I remember 

 about 18 months ago when Chairman Weldon and I led a delega- 

 tion to Russia. You gave us a very, very good briefing. I was just 

 wondering, what has happened during the last 18 months? Is the 

 problem getting worse, that we have more dumping sites than we 

 had 18 months ago? Is the problem more serious? Are the inter- 

 national countries that we are working with, are they helping out? 

 Can you give us more or less what has changed? Is it more positive 

 change, more negative change in the last 18 months? 



Dr. Yablokov. The situation is extremely controversial in Mos- 

 cow. We had a dramatic presidential decree in July this year. 

 Under this decree, the Gosatomnadzor, the nuclear regulating body 

 in Russia, lost half of its power, at least half of its power, because 

 under the new presidential decree, he has no possibility to inspect 

 any military installation. This presidential decree had been signed, 

 obviously after huge pressure from the military, because the mili- 

 tary did not want to open its dirty places. The Nuclear Regulatory 

 Commission was one independent body who showed us the hot 

 topic, what we have to concentrate our energy on. 



So this is a bad situation, but we have also a good situation, be- 

 cause I mentioned the new law about nuclear energy. Under this 

 new law, which is now only newborn, two weeks, maybe, it was 

 published 25 November, under this new law, the Government has 

 to create a new Federal body specially devoted to the problem of 

 nuclear waste. Nobody knows what it will look like, this body, who 

 will belong, the minister of nuclear energy or some minister of en- 

 vironment, nobody knows, but it is under discussion. 



Anyway, we have a decision that you have a new body which is 

 doing something, something sound with the nuclear waste problem. 

 It is good. So it is extremely controversial, also. 



I am enthusiastic about the G-7 meeting in Moscow. We have no 

 choice. We have to do something to prepare for this meeting. I 

 know Russian custom. Now we have no good proposals, but 2 

 weeks before, we have very sound, good proposals, maybe some 

 breakthrough. I hope for some breakthrough in this problem at the 

 end of March. 



Mr. Ortiz. I would just like to have one more question for Mr. 

 Bryn. Welcome again to this committee. Are we beginning to see 

 an impact on marine life and human beings, people getting sick? 

 Is this something that is visible now or is it something that is 

 going to take years before it shows? 



Dr. Yablokov. We are lucky. Until now, we have no real evi- 

 dence about the harmful effect of nuclear dumping. I agree with my 

 Norwegian colleague that all data through us, it is only local, only 

 local influence. Yes, it is a huge amount of radioactivity created on 



