79 



Sea for radionuclides, such as Cesium-137 and 

 Strontium- 90. 



These projects are being conducted with the cooperation of Norwa 

 and Russian research institutes. Thes4 are examples of 

 international informal agreements involving EPA. 



I would like to complete my testi-nony by discussing the 

 Murmansk Initiative in some detail. I feel that this project 

 could be a blueprint for future U.S. ihternational partnerships 

 for effective prevention of further contamination of the Arctic 

 environment by radioactive and associated hazardous materials. 



In 1993, the Russian Federation identified a particularly 



urgent radioactive waste management problem preventing their 



formal adherence to the amendments to! the London Convention that 



i 

 were negotiated that year. Their problem was the inability to 



process the large volumes of low-level liquid radioactive waste 



(LLRW) arising from the decommissioning of nuclear submarines. 



Consequently, they were also unable to fully meet their 



commitments under the START II agreement. At the London 



Convention Consultative Meeting in 1993, the Russian Federation 



made it clear that if interested countries could assist them in 



solving this problem in both Northwest Russia and the Far East, 



then Russia would be prepared to formally adhere to the 



prohibition under the London Convention which bans the dumping of 



