114 



Testimony of Lawrence K. (^ershwin, National Intelligence Officer for Science and 

 Technology, 6 December 1995 



Research and Development Subcommittee, House National Security Committee 

 and Subcommittee on Wildlife, Fisheries and Oceans, House National Security 

 Committee 



The Intelligence Community has published a number of classified intelligence 

 reports on the magnitude and nature of environmental contamination in the former Soviet 

 Union including a National Intelligence Estimate. On 28 June 1995, CIA presented a 

 classified summary to several members of your committee. At this time I would like to 

 briefly summarize the analysis. 



In early April 1993, the Russian Government released a report on radioactive 

 waste dumping in the Northern and Far Eastern seas. It is known as the "Yablokov 

 Report," after its principal investigator Dr. Aleksey Yablokov, at that time Special 

 Advisor to President Yeltsin on Ecology and Public Health who headed the investigation. 

 The report: 



• Contains details about the dumping of radioactive waste, including used reactors 

 from submarines, in the Northern (Barents, White, and Kara Seas) and Far Eastern 

 Seas (Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk, and northwestern Pacific Ocean). 



• Lists 13 dump sites in the Northern Seas and 10 in the Far Eastern Seas. 



• Indicated that between 1959 and 1992, more than 2.3 million curies' of radioactive 

 waste were dumped in the Northern Seas, and 19,200 curies of radioactive waste 

 were dumped in the Far Eastern Seas. 



The Yablokov Report presents a clear, credible picture of the magnitude of 

 former Soviet and Russian radioactive waste dumping at sea, and CIA has, in many 



1 A Curie is a unit of radioactivity. It is equal to 3.7 x 10 Becquerel; I Becquerel = 1 

 nuclear decay per second. 



