RUSSIA: Peoples’ Power Versus Nuclear Power

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Andrei Ivanov

MOSCOW, Nov 27 1996 (IPS) - A groundbreaking initiative by a community action group has forced local authorities in a north-east Russian region to call a referendum on whether to allow the state to complete construction of a nuclear power plant in their area.

The referendum, permitted under the 1993 constitution on presentation of a petition with at least 10,000 signatures, will be held in north-east Russia’s Kostroma Oblast (Region) on Dec. 8, the same day as the region calls elections for governor. It will be the first of its kind in Russia.

The group, which calls itself ‘In the Name of Life’, started to collect signatures to stop construction in the early 1990s and have campaigned tirelessly for the referendum vote ever since the introduction of the 1993 constitution formally made it possible.

Construction of the plant began near the village of Chistye Bory, 250 kilometres north-east of Moscow in Buy district of Kostroma region. Kostroma region is less industrially developed than the rest of the Volga basin.

“Its main wealth lies in its abundant forests, clean lakes and rivers and unpolluted air,” says Eduard Gismatullin of Greenpeace Russia, which is supporting the referendum campaign. “All these will be under constant threat if the Kostroma nuclear power plant is commissioned.”

Work began on the foundations of the plant’s Unit 1 in 1981 and Unit 2 in 1988. Costs were expected to total 117 billion roubles at 1991 prices. Construction stopped in early 1990 by decision of the then regional ‘soviet’ (local government), but began again in 1992 after the local authorities changed their mind as a result of a nuclear industry campaign in support of the plant.

Little more has been done, however, and the site at present consists of a management office, living quarters and some equipment.

The plant is officially being funded from Russia’s state budget, although no money has been allocated. In 1991 the Ministry of Nuclear Power (MinAtom) said it would no longer finance the plant but later rescinded this decision after the regional parliament in 1994 supported plans for a nuclear plant and urged the government to include Kostroma in its nuclear power development programme.

Originally the plant was to have eight Chernobyl-type RBMK-1000 reactors but this was changed after the Chernobyl accident to the safer VVER-1000 pressurised water reactors.

Unit 1 was originally scheduled for commissioning in 1996 and Unit 2 in 1998. Now there are long-term plans to build four reactors of a new design, possibly VPBER-600s — a new pressurised water reactor based on those used in nuclear powered ships.

Activists from In The Name Of Life started to collect signatures to stop the plant’s construction in the early 1990s, and then began to work for a referendum according to the provisions laid out in the constitution adopted in 1993.

Environmentalists say the plant is sited over a potentially earthquake-prone tectonic fault and its water reservoir will be near the river Kostroma which flows into the Volga.

The level of ground waters feeding local water supplies is high, they note and claim that the ground at the site is unstable and prone to collapse sink-holes and landslides.

When construction started in the 1980s the local population were unaware of the dangers and happily quit their jobs to work for better pay at the new site. “Some 85 percent of the working population from 28 nearby settlements began working at the nuclear complex,” explains Gismatullin. “This left the state and collective farms without a work force.”

By 1993, however the ecological message had got through. When the campaign to collect signature began in June that year over 16,000 were collected in three months. Only 10,000 are required to call a referendum.

The signatures were presented to the District Council which agreed to carry out a referendum but no further action was taken. The signatures were then taken to the district administration which simply ignored the request.

In the Name of Life then tried to put their case to the Sverdlovsk regional court but the court refused to consider it. The issue was also dismissed by the District Arbitration Court.

The wrangling continued and eventually the environmental group managed to focus public attention on the referendum once more. At this point, however over 6,000 of the signatures on the petition were declared invalid by the regional authorities.

Faced with this brick wall the environmentalists decided to begin the procedure again from the start and began to collect signatures afresh. By the beginning of 1996 they had 36,525 signatures — too many for the district parliament to ignore.

As a result, on Dec. 8 the citizens of Kostroma district, with a population of 800,000, will be asked to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the question: “Do you agree with the siting and construction of a nuclear power plant in the Kostroma district?”

Supporters of incumbent governor Varelii Arbuzov, who has been in favour of the plant’s construction for four years, fear that the inclusion of the referendum on the ballot threatens his chance of winning a second term.

But whatever the outcome of this exercise in democracy, it could well provide an example which other regions facing similar problems could choose to follow.