RUSSIA-ENVIRONMENT: Kostroma Voters Reject Nuclear Power

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Andrei Ivanov

MOSCOW, Dec 11 1996 (IPS) - The final results are in on a ground breaking referendum in a small north-east Russian district, with voters delivering a solid ‘no’ to the construction of a nuclear power plant held in their neighbourhood.

The voters of Kostroma Oblast (district) on Dec. 8 rejected the nuclear option; some 87 percent voting against the plant while only 10 percent were in favour. The turnout was 59 percent in a region of 241,000 potential voters.

Under the new Russian constitution under which the referendum was called and which came into effect in 1993, the decision is binding and can be reversed only if voters change their minds in a subsequent referendum.

The vote was hailed as a triumph for community activists who took advatage of the constitutional clause allowing binding popular referenda at community level and signed up the necessary support for a referendum in a series of petitions.

The decision is expected to stand, however, as the Ministry of Atomic Energy (MinAtom) said the vote was a waste of time. They say the government has no funds to resume construction of the plant anyway, which was started in the early 1980s but suspended after the Chernobyl accident.

MinAtom spokeswoman Veronika Romanenko says the vote “made no sense”, as “neither now nor in the foreseeable future will construction be restarted.” A management body for the station still exists, but only to maintain the premises and equipment and ensure their security, says MinAtom, which insists that the facility is to be mothballed.

However, in the weeks before the referendum, the ministry had sponsored an advertising campaign which stressed that the plant was safe and pointed out that it would create 20,000 jobs.

Kostroma is a poor region with inadequate power supplies where many residents are pensioners or small farmers and where unemployment is high.

“If people are happy living among their pigs and geese without a decent road in sight, then fine,” said chief project engineer Alexander Podoinitsyn said before the vote. “In that case, we can live without a nuclear power station.”

Kostroma, some 370 kilometres northeast of Moscow, has a population of around 800,000. It is a poor province of farms and forests and no heavy industry and is considered one of the cleanest regions of Russia.

In the summer its clean lakes and woodlands attract many tourists. Residents had feared that a nuclear plant would drive away the visitors, explains Karen Richardson of Greenpeace International, which supported the campaign against the plant mounted by Russian environmental groups.

Work began on the plant ten years ago but construction stopped in early 1990 by decision of the regional soviet. 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.

Work restarted in 1992 after the local authorities changed their mind following a nuclear industry campaign in support of the plant.

Lack of finance, however, prevented any progress being made. 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.

When construction started in the 1980s the local population were unaware of possible environmental dangers but by 1993 the ecological message had got through.

Environmentalists claim that the plant is sited over a tectonic fault and its water reservoir will be near the river Kostroma which flows into the Volga. They say the level of ground waters is high. The ground at the site is unstable and prone to collapse and landslides.

Activists of the environmental movement ‘In The Name of Life’ started to collect signatures to stop 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.

Although MinAtom officials continue to dismiss the referendum as “absurd”, environmental groups say the result is an important victory for grass-roots democracy and sets a vital precedent for other regions.

“This could be the beginning of the end of nuclear power in Russia,” a Greenpeace Russia statement said. “If other communities follow the example of Kostroma they can stop the construction of nuclear plants in their district.”

“We’re very pleased about this,” says Karen Richardson, who was in Kostroma during the voting. “It shows that when people have a choice, they don’t want nuclear power.”

She added that Greenpeace plans to work with other Russian communities where nuclear plants are under consideration. Russia has three nuclear units due for completion within the coming three years — Kalinin-3, Kursk-5 and Rostov-1.

The units at Kalinin and Rostov are VVER-1000s but the Kursk unit is an RBMK. Although its design has been adapted to correct the most serious faults which could lead to a Chernobyl-type accident, there is likely to be considerable international opposition to the completion of this unit.

Greenpeace Russia supported by Greenpeace International, is expected to mount a strong campaign against the Kursk reactor.