Serbia
plans to ship thousands of kilos of spent nuclear fuel to Russia as it seeks to
avert security threats and decommission a research reactor, a government
official said yesterday.
The Vinca Nuclear Institute, 17 kilometers (11 miles) southeast of Belgrade,
will ship 2.5 tons of spent fuel rods and 13 kilograms of highly enriched
uranium via Russia’s state-run Rosatom corporation, Deputy Science Minister
Miroslav Veskovic said.
“We are concerned over security and safety,” Veskovic said in an interview,
adding that the nuclear waste would be sent to Russia for reprocessing and
storage.
Radioactive material at decrepit and sometimes poorly guarded facilities in
many countries poses environmental risks, and security officials worry about
the dangers should any of it fall into the hands of terrorists.
Veskovic acknowledged that while the Vinca material would be difficult to
process into a weapons-grade substance, there was “potential for a dirty bomb”
– a device in which conventional explosives are laced with radioactive material
that could contaminate a large area when the bomb goes off.
The former Soviet Union gave the fuel rods to the Vinca institute in 1976 for
research work. In a 2009 report, officials said there were 8,030 used rods at
Vinca’s spent fuel pool, only 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) from the River Danube. In
2002, Serbia shipped 6,000 unused fuel rods to Russia.
Leaking containers
In a report on Vinca this year, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
said conditions at the fuel storage pool were still poor. A third of spent rod
containers were leaking.
The $54 million deal with Rosatom envisions repatriation of nuclear waste to
Russia, improvement of the waste management and total decommissioning of the
larger of Vinca’s two reactors.
Packing and transportation can start only after Russian experts bring equipment
and storage containers and train local personnel. “I believe we might start
packing nuclear waste in special containers early this fall,” Veskovic said.
Since the ouster of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000,
Serbia has received millions of dollars in aid from the United States, IAEA and
nongovernmental organizations to clean up Vinca and other facilities.
“It’s a time-consuming, tedious and expensive process. Each step requires
careful planning and training,” Veskovic said.
About 5,000 other radioactive items for medical and industrial use are also
stored in rusty hangars inside the Vinca compound.
(from "KATHIMERINI" English edition, 24/06/2009)