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[Second Issue of the Day]
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Group to begin assessment for Russian nuclear waste
dump
MOSCOW, July 3 (Kyodo) - A local group calling for Russia's first nuclear waste dump to be established on an island northeast of Russian-held territories claimed by Japan will soon begin its own environmental assessment, a Russian lawmaker has said.
Sergey Shashurin, a supporter of the citizens' group based on the state of Sakhalin, told Kyodo News that the assessment will take place as early as this month on Shimushir Island, about 600 kilometers northeast of Hokkaido.
The project first emerged when a Taiwanese electric power company began looking for a site together with a Russian nuclear research institute to dump low-level radioactive waste from its nuclear power plant in Taiwan.
The citizens' group in the Sakhalin state, where unemployment runs high and thriving industry is limited to fishing, moved to attract the site to promote the local economy, Shashurin said.
The atomic energy department of the Russian government is not enthusiastic about building a nuclear waste dump in the region, however, mainly because it is prone to several earthquakes every year.
The group's assessment will thus focus on determining the safety of the project, which could create employment for job-starved locals.
Shashurin said the assessment team will consist of seismologists and geologists, including some who took part in the assessment work for a petroleum and natural gas project in waters northeast of Sakhalin.
After submitting the results of the assessment due out by the year-end to the Sakhalin state assembly, the group hopes the assembly will pass a resolution backing construction of the dump site. It will also ask the state governor to lead a campaign to bring the project to the region.
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