From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Thu Jul 17 2003 - 09:14:20 EDT
First environmental contract to handle radioactive waste signed in
Kazakhstan
The first environmental contract to deal with radioactive waste was
signed in Kazakhstan recently, the Ekspress K newspaper said on 16 July.
Under the contract signed in the capital between the Environmental
Protection Ministry and the Vasilkovskoye Zoloto open joint-stock
gold-extracting company, the company will reprocess the uranium dump in
Stepnogorsk 160 km from Astana as a condition of its right to develop a
major gold mine in Kokchetau in central Kazakhstan, the newspaper said.
The company will first conduct work to stop the radioactive dust from
the waste using special Western technologies. Then, it will prepare a
feasibility study to reprocess the waste fully, the newspaper said.
There are 230.7m tonnes of low-level radioactive waste in Kazakhstan,
71m tonnes of which is in the town of Stepnogorsk, the newspaper said.
According to preliminary estimates, the entire work will cost 150m-200m
dollars, the article said.
Source: Argumenty i Fakty Kazakhstan, Almaty, in Russian 16 Jul 03
BBC Mon Alert CAU 160703/jf/nb
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