YEKATERINBURG, December 13 (RIA Novosti) - There are no plans to shut down Russia's biggest nuclear-fuel processing plant, but a government commission will be set up to deal with violations of environmental regulations, Russia's top nuclear power official said Tuesday
Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, was visiting the Chelyabinsk Region, where the Mayak plant is based, and met with Governor Pyotr Sumin.
"We need to find a golden mean here, specifically ensuring Mayak's further development and implementing urgent measures to prevent new environmental problems," a spokesman for the governor quoted as Kiriyenko saying. The agency head added that the plant was vital for the country's economic development.
A criminal investigation was launched against Mayak in April after breaches of environmental protection regulations were identified during an inspection that revealed that the plant was allegedly releasing more then 10 million cubic meters of radioactive waste into the Techa River every year.
Radiation levels in the water have since risen and threaten not only the Chelyabinsk Region, but also the neighboring Kurgansk Region.
However, Kiriyenko said it would be incorrect to accuse Mayak of discharging radioactive waste into the river today, but underscored the serious nature of problems that had been developing for decades. He said a "systemic solution" was needed, though he added that contemporary science could not yet offer one.
"Nevertheless," he said, "the key objective to ensure that no new harm whatsoever is inflicted on the environment, so we are ready to take urgent security measures."
He said the problems dated back to a major accident in 1957, and continued that international experts would have to be brought into the search for solutions, as no one had ever faced anything on the scale before. "It is obvious today that this is not a regional problem, nor one confined to the industry, but a state-level problem," the agency head said.
