Japan To Allocate $17Mln For Radioactive Waste Storage Center In Russian Far East - RosRAO

Japan will allocate more than 1.1 billion rubles (about $17 million) to create a center for conditioning and storage of radioactive waste in Russia's Primorsky Region, Konstantin Sidenko, the director of the Far-Eastern branch of Russian state-run Radioactive Waste Management Enterprise RosRAO, said on Tuesday

VLADIVOSTOK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2019) Japan will allocate more than 1.1 billion rubles (about $17 million) to create a center for conditioning and storage of radioactive waste in Russia's Primorsky Region, Konstantin Sidenko, the director of the Far-Eastern branch of Russian state-run Radioactive Waste Management Enterprise RosRAO, said on Tuesday.

"RosRAO cooperates with its colleagues from Japan in the framework of international agreements. Thus, the Japanese side will allocate 1.158 billion rubles for the creation of a regional center for conditioning and long-term storage of radioactive waste. These funds will be used the purchase equipment for the management of radioactive waste," Sidenko said at a meeting with local lawmakers.

Sidenko also stressed that Japan's financial participation in the creation of the center in no way meant that the country's nuclear waste could be stored at the facility as it was prohibited by Russian law to import and keep radioactive waste from abroad.

"The agreement provides for the assistance of the Japanese side exclusively on the elimination of the Cold War legacy," the chief of RosRAO's branch added.

The project aimed at the construction of the center for conditioning and storage of radioactive waste in the region was launched back in 2013. The facility is scheduled to be put into operation in 2020. Meanwhile, local residents have expressed their concern over the construction of the center, fearing that Japan might start piling up its own nuclear waste there.