MURMANSK, November 19 (RIA Novosti's Ekaterina Kozlova) Great Britain will finance the construction of the site in Murmansk for the continuous dry storage of containers with nuclear wastes under the Global Partnership program. The total cost of the project is 16.2 million pounds (over $30 million).
This was disclosed on Friday at the presentation of the project, held in Murmansk on the territory of Atomflot repair and technological enterprise, where the site is intended to be located.
British Ambassador to Russia Tony Brenton participated in the ceremony. According to him, the participation of Great Britain in the project is highly important. "England participates in the project since it's interested in prevention of the nuclear wastes expansion in the world and especially in Russia, where this issue is particularly actual," he told RIA Novosti.
The site for the continuous dry storage of containers with nuclear waste will be located in a facility of the enterprise built in the Soviet era.
A spokesman for Atomflot told RIA Novosti that the construction of the facility was stopped due to the economic crisis in the country. Currently the storage of containers will be maintained by means of modern technologies, he noted.
"Public organizations conducted an independent ecological expertise of the project and we do not have any serious claims," Sergei Zhavoronkin, the Director of the Murmansk regional public ecological organization "Belunna-Murmansk", said in his turn.
According to him, the independent public ecological expertise of this project was held for the first time in Russia.
According to the project, the facility will keep approximately 50 containers with nuclear wastes up to 50 years.
"The continuous storage of the containers is conditioned by the fact that some types of nuclear wastes cannot be utilized," the Atomflot disclosed.
The project is to be implemented by the middle of 2006.
All in all Great Britain intends to give Russia $750 million for prevention of nuclear wastes expansion within the frames of the Global Partnership program.
