Lydya Popova (IN ABSENTIA)
SEU's Nuclear Ecology and Energy Policy Program actually began functioning in March 1991 at the first joint Soviet - American conference, organized by SEU and ISAR (former Institute for Soviet - American Relations). Many activists from both countries expressed their interest and concern about radioactive waste management, nuclear development in the world and sustainable energy policies in different countries. It was common understanding among the activists, that it would be impossible to separate "peaceful" and military atom. The specificity of approaches to the conversion of nuclear military facilities, developed by Russian industrial agencies, when plutonium production reactors were proposed to be replaced by commercial reactors, made the necessity of looking for the new ways of energy production and supply in Russia quite evident. At the conference an attempt was made to create anetwork of SEU groups interested in alternative energy. Due to the grant received from Swedish NGO Secretariat on Acid Rain it became possible to publish a bulletin "Energy and Environment" and distribute it among the groups and individual SEU members. Another field of activity is coordination of expert groups for evaluation of government documents on energy policy for environmental impact and promotion of critique papers and alternative programs in the government.
Likewise the energy part of the program, Nuclear Ecology, one is focusing on both education and lobbying activities. A big portion of Nuclear Ecology Program is nuclear weapons design and production, testing and disarmament. A network of groups from Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk, Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow has been established. The groups participate in joint events and communicate for elaboration of joint tactics. Activists from these groups are opposing to operation and construction of reprocessing plants for separation of plutonium and poor radioactive waste management. Activists of the Nuclear Ecology Program, sometimes together with the regional groups, organize conferences and roundtable discussions, publish articles in local and central newspapers and actively intervene into legislative activity on related issues in the Supreme Soviet.
Nuclear Ecology and Energy Policy Program actively establishes international cooperation and helps with contacts for the regional groups. In June 1993 a group of 11 Russian antinuclear activists travelled to the United States. They were invited and hosted by an American organization Military Production Network. Russians visited nuclear military facilities in 8 American States and also had meetings in Washington D.C. The event was widely covered by mass media. In 1994 American groups must come to Russian Cities of Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk for the conference and to meet with their SEU counterparts.
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