Nuclear Free Action Camp at Voronezh

International opposition to the use of MOX reactor fuel was manifest in Russia in late August at the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant, where the plutonium-uranium fuel is planned to be loaded in Unit 5. Fifty activists established an action camp August 17 in the woods two kilometers from the plant. Police at a temporary command post nearby monitored the camp, after an officer claiming "If you don't leave, the guys in black camouflage suits will come and remove you pretty soon from here" failed to sway the nonviolent campers. One person who ventured too near the plant was arrested but later acquitted.

Camp participants went into nearby Voronezh city and collected hundreds of signatures on an appeal to the regional parliament deputies to forbid MOX fuel import into Voronezh region. The local technical director of the Russian nuclear inspectorate visited the camp and declared "You can try to load MOX fuel into Novovoronezh 5, but then I wouldn't suggest to start this unit up." The director of the nuclear power plant agreed in a press interview, "the reactor was made not for this kind of fuel."

Activists took their protest to the governor's office in Voronezh on August 25. Twenty-eight people from five countries were arrested when they tried to chain themselves to the doors and press their demand that MOX fuel not be used and all the old reactors at Novovoronezh be shut down within two years. They were later released and all but the five locals were ordered to leave town.

For more information, contact ECODEFENSE!, Antinuclear campaign of Socio-Ecological Union, http://www.ecoline.ru/antinuclear/eng e-mail: ecodefense@glasnet.ru