1. the threat to the environmental security of the countries of Northern Europe and other countries of Europe and Asia presented by Russian marine nuclear reactors, waste, and contamination; and
2. the possibilities for new and expanded United States and multilateral assistance programs for environmental cleanup in Northwest Russia, including technical exchanges and private-public partnerships.

In developing this report, the Department of State has consulted the Departments of Energy (DOE) and Defense (DOD), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other government agencies.

Environmental security has received increasing attention over the last decade. This is in part due to the legacy of environmental hazards stemming from the Cold War. Environmental security encompasses the mitigation and prevention of energy security threats and environmental risks and related stresses that contribute to political and economic instability or conflict in foreign countries or regions of importance to the United States. Consequently, these security concerns could pose a direct risk to U.S. strategic interests.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union built the largest fleet of nuclear-powered naval vessels in the world but failed to build the necessary infrastructure to properly dispose of spent nuclear fuel and related waste. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has had limited resources to support this fleet and has consequently been decommissioning nuclear submarines much faster than it can dismantle them.

Safely disposing of spent nuclear fuel represents the key environmental challenge. A massive backlog of spent nuclear fuel resides in more than 100 decommissioned submarines, shore storage facilities, icebreakers, military surface vessels, and civilian storage vessels in Northwest Russia and the Russian Far East. Russia is contemplating new spent fuel handling, movement, and storage initiatives, in addition to increasing spent fuel reprocessing in the immediate future. While some of these initiatives involve cooperative technical development efforts with western countries that address specific radioactive waste management problems, others are unilateral Russian initiatives at the present time. Some of these actions, given current Russian environmental conditions and the status of relevant infrastructure, cause international concern and may pose significant threats to environmental security by either exacerbating the existing problems in the affected regions or by contributing to potential new problems in the future.

Accidents involving decommissioned Russian marine nuclear reactors and associated spent nuclear fuel, radioactive waste, and contamination could threaten U.S. interests abroad by contamination of the air, ground, and water in both Russia and neighboring regions. Such contamination could harm population safety and health as well as cause regional economic and political instability. Norway, Sweden, and Finland would suffer the most from any cross-border radiological accidents and contamination due to geographic proximity. They have been in the vanguard in raising these environmental security concerns.

Environmental security cooperation with Russia is currently channeled through several existing governmental mechanisms. One such mechanism is the Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation (AMEC) program involving the United States, the Russian Federation, and Norway. On the U.S. side, DOD established AMEC with the active participation of DOE and EPA. Under the framework of the U.S. Northern Europe Initiative, State and EPA, along with Norway, have funded expansion and upgrade of a low-level liquid radioactive-waste facility at Murmansk. In addition, State has provided cooperative funding with European countries for the development of a prototype 80-tonne storage cask and pad for civilian spent nuclear fuel from marine reactors. Moreover, the U.S. participates in the International Atomic Energy Agency - Contact Expert Group for International Radioactive Waste Projects in the Russian Federation.

To ensure adequate legal protections for environmental waste-management assistance projects in Russia, the U.S., nine European countries, the European Commission, and Russia have been negotiating the Multilateral Nuclear Environmental Program in the Russian Federation (MNEPR) umbrella agreement to facilitate assistance projects to address radioactive waste problems in Russia. A similar trilateral effort is also underway to conclude a legal agreement among Norway, Russia, and the U.S. to cover military and civilian projects addressing both radioactive and non-radioactive waste issues in Northwest Russia that are part of the AMEC program and Department of State initiatives. Failure, so far, to secure from Russia required legal protections for donor assistance has prevented conclusion of the MNEPR and Trilateral AMEC agreements. Due to these concerns, the U.S. has recently decided to partially suspend three ongoing waste management projects in Russia.

A prudent approach would be to enhance the bilateral and multilateral mechanisms noted above to ensure greater awareness and attention to the issues arising from decommissioned Russian marine nuclear reactors and associated spent fuel, waste, and contamination, thereby leveraging international resources. U.S. assistance aimed directly at environmental security concerns, as opposed to strategic threats, in Russia is presently small. A potential expansion of this assistance would logically tap into the expertise and groundwork established by ongoing government programs. Private-public partnerships could also help address environmental security threats. In addition, non-governmental environmental security organizations and initiatives could enhance and complement governmental mechanisms.