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Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement about his visit toMurmansk. [75772]Ms Quin: [holding answer 9 March 1999]: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary had the opportunity, as part of his trip toRussia, to visit the Murmansk region on 3 March to see for himself the scale of one of the largest concentrations of nuclearreactors, spent fuel and waste in the world.The sheer number of nuclear submarines awaiting decommissioning is stretching the Russian facilities to breaking point. My righthon. Friend saw for himself the "Lepse", which has been used as a storage vessel for spent nuclear fuel rods for the past twentyyears and is now in a rapidly deteriorating state in Murmansk Harbour.My right hon. Friend also met Foreign Minister Ivanov who welcomed UK assistance in the management of Russian nuclear waste. Inparticular my right hon. Friend stressed the importance we attach to Russia reaching agreement with donors on liability and taxationin the field of nuclear assistance.Whilst at Murmansk, my right hon. Friend was pleased to be able to announce a new British programme, backed by over £3 million inadditional funds, to help Russia with these problems.We are not alone in seeking to resolve these issues. It will take a coordinated international effort and other countries are alreadymaking a contribution. The countries of Scandinavia, the United States and the European Union, amongst others, already haveprogrammes dealing with the decommissioning of Russian nuclear submarines and the management of spent nuclear fuel and waste. Wehope to work with these other countries and with Russia in building a wider international programme of assistance. |