DUSHANBE, December 18, 2012, Asia-Plus — The United Nations advised Tajikistan Friday to establish a Centre for Radiation Safety and Protection within the Ministry of Health, to continue working with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and to involve international donors to address the issue of the radioactive waste from old Soviet-era uranium mines that pose a threat to the rivers in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Silk Road Newsline reported.
“Approximately 54.8 million tons of waste from past uranium mining operations are still located in unsecured sites in northern Tajikistan, a number of them close to Khujand, the country’s second-largest city. The largest single dump site, containing some 12 million tons of radioactive waste, is in the town of Taboshar, north of Khujand,” according to the second Environmental Performance Review of Tajikistan released by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) on December 14. The 215-page report takes stock of progress made by the country in the management of its environment since the country was first reviewed in 2004.
“In Tajikistan, uranium mining began in the late 1940s. It stopped in the 1980s, and since then uranium mines have not been in operation. Uranium tailings in Tajikistan remain as an environmental and ecological risk,” the study says. “For example, in Sughd province, they pose a trans-boundary risk because they are located near the Syr Darya River, where they can leak out into the river or be washed out by flash floods. Plant No. 6, known as State Enterprise “Vostokkredmet,” was created here in 1946 in Chkalovsk, with the aim of processing uranium ores from the Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan mines.”
“The overall quantity of radioactive wastes accrued when the plant was in operation was 54.8 million tons, and covered an area of 180 hectares. Currently, there has been no rehabilitation work with these tailings, which continue to break down and pose a threat at local and national level, as well as downstream of the Syr Darya River, in both Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan,” the U.N. report warns.
The report includes a set of recommendations to the country to improve management of its radioactive waste and to strengthen cooperation with the international community. The recommendations were approved by the UNECE Committee on Environmental Policy.
“The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is implementing and preparing 19 regional and national projects aimed at improved management of radioactive materials and radioactive waste in Tajikistan,” says the report. “The activities of the International Atomic Energy Agency are an important element towards improvement of the situation. Results which have been achieved through IAEA projects should be implemented and supported on a long-term basis. However, due to the magnitude of the problem, it is hard to envisage that this issue will be solved in the foreseeable future.”
The report recommends that the Agency for Nuclear and Radiation Safety at the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan “should pursue the implementation of the International Atomic Energy Agency projects and identify opportunities for financing modernization and remediation measures by involving international donors as well as new owners of privatized companies in the mining sector.”
“The Ministry of Health should establish a Centre for Radiation Safety and Protection, with responsibility not only for radiation control of the environment, but also for monitoring and controlling the population’s exposure and occupational exposure,” the UNECE report recommends. “The Ministry of Health should monitor the health status of the population around radioactive waste depositories and in the areas with elevated background radiation.”
