35. Russia and U.S. Nuclear Relations

Oleg Bodrov is the Chairperson for NGO Green World. Oleg is an engineer-physicist and environmentalist. After finishing his studies at the Leningrad Polytechnic University (1976) as an engineer-physicist he has been engaged in testing of nuclear submarines. From 1980 till 1993 he was head of a group of the Regional Ecological Laboratory of the Khlopin Radium Institute, St. Petersburg. After a visit to the contaminated area of the Chernobyl NPP in 1986, he left the nuclear industry and came to the environmental movement. Since 2005 he has been one of the initiators & head of an international NGO project for a promotion of safe decommissioning of the Russian nuclear power plants and final disposal of, spent nuclear fuel on the basis of the best international practice (Germany, Lithuania, USA, Sweden, Finland). In 1999, Center for Safe Energy, sponsored 3 weeks of People's Hearings on plutonium fuel in Russia. A delegation of US activists and experts went to Russia as participants in this education effort. Delegates included our executive director Lou Zeller and this is where he met and worked with Oleg. A few years later, Oleg along with his other colleagues from Russia came to the U.S. to advocate and educate against nuclear. Ultimately, with this foundation, plus local community work in NC, SC and GA. Some legal actions challenging NRC permitting (Duke Energy’s Catawba and McGuire power plants were slated to use the fuel), succeeded in stopping the joint Russian-American project to use plutonium in nuclear electric power plants.  The American factory for fuel manufacture would have been at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.  Indeed, the Dept. of Energy spent $4 billion on it before abandoning the project. With Oleg, we talk about his transition from nuclear into the environment movement, his experience in Russia before and after Chernobyl happened, his time in the U.S. touring nuclear facilities, the Russian version of the NRC, and current issues he’s working on now. Contact and connect with Oleg: [email protected] Documentaries: 1. Wasteland  (about Russian nuclear weapons, reprocessing spent nuclear fuel and consequences for the people and environment) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCmcvyctVrU&t=849s 2. Digging our own grave (about nuclear weapon production in Russia and resistance of Russian society) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJftotBfGnU 3. Vermont state against Vermont Yankee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONrpfBOwkDc&t=593s 4. Everything in our power (about Main Yakee NPP decommissioning)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fvs36in2Qo&t=9s 5. Hanhikivi (About Finnish NPP hanhikivi) and about connection of civil and military technologies) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgwKyZ3gSCs&t=60s Chernobyl: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-chernobyl-like-today/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/05/what-s-going-on-in-chernobyl-today/ Decommissioning: https://www.nrc.gov/waste/decommissioning.html https://www.nei.org/advocacy/make-regulations-smarter/decommissioning