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Russia is to take over the former Soviet Ministry of Atomic Power, Engineering
and Industry. A decree by President Boris Yeltsin states that the ‘successor’
ministry, Minatom, will take over ‘the buildings, structures and other property
and assets’ of the former ministry that lie within Russia. Minatom, like
its predecessor, will embrace both civilian and military applications of
nuclear technology.

The decree follows Yeltsin’s meeting last month with leading scientists
of the old nuclear establishment. Yevgenii Velikhov, one of the most influential
scientists at the meeting, accused the Russian government of having ‘liquidated’
the old Soviet structures, without making adequate provision for the
safe running of nuclear establishments.

The decree rectifles this situation, at least on paper. Nuclear safety
is at the top of Minatom’s list of priorities. It also requires the new
ministry to ‘carry out negotiations within three months’ with all former
Soviet republics to establish mechanisms for co-operating on the safe use
of nuclear energy.

By transferring all the Russian assets of the former Soviet ministry
to Minatom, Yeltsin has effectively prolonged the life of what Izvestiya
called the nuclear ‘monster’ of the former regime, with its huge network
of secret towns, plants and waste dumps. Apart from a nod to ‘the development
of market relations and the anti-monopoly policy’, the decree makes no suggestion
that this vast complex might be broken up.

This will not please Andrei Gagarinskii, deputy director of the Kurchatov
Institute of Atomic Energy in Moscow. He pointed out that although plutonium
pellets and enriched uranium are processed in Russia, uranium is mined in
Ukraine and the central Asian republics and uranium pellets are made in
Kazakhstan. Gagarinskii argues that if the Commonwealth of Independent States
wants to keep its defence capability at the same level as the former Soviet
Union, it must keep the ties of the old nuclear industry.