Kremlin submits bill to turn Rosatom into all-encompassing state nuclear corporation

[bananas]

http://www.bellona.org/articles/rosatom_private

Kremlin submits bill to turn Rosatom into all-encompassing state nuclear corporation

Charles Digges, 04/10-2007

NEW YORK - The Kremlin submitted a bill for consideration by Russia’s Parliament that will make into a state corporation not only those aspects of the nuclear energy sector controlled by Rosatom, but those responsible for monitoring it - and those that produce and maintain nuclear weapons.

The enormous reshuffle, putting all aspects of Russia’s nuclear energy sector in the hands of the state run commercial sector, is a notion critics say will have a negative impact on the safety of the nuclear industry as a whole.

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“What we have in the outcome is a state structure with elements of commercial management, which according to Putin, will be more effective. This structure resembles Minsredmash,” he said in reference to the Soviet era nuclear giant, which also encompassed both the civilian and military nuclear sector.

This organisation was so secretive that even its name did not indicate what it did – Minsredmash, in its Russian acronym, translates and the Ministry for Medium Machine Building. The name of the Ministry was not changed until 1986, after the Chernobyl disaster, in what was an effort to re-organise the industry. The new Ministry was known as Minatom.

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