{"id":15412,"date":"2002-12-28T16:52:15","date_gmt":"2002-12-28T10:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/esgrs.org\/?p=15412"},"modified":"2017-03-01T16:16:08","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T10:16:08","slug":"no-to-the-import-and-buirial-of-foreign-radioactive-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esgrs.org\/?p=15412","title":{"rendered":"&#171;NO!&#187; TO THE IMPORT AND BUIRIAL OF FOREIGN RADIOACTIVE WASTE!"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><p><a href=\"http:\/\/esgrs.org\/?p=15391\" target=\"_blank\"><strong> ANTINUCLEAR CAMPAIGN<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>From December 2001 through April 2002, a group of students from the biology department of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University conducted a survey of Almaty residents, with the goal of discovering their attitude toward the plans to import and bury foreign radioactive waste on the territory of Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 1010 persons were questioned, primarily young people between the ages of 15 and 27 (931 persons, or 92.2%).<br \/>\n<strong>Questions<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. What are the most severe problems facing the Republic of Kazkahstan?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u0410. Low standard of living \u2013 241 persons (24%).<\/p>\n<p>B. Corruption \u2013 252 (25%).<\/p>\n<p>C. Environmental situation \u2013 265 (26%).<\/p>\n<p>D. Unemployment \u2013 252 (25%).<\/p>\n<p>E. Other. Some respondents, after choosing one of the points above, named a number of other problems, including drug addiction, AIDS, the economic crisis, the unsatisfactory demographic situation, sex discrimination, violation of children\u2019s rights, dealing with strategic military sites located in Kazakhstan, and the fact that the government fails to pay sufficient attention to the problems that worry the population of the republic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Do Kazakhstan\u2019s environmental problems worry you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u0410. Yes \u2013 952 (94%).<\/p>\n<p>B. No \u2013 58 (6%).<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Which environmental problems, in your opinion, are the most important?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u0410. Industrial pollution \u2013 286 (28%).<\/p>\n<p>B. Household wastes \u2013 240 (24%).<\/p>\n<p>C. Desertification \u2013 221 (22%).<\/p>\n<p>D. Radioactive pollution \u2013 263 (26%).<\/p>\n<p>E. Other. The answers virtually duplicated the points above.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. What do you think the danger of radioactive waste consists of?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u0410. \u0421ause the greenhouse effect \u2013 99 (9.8%).<\/p>\n<p>B. Increase the cancer rate \u2013 802 (79.4%).<\/p>\n<p>C. Hard to say \u2013 106 (10.5%).<\/p>\n<p>D. Other: radioactive wastes aren\u2019t dangerous; if properly handled, radioactive wastes pose almost no danger; background radiation increases only in the places were wastes are buried \u2013 3 (0.3%).<\/p>\n<p>Some respondents named a number of other problems, including the genetic effects of radiation and the threat to the life of all living things.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5. How do you feel about the possible import and burial of foreign radioactive waste on the territory of Kazakhstan?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u0410. For \u2013 53 (5%).<\/p>\n<p>B. Against \u2013 899 (89%).<\/p>\n<p>C. Hard to say \u2013 58 (6%).<\/p>\n<p><strong>6. Argue the case for your point of view on the fifth question.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>53 persons (5%) voted \u201cfor\u201d:<\/p>\n<p>Including the following:<\/p>\n<p>\u0410. It will enable the country to obtain funds to solve environmental problems \u2013 18 (34%).<\/p>\n<p>B. It will make it possible to pay compensation to the members of the population who suffered previously from environmental problems \u2013 15 (29%).<\/p>\n<p>C. It will help the development of the nuclear industry \u2013 20 (37%).<\/p>\n<p>D. Other. Answers virtually duplicated the points above.<\/p>\n<p>This group of respondents named the most severe problems of Kazakhstan as follows:<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 low standard of living \u2013 14 (27%)<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 corruption \u2013 16 (30%)<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 environmental situation \u2013 10 (19%)<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 unemployment \u2013 13 (24%),<\/p>\n<p>and the most important environmental problems:<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 industrial pollution \u2013 15 (28%)<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 household wastes \u2013 13 (25%)<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 desertification \u2013 13 (25%)<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 radioactive pollution \u2013 12 (22%).<\/p>\n<p>899 persons (89%) voted \u201cagainst\u201d:<\/p>\n<p>Including the following:<\/p>\n<p>\u0410. Economic inexpediency \u2013 196 (22%).<\/p>\n<p>B. Environmental danger \u2013 369 (41%).<\/p>\n<p>C. Violation of the human right to a healthy environment \u2013 334 (37%).<\/p>\n<p>D. Other. Some respondents, after choosing one of the points above, put forth a number of other arguments, including the following: it will damage our country\u2019s international reputation; it will create a threat to the health of the population; due to the high level of corruption, the funds received will be misused; Kazakhstan lacks the necessary technology, and its specialists are not sufficiently prepared for such work.<\/p>\n<p>58 persons (6%) responded \u201chard to say\u201d:<\/p>\n<p>Including the following:<\/p>\n<p>\u0410. Contradictory information \u2013 15 (26%).<\/p>\n<p>B. I have not determined my position \u2013 32 (55%).<\/p>\n<p>C. This is the first time I have heard about this problem \u2013 11 (19%).<br \/>\n<strong>The survey organizers express their sincere gratitude to all who helped conduct the survey, as well as to the survey participants.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Material prepared for publication April 25, 2002; translated into English September 4, 2002.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Translated by Glenn Kempf<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANTINUCLEAR CAMPAIGN &#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212; From December 2001 through April 2002, a group of students from the biology department of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University conducted a survey of Almaty residents, with the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[918],"class_list":["post-15412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-antinuclear-campaign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esgrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esgrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esgrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esgrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esgrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15412"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/esgrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15480,"href":"https:\/\/esgrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15412\/revisions\/15480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esgrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esgrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esgrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esgrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}