Ecuador has always maintained a peaceful vocation and supported all agreements on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. However, the signing of the "Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Ecuador and the Government of the Russian Federation on Cooperation in the Sphere of the Use of Atomic Energy for Peaceful Purposes" could be contravening this trend, and should therefore be reversed and questioned by Ecuadorian society as a whole.
This agreement, signed in Moscow in October 2009, has begun to receive strong criticism just a few days after the text was released by the Commission on Sovereignty, Integration, International Relations and Integral Security. The purpose is for various actors from the public sector and civil society to provide input on such a delicate and controversial issue as nuclear energy.
This Commission is in charge of preparing the report from which the full Assembly can approve or reject, in a single session, said agreement. Previously, the Constitutional Court had already ruled that there is no unconstitutionality in the text of the agreement - as long as its content is in accordance with the constitutional norms - so that passage through the Assembly is the last requirement to allow the nuclear cooperation agreement with Russia to enter into force or not.
For Acción Ecológica, which attended the meeting convened by the legislative commission on May 30, this agreement must be questioned and reversed because it exposes the country to risks of radioactive contamination in various ways. “The text opens up the possibility of mining uranium, building nuclear reactors, manufacturing radioactive materials, all of these activities that entail very serious risks that have not been able to be discussed due to the total lack of information before the signing of the aforementioned agreement in Moscow,” says Ivonne Yánez, from the environmental organization.
The possible existence of uranium and its potential extraction in the Puyango forest, located between the provinces of Loja and El Oro, and in the El Cóndor mountain range, a center of extraordinary biodiversity and part of the ancestral territory of the Shuar people, would bring irreversible impacts to these two areas, in addition to the exposure to radioactivity to which the workers of the alleged mine will be subjected.
“The potential demand for huge and continuous amounts of water, mainly to cool nuclear reactors during operation, could also affect the constitutional right to water,” explains Yánez.
A document published by this organization indicates that other risks include leaks, accidents caused by earthquakes or other causes, militarization to provide security to the facilities and to repress those who oppose this industry and the pollution it generates.
There are some aspects that are even more worrying. One of them is that the agreement contemplates in Article 2 “the evacuation of used nuclear fuel of Russian production,” which will turn Ecuador into a nuclear waste dump at the service of Russia, according to Acción Ecológica.
There is concern regarding the handling of “classified information,” as proposed by the project, since it could lead to the concealment of sensitive data in the event of accidents, as has happened repeatedly in similar cases.
Energy policies in European countries and Japan show that there is currently a clear decline in the nuclear industry. For example, the nuclear reversal in China is evident, where the construction of all atomic reactors has been frozen, and for now the investment in renewable energies means 5 times more than in nuclear energy.
"Ecuador cannot foolishly be the exception to this global trend. It is not possible to accept the justification that nuclear energy can be used for peaceful purposes when a war is declared on people and nature," says Ivonne Yánez.
RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH THE CLAUSES OF THE AGREEMENT:
We are talking about classified information. In a type of industry like the nuclear industry, what happens is that in the face of any risk, information defined as classified or confidential would immediately allow the concealment of information about any contingency. In the case of Fukushima, it was later discovered that the Japanese government was handling information other than what was really happening, minimizing the impact. The concealment of information is typical of this type of high-risk and highly vulnerable industry.
The agreement contemplates the possibility of mining uranium, building nuclear power plants, and manufacturing radioactive materials, which entails the risks already mentioned; but it also involves the evacuation of used nuclear fuel of Russian production and the treatment of radioactive waste. (This point is what could open the door to Ecuador becoming a nuclear waste dump.)
Recently, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) offered Ecuador a contribution of almost one million dollars for the development of research on nuclear technologies. A public audit should be carried out to find out how this money was spent.
In our country, the Atomic Energy Commission (CEEA) is responsible for matters concerning nuclear safety and radiological protection for the import of these components and also for matters related to the production, acquisition, transport, export, transfer, use and management of materials for the development of these technologies. It cannot be complicit in what this Convention may mean.
The agreement is contrary to the Constitution of Ecuador and exposes our country to the risks posed by the nuclear industry. There is no justification in any way for Ecuador to engage in this type of investment, which exposes us to a nuclear nightmare.
TO READ THE COMPLETE DOCUMENT OF THE ECUADOR-RUSSIA AGREEMENT, visit this link
FOUNTAIN: Tegantai
TO READ THE COMPLETE DOCUMENT OF THE ECUADOR-RUSSIA AGREEMENT, visit this link
FOUNTAIN: Tegantai
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