Mississippi State's Center for International Security and Strategic Studies has organized the two-day public conference, which begins Jan. 12 at the Broadwater Beach Resort Hotel.
Last year, the CISSS joined in a collaborative effort with Vanderbilt University's Center for U.S. Japan Studies and Cooperation and the United States Geological Survey to coordinate the investigation by American, Japanese and Russian scientists. The goal is to determine the extent of radioactive and other hazardous wastes that the Soviets dumped in the seas of Japan and Okhotsk and the North Pacific Ocean.
Speaking at the opening session will be: Ralph E. Powe, Mississippi State's research vice president; Naotoshi Sugiuchi, deputy director general for arms control and scientific affairs, Japanese Foreign Ministry; Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, Russian minister of environmental protection and natural resources; Rep. Curt Weldon, (R-Pa.), Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska); and Bruce F. Molnia, chief of the international environmental and polar programs, USGS.
Weldon has been a member of the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, while Murkowski, whose address will be via videotape, has served on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
"By assembling more than two dozen primary participants from the three nations, we hope to lay the foundation for multilateral cooperation on the dumping issue and ensure non-confrontational, productive discussions of the realities of this problem," said Janos Radvanyi, CISSS director.
Although the Soviet Union was long suspected of dumping radioactive waste in surrounding Pacific waters, the U.S. didn't become aware of the massive scope until 1991. At that time, Russian scientists admitted that as many as 19 nuclear reactors, still containing their deadly fuel, had been dumped at sea.
Because waste discharged in the North Pacific is swept toward Alaska, scientists are concerned about the effect of widespread radioactive pollution through polar air masses.
This World Wide Web version of MSU Memo was modified and updated by Chris Brown.
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Last modified: Friday, 14-Jun-2002 15:58:59 CDT.
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