Vinča reactor: International Atomic Energy Agency photo, 2006
It sounds like the plot of a movie: several Serbian nuclear scientists arrive unannounced and uninvited to a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Germany. Their presentation on the Vinča reactor just outside Belgrade, Serbia, stuns the international community. The aging storage facilities, the rusting containers, the lack of safeguards, and underpaid personnel during a time of turbulence in the former Yugoslavia lead the IAEA to assume the worst and declare the reactor one of the most dangerous reactors in the world. This meeting did indeed occur, in 1995, but it was only when Serbia joined the IAEA six years later, after the overthrow of then-Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, that the international community was able to act on the serious issues posed by what the scientists revealed that day about the nuclear reactor at Vinča, Serbia. This is one nuclear-calamity story with a positive ending, as we shall see.
The Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, a research lab and nuclear reactor left on Serbian territory, is one of the unknown legacies of the Cold War. The containers are rusting away, causing some radiation contamination in the surrounding area, and posing a huge risk for much more serious contamination. The Vinča reactor was primarily a research reactor, but is a perfect example of the threat posed by aging, poorly maintained, understaffed, and under-protected nuclear reactors. While it would have been a mammoth task to steal from the facility, it would not have been impossible. The amount of material would have posed a major threat to the community, or in an act of terrorism.
But we should never doubt what political will and international cooperation can accomplish. The IAEA has since helped Serbia build a huge new complex where it can store and process decaying waste for generations in a safer environment, reducing the risk of contamination to the Vinča community. Serbia has also signed onto the Additional Protocols for Nuclear Safeguards, a move applauded by the IAEA. As the original technology and fuel came from the Soviet Union, Vinča’s nuclear fuel will be returned to Russia. This process of moving fuel back to Russia derives from a 2002 Russian-Serbian agreement to move highly enriched uranium from Serbia back to Russia. This particular project moved enough HEU to make two nuclear weapons and demonstrated the success of moving fuel across international borders in a secure manner.
This immense project is expensive and requires advanced technology for both Serbia and the IAEA. The Vinča Institute Nuclear Decommissioning (VIND) Project is the most expensive and logistically complex project in IAEA history. But in the grand scheme, the price tag of $75 million for the entire project seems low when faced with the option of inaction. To complete this project, the IAEA successfully rounded up a strong pool of international donors, including the EU, the US, Russia, Slovenia (a former Yugoslav republic), the UK, Italy, the Czech Republic and the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a United States NGO led by former Senator Sam Nunn and philanthropist Ted Turner.
Decommissioning nuclear weapons is not the only aspect of nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. The aging research reactors left over from the Cold War must also be successfully decommissioned and safeguarded for the good of the surrounding community and international security. Successful projects like VIND can prove to the doubters that the IAEA and international community are capable of handling the technologically challenging and critical necessity of dismantling, processing, decommissioning, and safeguarding nuclear waste contributing to major environmental and security threats. Though this project has just begun, and will take several more years to complete, all signs point to VIND’s success as a blueprint for international cooperation on future nuclear decommissioning and safeguarding projects.
Check out these resources for more information on VIND!
http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2009/vinca.htmlhttp://www.nti.org/c_press/release_082302.pdf
http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Multimedia/PhotoEssays/VincaIII/index.html
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/nonprorev-bleek.pdf