POLAND'S REACTOR FUEL RETURN PROGRAM: REACHING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 WARSAW 002381

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/NCE, EUR/ERA/ EUR/PRA, ISN/NESS
EUR/NCE FOR BPUTNEY AND TYEAGER
ISN/NESS FOR DFENSTERMACHER
DOE FOR PARRISH STAPLES, IGOR BOLSHINSKY, MIKE TYACKE, AND
BRIAN WAUD
VIENNA FOR UNVIE LHILLIARD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/17/2017
TAGS: KNNP KTIA TRGY ENGR PARM PL
SUBJECT: POLAND'S REACTOR FUEL RETURN PROGRAM: REACHING
CRITICAL MASS?

REF: A. STATE 70448

B. WARSAW 1870

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Classified By: Acting EconCouns W. Anderson for reasons 1.4(b,d)


1. (C) Summary: Poland's stalled reactor fuel return
program may finally be getting underway, thanks to an
executive order establishing a new inter-ministry
coordinating group. However, the Poles estimate transferring
their reactor fuel waste to Russia could take until 2016 or
2017, beyond the current program's end date. End summary.


2. (SBU) Econoff met with Jerzy Niewodniczanski, president
of Poland's National Atomic Energy Agency (NAEA),to discuss
the status of the Russian Reactor Fuel Return program on
December 4. Niewodniczanski, a respected scientist and
administrator, has been a professor of physics, president of
NAEA since 1992, and president of the 41st session of the
International Atomic Energy Agency. Since November 14, he has
been the chairman of an inter-ministry coordinating group to
organize the nation's Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return
Program (RRRFR) (Reftel A).


3. (SBU) Poland's participation in the RRRFR was proposed
in a letter from Andrew Bieniawski of the Department of
Energy on December 5, 2006. Embassy Warsaw followed with a
Diplomatic Note proposing Poland's participation in RRRFR.
Since then, the program has languished in a state of
bureaucratic oblivion. Neither Bieniawski's letter or the
Diplomatic Note have ever received a response. While GOP
officials have repeatedly told Embassy Warsaw representatives
that they want Poland to participate, no one has been willing
to sign a document committing the GOP to a course of action
(Reftel B).


4. (SBU) Two days before leaving office, on November 14,
Jaroslaw Kaczynski issued an order creating the inter-minstry
coordinating group. The order specified that the president
of the NAEA would be, ex officio, the group's chairman, and
the Ministries of Finance, Economy, Foreign Affairs,
Transportation, and State Treasury would each designate a
committee member. In addition, the order calls for the
chairman to name a non-voting secretary. The working group's
authorization expires on March 31, 2011, according to the
order.


5. (C) Niewodniczanski began the meeting by apologizing
profusely for the GOP's delay in responding to Bieniawski's
letter and the Diplomatic Note. He attributed the delay to
bureaucratic inefficiency in determining which agency was
competent to sign the responses. Niewodniczanski indicated
his interest in convening the coordinating group and moving
the program forward, and said the group's first meeting would
be held the week of December 10. So far, however, only one
ministry has named its representative. The Ministry of
Foreign Affairs (MFA) designated Tadeusz Chomicki. Currently
the deputy director of the Security Policy Department of MFA,
responsible for disarmament, nonproliferation, export
controls, and defense industry cooperation, Chomicki has also
served as Poland's ambassador to the Republic of Korea.
Niewodniczanski said he was considering appointing a
representative from the GOP's RADIOACTIVE Waste Management
Plant (RWMP),which has possession of the reactor fuel waste,
to serve as the non-voting secretary.


6. (C) Niewodniczanski said that he was leaning toward
transferring the reactor fuel waste by ship from Poland to
either St. Petersburg or Murmansk in Russia, because of
problems negotiating land transportation agreements with
either Ukraine or Belarus. He said he would be consulting
with the staff of RWMP to work on technical details while
awaiting approval of the final implementing agreement.
Niewodniczanski estimated that the project could be
completed, barring unforeseen difficulties, by 2016 or 2017,
which is beyond the current program deadline of 2013.

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