Strengthening Threat Reduction: NDEP and MNEPR

Nuclear Environmental Programmes in Northwest Russia

The military programmes of the Soviet Union led to the development of a vast nuclear infrastructure in Northwest Russia. Apart from the military security impact of these programmes, this nuclear infrastructure represents a major environmental risk.

During the 1990s discussions among states in Northern Europe (including Russia) led to the progressive development of agreed environmental protection objectives. Following the accession of Finland and Sweden to the European Union, these objectives have been absorbed into the Northern Dimension for the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union. A number of the nuclear environmental problems identified in Northwest Russia are also considered to have a non-proliferation dimension. For example, there is a need to secure stockpiles of enriched uranium used as fuel for nuclear powered submarines and to manage spent nuclear fuel contained in fuel assemblies extracted from decommissioned submarines that are lifted from the water and cut into pieces.

The Multilateral Nuclear Environment Programme for the Russian Federation (MNEPR)

In 1999 the participating states in the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) began to elaborate an integrated set of projects to manage nuclear environmental problems in the part of Russia falling within the Northern Dimension area. The objective of the programme is to identify projects, establish priorities among these projects and facilitate their implementation. In a significant number of cases the identified projects address environmental problems stemming from Russian military nuclear activities.

The MNEPR has also provided a framework in which model agreements can be negotiated to address legal issues and implementation problems associated with nuclear environmental projects. In 2003 the MNEPR states agreed on measures that provide a legal framework to guide states in drawing up specific documents establishing rules for the carrying out of particular projects related to the management of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste.

The Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP)

After 1999 the NDEP was developed to address the problem of how to finance northern dimension environment projects in the absence of any separate funding line within the EU common budget. Addressing the environmental problems identified in north-west Russia (that part of Russia falling within the Northern Dimension area) requires projects that are too large and too expensive to be financed from existing national sources or from the existing budgets established by international financial institutions or the European Commission. The NDEP has tried to meet this funding requirement by establishing a steering group and a support fund. The steering group consists of international financial institutions—the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, the Nordic Investment Bank and the World Bank—as well as the European Commission and the Russian Government. The support fund is a joint account into which donors can pay financial contributions. The European Commission is the primary contributor to the account while Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia and Sweden have all made contributions.

Strengthening the G8 Global Partnership

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