LONDON -- Officials from several international bodies and the governments of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan Monday (September 18) in Vienna signed a Strategic Master Plan for cleaning up left-over nuclear waste in Central Asia, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said in a statement Tuesday (September 19). Kyrgyzstan expressed intentions of joining soon.
The international signatories include the International Atomic Energy Agency, the European Commission and the EBRD.
The plan "sets out a detailed blueprint for the environmental remediation of priority sites" in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, according to the EBRD. They include uranium waste sites left over in those countries from the Soviet era of widespread uranium mining. Carrying out the plan will cost an estimated €210 million ($252.1 million).
The deadline for implementing the plan was not reported.
