KHUJAND, December 2, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- Mr. Saulius Smalys, Environmental Officer, OSCE Office in Tajikistan, arrived in the Sughd province on December 1 for a working visit.

During his stay in the province, Mr. Smalys is scheduled to hold meetings with local authorities, ecologists and specialists of the Vostokredmet (Eastern Rare Metals) state enterprise.

The environmental officer also supposes to hold talks with the Taboshar mayor as well as senior representatives of the Sughd agency for environmental protection and the youth ecology center, Aarhus-Center.

On Monday, after a meeting with senior representatives of local authorities, Mr. Smalys visited Vostokredmet to discuss issues related to radioactive waste and safe storage of radioactive waste in the province.   He yesterday noted, “Many organizations, including the international ones, work on problems of tailing dumps here; however, no practical results have been yielded so far, and therefore, it is necessary to coordinate efforts.”

On the uranium reextract that has started at Vostokredmet, the OSCE expert noted that uranium extracted from waste materials was of low quality and the uranium reextract itself was economically unprofitable.

“We are currently in contact with Rosatom and the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC) and developing a program for recultivation of radioactive waste in the Central Asian region for 2012-2013,” Mr. Smalys said.