KHUJAND, November 13, 2009, Asia-Plus -- Two specialists have arrived in the Sughd province under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to study tailing dumps here and evaluate how much money is needed for rehabilitation an safety of tailing dumps in the area, Ms. Muhababt Qamarova, national adviser to the OSCE Office in Tajikistan for environmental protection issues, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

According to her, two specialists in ecology and recycling of uranium waste from Germany – Uwe Volter and Luz Schneider – arrived in the province on November 5 and they will stay here until November 19.  “They have been sent to Tajikistan by the IAEA leadership at the request of the Tajik Government,” Qamarova said, noting that as a result of work of the experts a project for assessment of the Taboshar radioactive waste sites will be developed.

Since 2004, the OSCE Office in Tajikistan has been working on creating stronger strategic partnerships with interested stakeholders that would work on conducting assessment of tailing dumps in the country.

According to information posted on the OSCE website, approximately 54.8 million tons of waste from past uranium mining operations is still located in unsecured sites in northern Tajikistan, a number of them close to Khujand, the country''s second-largest city.  The largest single dump site, containing some 12 million tons of radioactive waste, is in the town of Taboshar, north of Khujand.

In order to address this problem, the OSCE has implemented numerous projects to raise the awareness of the neighboring communities on the dangers of radioactive waste. The OSCE has also supported the rehabilitation of a mud flow trap to prevent landslides in the vicinity of the radioactive waste hill and has supported a partial assessment of Taboshar''s radioactive waste sites.