IN A damning revelation, Bellona, the Norwegian environmental group, has disclosed that dozens of Russian nuclear ftiel containers carrying a large amount of radioactive matter which had been dumped by the Russian navy more than 30 years ago, have been found near the Norwegian borders . The shocking evidence, kept a secret by the Russians, has opened up fresh debates on safer ways to handle nuclear wastes.

Says Frederic Hauge, a Bellona activist, "Its a big, @ig mess and nj money has been spent on it for years. The spent containers have been locatel in Zapadnaya Litsa, Russia's main nuclear submarine base and only 48 k from Norway. Each container is sail to contain as much radioactive wast I as was released in the first French nuclear test at Mururoa in the Soutl@ Pacific. It is now upto the Russiar? authorities, who have been blocking I attempts so far to study the inherent dangers involved, to reveal all details so that international cooperation could be sought to defuse the nuclear waste, hazard.