Delegation: Russia

Committee: IAEA
Topic: Humanitarian consequences of
nuclear weapons
School: Noordwijk international college

Our world is facing many problems one of the biggest is the humanitarian
consequences of the use of nuclear weapons. This issue causes terror all over the
globe because of disasters caused by these weapons.

There are people that blame nuclear energy for absolutely everything when it could
actually be very helpful, if used correctly, because it provides a different and less
damaging way to obtain energy since nuclear power plants do not emit polluting
substances into the environment. Nuclear energy also gave us weapons which have
been used for protection in the past few years. This artifact has created many
disputes but it has also been one of the reasons why conflicts have ended.

Russia is one of the countries that owns nuclear weapons and it is usually perceived
as a country looking for trouble. Russia's actual use of weapons is for protection
against enemies and a possible future war.

We can’t eradicate the use of nuclear weapons because it would be too dangerous
for the world. What we can do is focus on what has been affected, for example
there’s a place in Kazakhstan called the Polygon that years ago was used for
nuclear tests ran by the Soviet Union. Even though it’s already closed, it is
contaminated by spoils of these tests and there's still remains of radiation near the
area. There's the misperception that events like this don’t have a solution rather than
the total ban of nuclear weapons. Instead of considering their elimination we should
focus on cleaning the mess that already exists.

And now Russia's targets are these three concepts: security, prevention, and
residues.

Security: protect houses built around a hazardous radius to ensure the safety of its
inhabitants by covering the house surface with steel. This will work as an insulating
agent against radiation.
Prevention: radiation can still affect communities settled 200 km. Away from the
disaster area. Hazard safe areas start at 300 km. That's why my delegation proposes
to set a trail of warning signs starting at 300 km. Mark extends every 50 km. Until
reaching the hazard area.

Residues: In the past few years there have been nuclear tests or bombs exploding
in different locations and even though areas have been closed and bombs exploded
many years ago,radiation still affects the area around the spot where the disaster
took place.

That’s why we want to clean the residues with a compound called SBMOF-1.This
compound becomes active at 300 degrees celsius, and it is proven that activation
can convert uranium to plutonium.

Uranium's radiation life is around four hundred million years,by turning it into
plutonium we reduce its radioactive period to 20 thousand years.

And after it is converted we can put the plutonium into a lead container to keep it
safe until it’s life ends.