Russian greens and many nuclear experts, including some within Minatom, did not approve of Adamov's plans to import nuclear waste and reform of the nuclear power sector. Environmental activists, politicians and nuclear experts opposed to the plan said it would make a nuclear waste dump site out of Russia. They estimated that expenses incurred to handle the nuclear waste would be far greater that the benefits. Since the beginning of the year, public protests of the plan took place in more than 40 Russian cities. Over 30 regional parliaments publicly demanded that the Russian Duma reject the nuclear waste import bill.
Russian environmentalists say the new minister is an unknown quantity.
In 1999, then acting prime minister, Vladimir Putin visits the Kurchatov Institute to open the Centre of Synchrotron Studies. The synchrotron permits analysis of urban contaminations such as heavy metals, toxic and carcinogenic substances, and dioxins. He will be mirror of the governmental and presidential positions. Greenpeace welcomed the dismissal of Dr. Adamov. Adamov's dismissal represents a major victory for Greenpeace and the rest of the Russian environmental movement.