ALMATY More money is needed to clear up radioactive waste in former soviet Kazakhstan, Interfax reported Monday quoting the head of the National Atomic Company.

Just over one billion dollars was required to improve the ecological situation in the country, said company President Mukhtar Dzhakishev.

But only one million dollars had been set aside to this end in this year's budget, he was quoted by the news agency as saying.

According to Dzhakishev, some 20 million dollars was needed to work out a law on how to deal with radioactive waste and polluted land and to complete a survey of radioactive objects and how to make them safe.

Further 30 million dollars was required to store highly active waste from reactors at Mangyshlak Nuclear Energy Complex and some 780 million dollars was needed to bury waste from the uranium industry, he said.

According to Dzhakishev, a Kazakh citizen is subject to 1.5 times more radiation than the average person.

He expressed concern about some 100 abandoned objects from the uranium industry, where radiation levels were sometimes 50 times greater than the norm.

Polluted water sources used by citizens for drinking and household chores were also giving cause for concern.

In the Suzakh region in the south of the country some 40 natural water sources were found to be polluted with radioactive materials or uranium at levels 10 to 100 times above the norm.