"The Turukhanskaya construction project was blocked at the end of the 1980s as a result of serious ecological and economic expertise," Greenpeace Russia spokesman Mikhail Kreindlin said in a press release.

"The rebirth of this project will signify a return to the time of the 'grand projects', the blackest period of the ex-Soviet Union's administrative-command system."

A broad coalition of environmental groups plans to present Putin with a petition with more than 8,000 signatures demanding that the project -- run by Russia's largest hydroelectric company, RusHydro -- be abandoned.

The massive Turukhanskaya hydroelectic station -- which would flood a vast area of forests when the dam is built -- is planned to go on line in 2010, in a remote area inhabited by the indigenous Evenk people.

The Soviet government carried out underground nuclear explosions in the area in the 1970s, activists said, and the soil most likely contains remnants of nuclear waste which could be brought to the surface when it is flooded.

But complaints by environmentalists are unfounded, a company spokeswoman said, since the project's plans haven't even been finished.

"We don't yet even have a full understanding of the size of the station and therefore it is not yet possible to guage what the damage might be," company spokeswoman Elena Vishnyakova told AFP.

Regardless, she added that "any influence on the environment will undoubtedly be compensated for."

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