News
Publish date: July 17, 1998
Written by: Igor Kudrik
News
The Salaspilssky research reactor was built back in 60-s by initiative of prominent Russian academician Igor Kurchatov. The reactor, located outside Latvian capital Riga, was operated by the Latvian Institute of Physics. This was a pool-type IRT-2000 research reactor with a 5000 kVt capacity. The reactor was primary used to investigate fast flow radiation processes in ion crystals.
The Latvian government justified the decision by the fact that the reactor ran out of nuclear fuel, which would have to be bought in Russia, and was too expensive to operate.
The decommissioning of the reactor, which has been idle the past years due to the lack of funds, would reportedly take 10 years and would cost $50 million as minimum. The funding sources were not specified.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.