News
Publish date: September 28, 2006
News
According to Kirienko, extracting uranium from Russian mines was not a profitable endeavor because the average market price for a kilogram of uranium was approximately $40.
But now world market prices have skyrocketed to $100 per kilogram, said Kirienko, making Russian mining of the substance justifiable as a profit-turning business. The sharp upturn in uranium prices can be chalked up to analysts assertions over the past few years that world uranium supplies were running short, and thus countries with nuclear energy programmes began buying it up as quickly as they could.
Kirienko added that the Russian joint venture with uranium rich Kazakhstan – called Zarechnoe – will begin mining in January or February of 2007.
“We will expand cooperation in the field of uranium mining with all countries where uranium mining occurs,” RIA Novosti quoted Kirienko of saying. “We are ready to develop active cooperation with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and already have an active dialogue with Mongolia.”
According to Kirienko, a significant quantity of uranium was mined for military purposes during soviet times, thus Russia “can mine nothing for a few dozen years.” But he added that, on the other hand, uranium mining is necessary for wide-scale development of nuclear power.
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.