News
Publish date: November 24, 1997
Written by: Thomas Nilsen
News
Some 65,000 naval spent fuel assemblies is stored at temporary storage sites, onboard rundown service ships and in the reactors of some 90 old submarines. In addition, all storage facilities at the nine Russian nuclear power plants are overfilled, while some spent fuel also is stored at various research reactors. The total cost for reprocessing of all this waste will be at least USD 100 billion, according to Goman. Russia intends to organize an international conference on reprocessing of nuclear waste in 1998.
Another problem area, where progress is limited by the economic crisis in Russia, is that of maintenance on the civilian nuclear reactors. According to the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta on November 20, only one trillion rubel (approx. 200 million USD) out of 10 trillion needed for maintenance, has been transferred.
–Unless Russia acts quickly about replacing spare parts on its ageing nuclear reactors, the country could witness an accident possibly worse than the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, writes Nezavisimaya Gazeta Editor Alexei Chadaev. The situation is particularly critical at Bilibino, Kursk, Leningrad and Novovoronezh nuclear power plants.
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.