News
Publish date: May 4, 1998
Written by: Thomas Nilsen
News
Adamov is going to meet with Admiral Oleg Yerofeyev, the commander of the Northern fleet, and other officers working with nuclear and radiation safety. They will also study the condition of coastal and floating technical bases, where radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel is stored. In addition to the fleets officers there are also plans to meet with the leaders of the Murmansk and Archangels regions. Yesterday, Admiral Yerofeyev visited the town of Bodoe in northern Norway where he stated that it should be a civilian responsibility to handle spent nuclear fuel from the fleets submarines.
Deputies of the State Duma, senior officials of the Defence Ministry and the Economics and Finance Ministry will also participate in the discussion of these problems. Last week Bellona Web wrote that the level of radioactive contamination in the sediments outside some of the naval bases and military shipyards has increased dramatic in the last three years, due to bad maintenance of the storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste.
Throughout the past year, our mission at the Bellona Environmental Transparency Center has focused on two key, but intertwined issues—nuclear and radiation safety as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on, and the worldwide influence of Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, which itself is actively involved in the war and has participated in the occupation of a Ukrainian nuclear power plant.
At the beginning of the year, reports in the German and Russian press suggested an approximate 70% increase in uranium imports from Russia to Germany in 2024. But does this reflect broader European trends? It does not. Overall, imports of uranium and nuclear fuel from Russia to Western countries actually dropped sharply in 2024. Unlike the situation in Germany, this is already an established trend.
A Lingen, Germany plant could begin producing nuclear fuel in cooperation with a subsidiary of Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear corporation, which is directly involved in the war in Ukraine and occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.