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Bellona nuclear digest. May 2024
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
News
Publish date: June 28, 2004
News
According to the Russian Parliament the lighthouses were accidentally dropped from the helicopters in the Okhotskoye Sea during transportation. Each lighthouse of IEU-1 type weighs 2.5 ton and its total radioactivity is 1.5 million curie. It can leak strontium-90 into the marine environment and lead to irreversible consequences in the local regions.
The head of the press service of the Russian Pacific Fleet Alexander Kosolapov said to the daily Vladivostok, that the radiation level was normal in the area where the nuclear lighthouses had been lost. The exact places, however, are not known. The search works in the sea require about $700,000, but the Russian navy cannot afford it. It would be easier to find them if they emitted radiation, Kosolapov added.
Director-coordinator of the Far East environmental organisation Green Cross Alexander Malyshev said that back in 1999 they had asked prime-minister Vladimir Putin to arrange expedition to locate and salvage the nuclear powered lighthouses, RusEnergy reported.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
But it’s unlikely to impact emissions from shipping along the Northern Sea Route.
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.
The following op-ed, written by Bellona’s Charles Digges, originally appeared in The Moscow Times. In recent months, the Russian nuclear in...