News
Publish date: January 31, 1997
Written by: Thomas Nilsen
News
Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant has recieved a gift of USD 37,2 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The gift grew out of the 1996 meeting of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, or G-7, at which the Western member nations pledged to help improve Russian nuclear safety.
The donation is to be used to improve the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant’s early warning system, and to develop underground waste storage methods to relieve the plant’s already overburdened above-ground facilities.
Local environmentalists complained that the gift for repairing the No. 1 reactor, which has been shut down for more than a year and a half, would eventually increase the amount of nuclear waste the plant produces, putting an additional strain on already bursting waste storage facilities. Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant is located 80 kilometers west of St. Petersburg, in the town of Sosnovy Bor.
An accident aboard numerous Volgoneft oil tankers in the Kerch in mid December clearly show what can happen to aged ships when they are operated in bad weather—and when economic and military objectives are prioritized over the lives of crews and environmental safety.
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.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
A visit last week by Vladimir Putin and a Kremlin entourage to Astana, Kazakhstan sought in part to put Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, on good footing with local officials.