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Publish date: December 9, 2003
News
As the Russian nuclear minister Alexander Rumyantsev said in November in an exclusive interview to Itar-Tass, Iranian specialists simply have no time to prepare this document, as they are focused on providing IAEA with information about their nuclear programs. Busher NPP will not need fuel soon, the shipment will not start before the next year, so we have three months minimum to prepare the agreement the minister said. The Secretary of the Iranian Supreme Council Hasan Rouhani confirmed Irans consent to sign an agreement about returning spent nuclear fuel back to Russia as it is the main condition of the Russias fresh nuclear fuel deliveries. The text of the agreement was drafted during the ministers visit to Tehran back in December 2002. On August 22nd, 2003, after an evaluation carried out by the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, the Russian Government instructed Minatom to sign the agreement about spent nuclear fuel return. Some reports indicated that Minatom was ready to go as far as buying the spent fuel back from Iran.
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.