News
Publish date: March 18, 2008
News
Ukrainian Emergency Situations Minister Volodymyr Shandra told a press conference of the plans on March 14th, the Financial, a news website focusing on Georgia and Ukraine, reported.
“A plan of actions was worked out(…). As early as in April we will withdraw the last fuel elements from the plant’s reactors,” Shandra said. “Thus, by the 22rd anniversary of the catastrophe, all the reactors, except for the fourth, will be without any nuclear fuel. It will be a very serious step towards providing the security of the Chernobyl plant.”
Shanrdra also said that in autumn of 2008, the building of a confinement enclosure over the ad hoc cement sarcophagus that was dumped on the site of the meltdown in 1986, and which is cracked and crumbling, will commence.
“The financing of design works has already opened. I believe this autumn the design works will be completed, and the building will kick off,” the Financial quoted him as saying.
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.