Articles by Charles Digges

Charles Digges

charles@bellona.no

arctic-ice-melt1

May 11, 2017 Arctic, Climate change

Washington’s uncertain position on climate change clouds Arctic talks

Uncertainty over whether the Trump Administration will pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement is clouding talks among the eight…

Photo courtesy of Ecodefense

May 10, 2017 Nuclear issues, Nuclear Russia

Is Rosatom selling debt and dependence to its overseas customers?

When a court in South Africa torpedoed a $76 billion deal to build 10 nuclear reactors with Russia’s Rosatom because…

May 9, 2017 Nuclear issues, Nuclear USA

Workers at Washington nuclear waste plant take cover after apparent tunnel damage

A tunnel was damaged on Tuesday at a plutonium handling facility at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state, leading…

May 8, 2017 Climate change, International climate conferences

International businesses appeal to Trump not to ditch the Paris Climate Accord

A group of international investors managing more than $15 trillion in assets has sent a letter urging the administration of…

2013_Fukushima_NB-2

May 5, 2017 Nuclear issues, Nuclear Meltdown in Japan, Nuclear Russia

Wildfires near Fukushima reignite Chernobyl-like fears of contamination

Wildfires that broke out in a mountain forest near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant last weekend are causing worries…

NGO Grafitti

May 3, 2017 Russian human rights issues, Russian NGO law

In troubling déjà vu, Russian government says foreign agent nonprofits are getting millions

Russia’s Justice Ministry reported that nonprofit civil society groups in the country received more than a billion dollars in funding…

May 2, 2017 Nuclear issues, Nuclear issues in ex-soviet republics, Nuclear Russia

Rosatom replaces reactor vessel that technicians dropped at its Belarusian plant

Belarus and Russia have agreed to shuffle a 330-ton reactor pressure vessel originally built for Moscow’s flagging nuclear project in…

May 1, 2017 Climate change, International climate conferences

Historic marches show Americans aren’t ready to help Trump trash the climate

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, alarmed by the Trump Administration’s assault on the environment, poured into streets in US cities…

April 26, 2017 Industrial Pollution

Russian government offers stark vision of the country’s embattled environment

A shocking government report released this week says fully 74 percent of Russians live in environmental degradation, that 40 percent…

pripyat4

April 25, 2017 Accidents and incidents, Nuclear issues, Nuclear issues in ex-soviet republics

Thirty-one years on, Chernobyl takes a place among humanity’s darkest passages

This year, April 26, the 31st anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, will mark the first year the United Nations observes…

kremlin_ngo (Ingress image)

April 21, 2017 Russian human rights issues, Russian NGO law

Another Russian non-profit tarred as a foreign agent for little more than existing

In a continuing crusade against environmental groups, Russia’s Justice Ministry on Thursday named the Murmansk area Kola Ecological Center as…

akademik_lomonosov_baltic_shipyard1-320x213

April 20, 2017 Nuclear issues, Nuclear Russia

Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant begins tests, but when will it get its uranium?

St Petersburg’s Baltic Shipyard has announced it will begin a series of tests on Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant…

NGO Grafitti

April 18, 2017 Russian human rights issues, Russian NGO law

The European Court of Human Rights demands answers on Russia’s foreign agent law

The European Court of Human Rights wants some answers on how Russian determines which non-profits are “foreign agents” and how…

The Rossita. (Photo: Courtesy of Thomas Nilsen and the Barents Observer)

April 17, 2017 Nuclear issues, Nuclear Russia, Radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel

Russia plans large nuclear transport vessel with an unclear mission

Russia has announced plans to build an enormous ice-class ship to ferry nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel from points…

smelting plan KMMC

April 12, 2017 Industrial Pollution, The Kola Mining and Metallurgy Combine

Northwest Russia polluter posts impressive cuts in harmful emissions

In a surprising development, the Kola Mining and Metallurgy Company –which for decades has stubbornly fouled air over Northwest Russia…

April 6, 2017 Climate change, Fossil fuels

One Russian environmental group turns focus to coal

The Russian environmental group Ecodefense is conducting what it calls a “coal tour” of Russia to highlight issues of its…

April 4, 2017 Arctic, Nuclear issues, Russian nuclear icebreakers fleet

Officials talk up new nuclear icebreakers in spite of Arctic ship traffic slump

Russian officials project a fivefold increase of traffic through the Northern Sea Route by 2022 and insist that newline nuclear…

April 3, 2017 Arctic, Climate change, International climate conferences

Trump-like ‘friend’ of Putin tells him climate change isn’t man-made

Russian President Vladimir Putin, like his counterpart in the US White House, doesn’t believe climate change is man-made, and has…

Anna Kireeva

March 30, 2017 Industrial Pollution, The Kola Mining and Metallurgy Combine

Norilsk Nickel wants tax deductions on its environmental investments

Siberian industrial giant Norilsk Nickel, one of Russia’s most polluting, has since 2014 been investing significant funds in unspecified environmental improvements, and this week request tax relief for those investments. The announcement by company Vice President Yelena Bezdenezhnikh came at the high-level Arctic: Territory of Dialogue conference gathered in Arkhangelsk attended by President Vladimir Putin […]

COP21

March 28, 2017 Climate change, International climate conferences

Trump poised take first steps against climate action – and trip into a legal morass

President Donald Trump Tuesday plans to launch an executive order to roll back Obama-era regulations aimed at curbing climate changing…