News
Publish date: December 17, 1999
Written by: Igor Kudrik
News
The PM-80 storage barge for submarine spent nuclear fuel caught fire. Four cabins were destroyed. The fire was caused by an electric short circuit. The barge (Project 326) is based at Primorye in the Russian Far East and belongs to the Russian Pacific Fleet.
The information about the incident was reported by the local daily Vladivostok with a reference to unofficial sources in the Pacific Fleet. PM-80 was built in 1964 and has been taken out of service. The barge had reportedly around 100 spent fuel assemblies onboard. The fire was put out by the crew and led to no casualties.
The Russian Navy has eight Project-326 barges split evenly between the Northern and Pacific Fleet. Each barge is capable of holding 80 containers for a total of 560 spent fuel assemblies. The barges are also outfitted with three storage tanks for liquid radioactive waste. The total volume is 230 cubic meters. The average age of the barges is more than 30 years.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.