News
Publish date: July 1, 2015
News
KIEV – On Tuesday June 23 the two NGO’s Nature & Youth and the Bellona Foundation arranged a roundtable discussion “Ukraine: Spent Nuclear Fuel and radioactive wastes. Safety and Security” in the Ukraine capital Kiev. The seminar, sponsored with funding from Norwegian government, was well attended by both Ukrainian governmental officials and nuclear operators, in addition also Ukrainian and Norwegian regulators and NGO’s from both Norway and Ukraine took part in the seminar.
In total over 40 participants and more than 10 journalists took active part in the lively debate on spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste management in Ukraine. The plans for building of temporary storages for radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel in Ukraine were presented. Also international experience with planning and build long-term deep geological repositories was presented, says Bellona Executive Director Nils Bøhmer. (Agenda of presentations available at link bel0w.)
Further on Bøhmer said that the conclusion of the seminar is that Bellona will develop a project proposal that should focus on finding long-term solutions for radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel in Ukraine, in terms of both best available technological solutions and on strong involvement of the civil society.
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.