1997-01-31 12:00
European funds accumulate nuclear waste in Russia:
USD 37 Million Upgrade of LNPP
Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant has recieved a gift of USD 37,2 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The gift grew out of the 1996 meeting of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, or G-7, at which the Western member nations pledged to help improve Russian nuclear safety.
The donation is to be used to improve the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant’s early warning system, and to develop underground waste storage methods to relieve the plant’s already overburdened above-ground facilities.
Local environmentalists complained that the gift for repairing the No. 1 reactor, which has been shut down for more than a year and a half, would eventually increase the amount of nuclear waste the plant produces, putting an additional strain on already bursting waste storage facilities. Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant is located 80 kilometers west of St. Petersburg, in the town of Sosnovy Bor.