News
Publish date: July 17, 1998
Written by: Igor Kudrik
News
The Salaspilssky research reactor was built back in 60-s by initiative of prominent Russian academician Igor Kurchatov. The reactor, located outside Latvian capital Riga, was operated by the Latvian Institute of Physics. This was a pool-type IRT-2000 research reactor with a 5000 kVt capacity. The reactor was primary used to investigate fast flow radiation processes in ion crystals.
The Latvian government justified the decision by the fact that the reactor ran out of nuclear fuel, which would have to be bought in Russia, and was too expensive to operate.
The decommissioning of the reactor, which has been idle the past years due to the lack of funds, would reportedly take 10 years and would cost $50 million as minimum. The funding sources were not specified.
Following Kazakhstan’s country-wide vote in favor of building a nuclear power plant earlier this month, Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom has begun a courtship of officialdom in Astana, the country’s capital, in apparent hopes of landing a contract to construct it.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
Kazakhstan voted in a referendum last weekend on whether to build its first nuclear power plant, and an exit poll showed voters backed the idea promoted by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's cabinet in an effort to phase out coal plants.
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.