The Arctic as a resource base
What’s wrong with Russia’s official documents on the Arctic.
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Publish date: December 29, 1998
Written by: Thomas Nilsen
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When Bellona Web last summer for the first time reported about the planned subcritical tests at Novaya Zemlya, officials from the Ministry of Nuclear Energy denied that any radioactive substances would be involved in what the Ministry call ‘hydrodynamic experiments’. But now, Deputy Minister Ryabev says to Interfax that both weapon-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium was used in the tests conducted at the northern test range near Matotchin Shar at Novaya Zemlya. The international Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) does not prohibit subcritical nuclear bomb tests, because the amount of radioactive plutonium or uranium used is considered insufficient to create a nuclear explosion.
"There was no discharge of radioactivity from any of the five tests," said Ryabev in the interview with Interfax. The last two subcritical tests were carried out in less than a week, between December 9 and 13. The tests are used both for improving old nuclear warheads and for developing new nuclear devices. Various physical-modelling experiments follow the subcritical tests.
Russian officials last autumn announced plans for more ‘hydrodynamic experiments’ in 1999, but according to Ryabev the five tests this autumn were the last.
What’s wrong with Russia’s official documents on the Arctic.
As uranium supplies from Russia fall under the shadow of potential sanctions, and while Ukraine’s allies look to wean themselves off nuclear fuel produced by Moscow’s Rosatom corporation, owners of left-for-dead mines in the US are looking to revive their deposits.
The European Union doubled its purchases of Russian nuclear fuel in 2023, data from Eurostat and the UN’s international trade service Comtrade show.
The output of Russian nuclear power plants in 2023 decreased by 2.8% compared to 2022. A decrease in output occurred for the first time in 10 years a...