News
Publish date: August 5, 2003
News
The first experimental solar lighthouses were produced at the Crimea Electrical Engineering Plant Saturn. According to murman.ru, the units have been delivered to Murmansk. One of them will be installed in Norway, the other at the Kola bay at the Shavor lighthouse in Russia. These two first lighthouses is the first step to implement Russian-Norwegian project on radioisotope thermal generators decommissioning on the Kola Peninsula. Fifty RTGs have been already eliminated during the past 3 years thanks to this project. It takes from 900 to1000 years before the radioisotope generator becomes safe. The new solar panels of the lighthouses will accumulate the energy in the daytime and then use it in the night-time. Norway will finance production of 40 solar powered lighthouses if these two first units show good results. The designers give 20 years operation guarantee. For example, the first experimental solar lighthouse has been working in Azov sea for 17 years.
Throughout the past year, our mission at the Bellona Environmental Transparency Center has focused on two key, but intertwined issues—nuclear and radiation safety as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on, and the worldwide influence of Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, which itself is actively involved in the war and has participated in the occupation of a Ukrainian nuclear power plant.
At the beginning of the year, reports in the German and Russian press suggested an approximate 70% increase in uranium imports from Russia to Germany in 2024. But does this reflect broader European trends? It does not. Overall, imports of uranium and nuclear fuel from Russia to Western countries actually dropped sharply in 2024. Unlike the situation in Germany, this is already an established trend.
A Lingen, Germany plant could begin producing nuclear fuel in cooperation with a subsidiary of Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear corporation, which is directly involved in the war in Ukraine and occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
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.