The Arctic as a resource base
What’s wrong with Russia’s official documents on the Arctic.
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Publish date: March 17, 2004
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Ministers are preparing to sanction a policy which could turn Britain into the “nuclear dustbin of the world” by allowing thousands of tons of radioactive waste shipped to the UK from abroad to be stored here permanently, the daily Independent reported on February 2nd. The U.K. government has resurrected the concept of “waste substitution” because it would produce a six-fold reduction in international waste transports–going from approximately 225 shipments to 38 and would speed up British Nuclear Fuels plc’s (BNFL) return of waste from its Sellafield complex to overseas reprocessing customers in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan, the newspaper reported.
The U.K. Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) said in late January that a study it had commissioned from NAC Worldwide Consulting on the environmental consequences of ILW substitution showed that approach would achieve “broad environmental neutrality, and at the same time…offer other advantages to the U.K. and the broader international community,” the paper reported. According to experts that spoke with the Independent, the main problem is where to store the nuclear waste as the special repository will not appear before 2025. The announcement of the proposed substitution immediately drew fire from environmental groups and the opposition Liberal Democrat party, which claimed such a policy would make the U.K. an international nuclear dump, said the paper.
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...