Putin leaves Kazakhstan without deal to build nuclear plant
A visit last week by Vladimir Putin and a Kremlin entourage to Astana, Kazakhstan sought in part to put Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, on good footing with local officials.
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Publish date: August 9, 2004
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The Research Institute of Nuclear Reactors in Dimitrovgrad, Russia’s Ulyanovsk region (Volga Area) is expected to study the irradiated uranium fuel to be brought from Lithuania. Four fuel assemblies that are 3.5 metres high, 80 millimeters in diameter and contain 2.4% of uranium each, will be brought from the Ignalinsk nuclear power plant. The project timeframe has not been revealed for security reasons.
“These are the assemblies of an RBMK industrial 1,500 MWt reactor with. Reactors of this type operate in Russia, and the institute has appropriate skills to deal with such assemblies,” said the press service. The fuel for the Ignalinsk plant was produced in Russia. Technical errors were registered at the plant and the reactor had to be switched off, and the assemblies removed, explained the institute.
“Lithuania laid a claim against Russia. However, Russia demanded an expert examination. There is no place in Europe to test the fuel without damaging the assembly, whereas the Dimitrovgrad institute has appropriate techniques. We will have to find out what causes assembly errors,” said the press service.
The contract for the test was agreed on at the inter-government level. The Russian and Lithuanian Prime ministers, and an official from Belarus via which the assemblies will be transported to Russia, signed the agreement, RIA Novosti reported.
A visit last week by Vladimir Putin and a Kremlin entourage to Astana, Kazakhstan sought in part to put Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, on good footing with local officials.
Russia is formally withdrawing from a landmark environmental agreement that channeled billions in international funding to secure the Soviet nuclear legacy, leaving undone some of the most radioactively dangerous projects and burning one more bridge of potential cooperation with the West.
While Moscow pushes ahead with major oil, gas and mining projects in the Arctic—bringing more pollution to the fragile region—the spoils of these undertakings are sold to fuel Russia’s war economy, Bellona’s Ksenia Vakhrusheva told a side event at the COP 29, now underway in Baku, Azerbaijan.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.