News
Publish date: March 26, 1997
Written by: Igor Kudrik
News
According to chief engineer Anatoly Tutunnik at Kola Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP), TACIS money cover only a quarter of the expenses for the liquid radioactive waste treatment facility. While TACIS sponsors only the facility itself, expenses for construction of the building to house the facility, mantling the equipment and training of the staff must be covered by the power plant.
According to Tutunnik the storage facilities at KNPP will be 100 percent filled two years from now. Currently the plant has more than 7500 cubic meters of liquid radioactive waste stored on site, while the maximum storage capacity equals 8526 cubic meters. Apparently the KNPP will not be able to raise the necessary funds to mantle the treatment plant. Outstanding debts of energy consumers in the Murmansk Region by the end of last year amounted to 40 million US dollars.
The two oldest VVER-440 reactor at Kola Power Plant, built in 1973 and 1974, are to be decommissioned by the year 2003 and 2004. Currently the construction of the tree new generation VVER-640 reactors is frozen due to the lack of funding.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.