News
Publish date: May 21, 1997
Written by: Igor Kudrik
News
According to the Russian State Nuclear Inspection (Gosatomnadzor), the chain reaction was stopped by using liquid neutron absorbers. By the end of this operation the exposure was reduced to 0,07 mSv/hour. No discharge of radioactivity into the environment was detected, and no workers were exposed to high doses of radiation, reports a Gosatomnadzor official. The reasons to the incident are not identified yet.
Novosibirsk Zavod Khimkonsentratov joint stock company was established in 1949 to produce fuel elements for 13 plutonium production reactors located in Chelyabinsk-65, Tomsk-7 and Krasnoyarsk-26. It also used highly enriched uranium recovered from the plutonium reactor fuel to make cores for tritium production reactors. It later used fuel pellets from Kazakhstan to produce fuel pins and assemblies for various reactors, but specialised in fuel for research reactors and VVER-1000s. Today the plant produces the fuel pellets for these assemblies. Apparently the tank which suffered the incident contained highly enriched uranium for fabrication of fuel for research reactors, with an enrichmentlevel of up to 26%.
Following Kazakhstan’s country-wide vote in favor of building a nuclear power plant earlier this month, Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom has begun a courtship of officialdom in Astana, the country’s capital, in apparent hopes of landing a contract to construct it.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
Kazakhstan voted in a referendum last weekend on whether to build its first nuclear power plant, and an exit poll showed voters backed the idea promoted by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's cabinet in an effort to phase out coal plants.
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.