![Illustration from Akkuyu Nuclear communications service photo by Bellona](https://network.bellona.org/content/uploads/sites/3/2024/07/2024-05-2000_1400.jpg)
Bellona nuclear digest. May 2024
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
News
Publish date: May 28, 1998
Written by: Igor Kudrik
News
On May 27, at 10:45 p.m. GMT, a pressured air explosion occurred in one of the auxiliary facilities of Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant.
– The incident occurred at the facility which does not deal with radioactive or chemical components, Vladislav Petrov, press spokesman for Minatom, said in an interview with Bellona Web. – There were no release of radioactivity into the environment, added Petrov.
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 enrichment level of up to 26%.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
But it’s unlikely to impact emissions from shipping along the Northern Sea Route.
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.
The following op-ed, written by Bellona’s Charles Digges, originally appeared in The Moscow Times. In recent months, the Russian nuclear in...