News
Publish date: August 27, 2003
News
The Tomsk plant’s estimated price is $1 billion. It will be constructed within the framework of Russian-American program on weapon-grade plutonium disposition. The Tomsk-based facility will be built using money promised at the 2002 meeting of the Group of Eight industrialised nations, or G-8. So far the work has been funded from the US Defence Department budget. The US concern Duke Cogema Stone & Webster was specially established for this purpose in the United States. The Russian nuclear fuel giant TVEL represents Russia in the program. The delegation from the Siberian Chemical Combine, headed by First Deputy Director General Valery Mesheryakov, visited Charlotte, North Carolina, to agree on practical issues of adaptation of the MOX-Fuel Fabrication Facility construction project. Geological research of the construction site are due to start in September or October. The site occupies 35 hectares and is situated 7.5 km from Seversk, formerly Tomsk-7. The foundation ditch will be ready by 2005. MOX-fuel can be used in fast neutron reactors like the BN-600 at the Beloyarsk NPP and in specially retrofitted VVER-1000 reactors. A VVER-1000 at the Balakovo NPP is scheduled to be the fist to be retrofitted for MOX use. The MOX fuel program is highly criticised by the environmental organisations for its high threat to the environment. And, because of the plutonium involved, it is panned as a proliferation risk as well.
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.