News
Publish date: January 25, 2005
News
Washington Group International, Inc. announced in the end of December that it has been awarded a $285-million contract to refurbish electric power generating facilities in Siberia as part of a United States Department of Energy program to permanently shut down the last three weapons-grade plutonium-production reactors in Siberia.
The contract is Washington Group’s share of the program — announced in 2003 by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in conjunction with the Defence Threat Reduction Agency — to close the three reactors that supply heat and electricity to nearby communities. A byproduct of the power-production operations is enough plutonium to make a few bombs per week. Washington Group will refurbish and rebuild coal-fired generation facilities in Seversk, Russia, near Tomsk. Heat and electricity will be provided to the community by the refurbished facilities and allow the Russians to permanently shut down two of the three reactors, as required by an agreement with the United States.
The project will involve refurbishing or replacing existing coal-fired boilers, providing one new high-pressure coal-fired boiler, replacing turbine generators, completing construction of the fuel-supply system, and refurbishing the industrial heating unit and ancillary systems. Washington Group will continue its working relationship with DOE, NNSA and its Russian counterpart, Rosatom; Rosatomstroi, the Russian integrating contractor; and Russian subcontractors to manage the project over a 60-month period.
Another US company Raytheon Technical Services will oversee work at the Zheleznogorsk site, near Krasnoyarsk. There, the U.S. will provide assistance in building a new fossil fuel plant, which should be completed in 7 years.
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.