News
Publish date: November 14, 2007
News
Muslyumovo is situated some 30 km downstream of Mayak Chemical Combine, the only settlement left along the banks of the contaminated Techa river.
According to the state financing program on solving Techa environmental problems and social problems of Muslyumovo inhabitants, signed by the Russian Nuclear Federal Agency (Rosatom) and Chelyabinsk region administration in November 2006, Rosatom and Chelyabinsk region allocate 600 million roubles (ca. $25m) each for 2007-2008. Muslyumovo inhabitants can also move to the new Novomuslyumovo village instead of compensation. For some strange reason Novomuslyumovo village is situated close to Muslyumovo village. Big families cannot afford a big enough flat for 1 million roubles; therefore they end up again in the house on the contaminated land close to the same radioactive Techa River. For today 208 families agreed to move to Novomuslyumovo and 530 families will move to other regions. The process of relocating will finish in the end of 2009.
September 2007 marked the anniversary of that accident – one of humankind’s largest nuclear catastrophes. Fifty years ago, a tank with radioactive waste blew up at Mayak, in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region, sending deadly radioactive clouds across vast territories of the Ural Mountains.
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.