Bellona nuclear digest. August 2024
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
News
Publish date: August 20, 1998
Written by: Thomas Nilsen
News
Yeltsin will arrive in Severomorsk at 11:00 a.m. and will join Peter the Great out to the rehearsal ield in the Barents Sea. There 35 ships will demonstrate the Northern fleets striking power for the President. Amongst others, a submerged nuclear submarine will launch a ballistic missile.
Peter the Great is the Northern fleets newest nuclear operated battlecruiser, but ever since its launch in 1996,the ship has been haunted by accidents and problems. The gravest accident happened immediately after the launch from the shipyard in St Petersburg on the 27. of October 1996. An explosion in a turbine pipe outside the reactor section killed five crewmembers. In the accidents aftermath, the security on board were fiercely criticised
The reactor technology is from the 1960´s and a number of defects has entailed that the cruiser has mainly been in dry-dock for repairs ever since its arrival to the Northern fleet the on 24 November 1996. Because of the lack of finances, it took ten years from the constructions of Peter the Great commenced until the navy launched it.
In an interview with the Moscow Times, the Northern fleets spokesman, Sergey Anufriyev, says that he hopes that president Yeltsins visit onboard Peter the Great will lead to the financing necessary to repair the battlecruiser, which has two nuclear reactors.
The Northern fleet has two other similar battle-cruises in addition to Peter the Great. These have been laid up for several years pending reparations and replacement of the nuclear fuel in the reactors
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.
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