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Publish date: January 24, 2005
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Sergei Antipov, deputy head of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Energy (Rosatom), stated this on January 13. The decision was made at the 24th meeting of the board of the Russian-Japanese committee on co-operation in disposing of Russian nuclear weapons that are subject to arms reduction, national news reports said citing Antipovs speech at a briefing in Moscow on January 13. “Russia has the technological potential at its plants for scrapping nine nuclear submarines a year. Regrettably, it has no funds. For the time being, we are planning to gradually dismantle five nuclear submarines, one by one, so as to cultivate an atmosphere of co-operation with the Japanese side,” Antipov noted. According to preliminary information, Japan’s financial participation is estimated at about $40 million.
Russia and Japan agreed to cooperate in the dismantling of three Victor-III-class nuclear submarines phased out of the Russian Navy in the Far East, one Victor-I-class submarine and one Charlie-class submarine. At present, four Victor-class submarines are based near Vladivostok and the Charlie-class submarine in Kamchatka.
According to Antipov, in the course of 2005, the Russian-Japanese committee is planning to sign an executive agreement with Rosatom to provide for the disposal of nuclear submarines, to study related technological and financial issues as well as security aspects and proceed from the results of this work to sign a financial contract with the bodies recommended by Rosatom. In Antipov’s words, foreign specialists will not directly participate in the scrapping effort and will be limited to environmental monitoring.
The dismantling of the phased-out nuclear submarines is a stipulation of the Russian-Japanese plan of action signed during the visit of Japanese Premier Junichiro Koizumi to Russia in January 2003. The first project implemented by the Russian-Japanese committee was the dismantling of a Victor-III-class nuclear submarine in December 2004. The scrapping of Russian nuclear submarines is one of the areas of global partnership of the G8 countries in the non-proliferation of WMD and the materials used to create them. The agreement for this was reached by the G8 at the summit in Kananaskis, Canada, in 2002.
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.