Environmentalists from several European countries against Belarus – Russia nuclear power deal
Belarus and Russia sign off on Ostrovets nuclear plant in dubious contract Bellona Charles Digges, 13/10-2011 Russian and Belarusian environmentalists are concerned over a contract agreement signed by the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, for construction of the first two nuclear reactors in the Stalinist country, which was signed earlier this week.
Belarus’s state-owned Directorate for Construction of Nuclear Power Plants signed the contract with Atomstoriexport, the foreign construction wing of the Russia’s state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, for the construction of a 2400 megawatt plant of the untested AES 2006 (NPP -2006) design.
The site for the plant is in Ostrovets in the Grodno region, close to Lithuania – which has vociferously protested the building of the nuclear power plan. Read more »
Legal action against Belarus President over planned nuclear power plant
Presidential Decree No. 418 “On the location of a nuclear power station in Belarus” contradicts Article 18 of the country’s constitution, which proclaims Belarus “a neutral country with a nuclear-free territory.”
Activist Sues Belarusian President Over Nuclear Power Plant, Radio Free Europe, October 07, 2011, ASTRAVETS, Belarus — An antinuclear activist in western Belarus is suing President Alyaksandr Lukashenka over plans to build a contentious nuclear power station there, RFE/RL’s Belarus Service reports. Read more »
Belarus freezes plan to give upits enriched uranium
Belarus hangs on to enriched uranium cache, Detroit Free Press |Aug 20, 2011, Belarus has frozen a plan aimed at getting the country to give up its Soviet-era stockpile of highly enriched uranium with U.S. assistance in response to new U.S. sanctions, the government said Friday.
The U.S. conducted a longtime effort to secure nuclear materials in former Soviet nations to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.
The U.S. and the European Union introduced sanctions against President Alexander Lukashenko’s government for its crackdown on a political opposition group…… Belarus hangs on to enriched uranium cache | Detroit Free Press | freep.com
Murky background to plan for nuclear plant in Belarus
Rep. Dan Burton: 25 Years After Chernobyl, Russia and Belarus Still Don’t Get It, HUFFINGTON POST, 13 June 11“…..a new nuclear power plant set for construction this fall on former Soviet territory raises alarm at how little has been learned.What set Chernobyl apart from Fukushima more than anything else was the way the closed Soviet regime responded to the disaster, remaining in denial for weeks that a catastrophe was unfolding. The same could occur in Belarus, which is currently ruled by an autocratic leader who falsified his own reelection last December. Belarus and Russia’s mishandling of the proposal to build a reactor near Astraviec, a town in western Belarus, is a warning sign the West should not ignore. Again, we see the potential lack of transparency, international coordination, and communication……..
Rep. Dan Burton: 25 Years After Chernobyl, Russia and Belarus Still Don’t Get It
Russia building Belarus nuclear plants without consulting neighbouring countries
Lithuanian president criticizes Russia over new nuclear plants | World | RIA Novosti, 15 June 2010, The sites for two new nuclear power plants, in Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave and in Belarus, were selected with no environmental assessment and without consulting neighboring countries, Lithuania’s president said on Monday. Read more »
Belarus will not send its enriched uranium to the Russia or USA stores
Minsk to hold on to its arms-grade uranium – Lukashenko , ‘RIA Novosti’ newswire, 20 April 2010, Belarus has no plans to build a “dirty” nuclear bomb but no one can take its enriched uranium stockpiles away from it, President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday.”Russia and the United States are telling us – give us your enriched uranium. We will not give anything away. Everything here is under IAEA control. Russia tells America: Calm down, we will take it from there [Belarus]. No one will take anything without our consent. We will not allow that,” he said in a state-of-the-nation address.
Lukashenko added that his strained relations with Russia and the United States were due, among other things, to its reluctance to give away enriched uranium.
Misleading report on Belarus nuclear power plant
Environmental activist slams report on Belarusian nuclear power plant’s impact as sloppy, misleading
Belarus News 21 Sept 09 The Belarusian government’s report on the possible environmental impact of its future nuclear power plant does not address key issues, Russian environmental activist Andrei Ozharovsky said in an interview with BelaPAN. Read more »
Belarusian Nuclear Power costly and dangerous
Belarusian Nuclear Power Project: Dangerous and Expensive
BIELAR.US 8 Sept 09 “…………a nuclear plant built by Russia on a Russian loan, serviced by Russian technicians and fed with Russian fuel might be a very good deal for Russia, but will hardly make Belarus more independent. Read more »
Belarussian kids receive care
Belarussian kids receive careBy John Henderson Rocky Mount Telegram July 06, 2009 Children from Belarus who continue to be exposed to radiation from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant incident have once again traveled to Rocky Mount from the former Soviet Union to receive free medical care.But fewer local “host families” in this down economy have been able pay for the flights and take the children into their homes for six weeks. The host families also take the children to local offices for medical, eye and dental care treatment………………………….
On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant reactor exploded, releasing dangerous amounts of radiation into the air. The wind on that day carried it toward Belarus, contaminating the region’s air, soil and water.
“The problem is there is so much unknown radiation material (in Belarus), and it will probably be there for 3,000 or 4,000 years,” Patrone said. “Some of the food is not safe.”………………………………….
“Medically, they are small in size,” Patrone said. “Some have thyroid problems and an occasional immune-deficiency problem. They are still suffering, because basically, radiation is still in the dirt.”
If a child is diagnosed with a major problem here such as thyroid cancer, they are sent back to Belarus for treatment, he said.
“(The trip to Rocky Mount) is a way to get out of the radiation zone and to give kids a second (doctor’s) opinion,” he said.
Riot policemen against participants of “Chernobyl Way” in Minsk (Photo, video) – Charter’97 :: News from Belarus – Belarusian News – Republic of Belarus – Minsk
Riot policemen against participants of “Chernobyl Way” in Minsk
Charter 97 27 April 09 The spot near the Academy of Sciences was a sanctioned assembly point for participants. At the noon about a thousand and a half protesters gathered there. Protesters raised white-red-white flags, unfurled streamers “We oppose nuclear power station construction in Belarus”, “No to new Chernobyl”, “Return us our welfare benefits”, “No to chemical Chernobyl”, “No to toxic chemicals plant near Minsk”, “We are against nuclear reactor”. Dozens of white-red-white flags and flags of the European Union were fluttering………………..
………….an associate of the Academy of Sciences Ivan Nikitchanka called upon the regime not to hush up the aftermaths of the Chernobyl catastrophe at the state level, to return welfare benefits to people affected by the disaster and cleanup veterans, and not to construct the atomic power station in Belarus…………….
…………Viktar Ivashkevich called upon demonstrators remain unprovoked by secret services: “You see that authorities have sent riot policemen against a peaceful rally,” he addressed the participants. “I call upon you not to be drawn and walk along the official route Surhanau- Khmelnitski- Karastayanava- the Chernobyl Chapel.”
Not yet clear what Belarus will do with waste from nuclear power plant, researcher says | BELARUS NEWS
Not yet clear what Belarus will do with waste from nuclear power plant, researcher says /naviny.by 4 March 09
It is not yet clear what will be done with nuclear waste from Belarus’ would-be nuclear power plant, Valyantsina Brylyova, a senior researcher at the Sosny nuclear research center, said at Wednesday’s meeting with local resident in Astravets, Hrodna region, where the plant is scheduled to be built.
There will be two options to deal with the waste if the plant is built by Russia, the researcher said.
“Either we will give nuclear waste to Russia for processing and storage or will store it in special containers at the plant’s site. The latter is the most common practice,” she said, adding that “modern technologies allowed storing waste in containers for up to 100 years.
1 THIS MONTH
Uranium mining in Namibia http://namibian.me/group/canwin2?commentId=4103091%3AComment%3A47391&xg_source=msg_com_group
Nuclear industry is moribund, despite 2 new reactors licensed in USA http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3428147.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3413882.htm Is the world facing a groundwater crisis?
of the week http://climaterealityproject.org/thin-ice/
and another WEBSITE : - New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution http://www.necnp.org/
EVENT
February 18 Hindsdale, Chicago American Association of University Women - nuclear disaster preparedness H.OB.aauw.reservations@gmail.com.
March 2012 is “March Against Nuclear Madness” and Beyond Nuclear has created a new March Against Nuclear Madness Facebook page.
March 8th & 9th – Cape Town, South Africa - The Global Conference: Nuclear Power For Africa? http://koebergalert.org/npfree/
May 31 USA - Portland, Maine, Bonnie Raitt benefit concert for New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution
Nuclear power and water – theme for February 2012
FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT and WATER – present state
That nuclear core is in direct contact with tons of water. And that containment, while not leaking down, is leaking out the sides. That contaminated water is going into every other building on site. And there is literally thousands and thousands of tons of water in other buildings. That water contains radioactive cesium, radioactive strontium, and it also contains nuclear fuel. There will be uranium in that water and plutonium in that water as well. We know for sure that that water is leaking into the ground water and into the Pacific Ocean. So while it is important to know that we are not going to release the nuclear core directly into the center of the earth, the problem is not over. And as a matter of fact, the problem will last for tens, perhaps even as long as 30 years because this contaminated water is in the basements of all the buildings on site. And not only does it contain cesium (that hangs around for 300 years), strontium (hangs around for 300 years), but it also contains plutonium and uranium and they have half lives of tens of thousands of years.
So the problem is, what do we do with all that water that is contaminated? It is already leaking into the groundwater. It is already leaking into the ocean. TEPCO is frantically catching it and putting it into tanks. But just today, TEPCO announced that they are running out of tank space on site, and eventually they are going to have to release those tanks into the Pacific Ocean. Now they will try to clean up some of the isotopes like cesium. But they have been unable to capture all the strontium. Strontium is a bone seeker that causes leukemia… http://fairewinds.com/content/fukushima-could-it-have-china-syndrome
NUCLEAR REACTORS - WATER USE : Per megawatt existing nuclear power stations use and consume more water than power stations using other fuel sources. Depending on the cooling technology utilised, the water requirements for a nuclear power station can vary between 20 to 83 per cent more than for other power stations.”- Dep of Parliamentary Services research note, 4 December 2006, no. 12, 2006–07, ISSN 1449-8456 Water consumption figures:
Nuclear: 2.3 L/ kWh
Solar (PV): 0.110 L/ kWh
Wind: 0.004 L/ kWh
(American Wind Energy Association estimate & US DOE)
A typical 1000-megawatt pressurized-water reactor (with a cooling tower) takes in 20,000 gallons of river, lake or ocean water per minute for cooling, circulates it through a 50-mile maze of pipes, returns 5,000 gallons per minute to the same body of water, and releases the remainder to the atmosphere as vapor. A 1000-megawatt reactor without a cooling tower takes in even more water–as much as one-half million gallons per minute. The discharge water is contaminated with radioactive elements in amounts that are not precisely known or knowable, but are biologically active.
Some radioactive fission gases, stripped from the reactor cooling water, are contained in decay tanks for days before being released into the atmosphere through filtered rooftop vents. Some gases leak into the power plant buildings’ interiors and are released during periodic “purges” and “ventings.” These airborne gases contaminate not only the air, but also soil and water. http://www.nirs.org/factsheets/routineradioactivereleases.htm
NUCLEAR REACTORS -IONISING RADIATION to GROUNDWATER In USA the nuclear industry has contaminated groundwater with radioactive tritium at nuclear power plant sites all across the country. Nuclear plants that have admitted leaking tritium into the groundwater include:
- Braidwood, Byron, Dresden and Quad Cities in Illinois;
- Indian Point and Fitzpatrick in New York;
- Yankee Rowe and Pilgrim in Massachusetts;
- Three Mile Island and Peach Bottom in Pennsylvania;
- Callaway in Missouri
- Catawba in South Carolina
- Oyster Creek in New Jersey
- Hatch in Georgia
- Palo Verde In Arizona
- Perry in Ohio
- Palisades in Michigan
- Point Beach in Wisconsin
- Salem in Delaware
- San Onofre in California
- Seabrook in New Hampshire
- Shearon Harris in North Carolina
- Watts Bar in Tennessee
- Wolf Creek in Kansas
- Connecticut Yankee in Connecticut
- Vermont Yankee in Vermont
URANIUM MINING – OPEN CUT or UNDERGROUND It is very difficult to find figures on the amounts of water used. All mining is water intensive, but uranium mining is the greatest guzzler Water is extensively used to suppress airborne dust levels, to try to reduce the radioactive clouds that would otherwise emanate constantly from the uranium tailings.IN SITU LEACHING – Uranium Mining Process in-situ leaching uses a hydrogen peroxide mixture to strip the uranium from the rock, which kills tissue and destroys cells in human and animal life. The addition of oxygen and sodium bicarbonate called oxygenates causes uranium and other radioactive substances and trace metals to be liberated from the rock into the groundwater.
.. judges have too often taken the stance that they are judges who know nothing of the mining industry and accept the data of corporations, claiming the corporations are in the know.
..the water taken from the extremely pristine Westwater Canyon Aquifer near Crownpoint for uranium mining and used for flushing out chemicals would not be replaced in our lifetimes.
It takes hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, to transform aquifer water back into a drinkable condition. Virginia Against Uranium Mining: Scientists Back Navajos’ Uranium Mining Fight: Tribe fears contamination of drinking water
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