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EUobserver

EU-Russia summit to ignore nuclear safety concerns
PHILIPPA RUNNERT 14 Nov 08 EUOBSERVER  BRUSSELS – EU concerns about Russia’s nuclear safety and human rights standards will not get much attention in Nice on Friday  as French President Nicolas Sarkozy celebrates his role in ending the Georgia war.
Two internal documents on EU-Russia relations prepared by the European Commission and EU diplomats ahead of the summit point to mounting environmental concerns about Russia’s defunct nuclear submarines and ageing power plants.

“More than 200 nuclear reactors and some 20,000 spent fuel elements coming from dismantled submarines and icebreakers are stored in poor conditions,” in north west Russia, the EU analysis paper – seen by EUobserver – says.

“Russia has prolonged the lifetime of its first generation nuclear reactors, some of which are of the Chernobyl type and close to the EU’s border,” it adds, noting that an EU-Russia nuclear safety group last met in 2005.

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Tags: Nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

November 14, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety