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Russia Plans a Deadly Mix of Offshore Oil Drilling and Floating Nuclear Reactors in the Arctic

Russia plans a deadly mix of off-shore drilling and floating nuclear reactors Red,Green and Blue by Mridul Chadha

Published on May 6th, 2009

Russia is planning to build floating and submersible nuclear reactors to power oil drilling platforms which it intends to use to extract the untouched oil and gas reverses of the Arctic……………………………..Of possibly greater concern is the radioactive waste dumped at sea. Russian authorities told Dr. Hollister that 11,000 to 17,000 waste containers, holding 61,407 curies of radioactivity, were dumped off Novaya Zemlya from 1964 to 1990. In addition, 165,000 cubic meters of liquid waste were dumped in the Barents Sea west of Novaya Zemlaya from 1961 to 1990. For comparison, the Chernobyl accident released about 86,000,000 curies of radioactivity.Dr. Hollister reckons the amount of nuclear material within some of the Soviet sunken submarines at seven times that in the ill-fated Chernobyl reactor.

The Norwegian environmental group Bellona reported two years ago that some of the nuclear waste dumped in sea is at risk of exploding. The group reported corrosion in the storage tanks which have spent fuel rods inside.

While the Russian point to the benefits of small nuclear plants and fall back on the vast experience of operating nuclear powered ships, there are no guarantees that the nuclear waste generated will not be dumped into the sea,

Russia Plans a Deadly Mix of Offshore Oil Drilling & Floating Nuclear Reactors in the Arctic : Red, Green, and Blue

May 7, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, safety