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Russian public opposition to new nuclear plant

Thousands of Russians Petition to Stop Nuclear Power Plant
Environment News service MOSCOW, Russia, September 25, 2009 (ENS) – More than 36,000 Russian citizens have signed a petition protesting the planned construction of a nuclear power plant in the Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow. Environmentalists handed the signed petition to the office of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday.

The government views the facility as a source jobs and electricity; residents worry about nuclear waste and radioactive emissions.

The signatures were collected among the inhabitants of the 30 kilometer (20 mile) zone around the proposed construction site, in the Navashino district, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the east of Russia’s capital. More signatures were collected in the nearby town of Murom on the Oka River………..The proposed construction site is located in a region of karst rocks, shaped by the dissolution of layers of soluble bedrock pitted with holes. Slivyak warns that siting a nuclear power plant there “may lead to karst rocks failures and collapses.”

The project materials are missing such data as an analysis of nuclear fuel transportation that will affect the region, reactor decommissioning at the end of its lifecycle, and an analysis of the regional development option without a nuclear power plant, the critics point out……..

The results of a national public opinion survey conducted in 2007 by one of Russia’s largest research companies, ROMIR, a branch of the Gallup international, show that 78 percent of the country’s residents are negative about plans to construct new nuclear plants.

Thousands of Russians Petition to Stop Nuclear Power Plant

September 26, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, politics, Russia | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium