Russia « nuclear-news

Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom involved in Iran, France, Australia

Rosatom Agrees to First Asset Sale to Foreign Investor, The Moscow Times, 09 June 2010By Anatoly Medetsky “…..Kiriyenko (pictured) announced that Russia and Iran would jointly run Iran’s first nuclear power plant that Rosatom plans to launch in August. Iran agreed to establish a joint venture with Rosatom to operate the plant because the country doesn’t have enough experience in maintaining such facilities, he said.In other news, Rosatom signed an agreement with the French Atomic Energy Commission to expand cooperation on reprocessing, decommissioning and isotopes technology.

In what could further extend Rosatom’s international reach, the State Duma is scheduled to ratify an accord between Russia and Australia on peaceful nuclear cooperation on Wednesday. Continue reading →

June 10, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, Russia | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, enriched, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, reactors, recycling, reprocessing, uranium | Leave a comment

Russia did not use nuclear explosions to fix oil leaks

all these Soviet nuclear blasts were on land and did not involve oil. Eventually, both superpowers gave up trying to use nukes for peaceful purposes, and one of the reasons was the environmental hazards.

Just Because Someone Else Did It, Doesn’t Mean It’ll Work As the New York Times pointed out, the whole idea came from something the Russians tried back in the 1960s to stop a natural gas fire. Historian and nuclear non-proliferation expert David E. Hoffman tears down the idea that “if it worked for them it’ll work for us”: But didn’t the Soviet Union once use nukes for this? Not exactly. Continue reading →

June 7, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, safety | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Uranium mining and polonium: remember Litvinenko

Roxby’s radioactive risk, The Independent Weekly. HENDRIK GOUT04 Jun, 2010 “…….Litvinenko was a high-ranking Soviet intelligence operative who turned against the KGB over a range of political assassinations he said had been carried out by the spy agency.He was then murdered, almost certainly by a former KGB colleague acting – so Litvinenko alleged before he died – on the implicit orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The murder weapon was polonium-210, a radioactive metalloid and one of the most toxic elements known to science – a quarter of a million times more toxic than cyanide. A particle weighing less than one-hundredth of one microgram (about the weight of a single scale on a butterfly’s wing) is a lethal dose. Continue reading →

June 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia | 1 Comment

Terrorists seeking nuclear materials in Russia

Terrorists still trying to access nuclear materials in Russia and former-Soviet republics: Russia by : RIA Novosti , June 02 2010 PoliJAM, Terrorists have not given up their attempts to access nuclear materials in Russia and former-Soviet republics, the head of the Russian Federal Security Service said on Wednesday.

“We have information that terrorists are continuing their attempts to access nuclear materials, as well as biological and chemical components,” Alexander Bortnikov said at a news conference after a meeting of the heads of security services from the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Breaking News, Politics, US and World News, and Entertainment – The PoliJAM Times

June 3, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, safety | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear renaissance, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radioactive | Leave a comment

Short term approach to nuclear wastes masks reality of the problem

as the world’s nuclear military powers are discovering the costs continue after the submarines and power stations have been decommissioned from active service. The equipment and reactors cannot easily or cheaply be dismantled and will remain radioactive for hundreds of years

Nuclear and radioactive waste disposal – by Patrick Boniface – Helium, 30 May 2010, Nuclear waste is dangerously toxic, its environmental impact if released would be devastating, as was witnessed during both the Chernobyl explosion, the American Three Mile Island scare and the Windscale fire of 1957.In these cases radioactive material was released into the atmosphere. With the Windscale fire some 15,000 terabequerels (TBq) of radioactive material (notably Iodine-131) were released (3).

A report compiled by Crick & Linsley in 1983 estimated that 260 people would eventually die from dieases, such as thyroid cancers, related to the release of the material during the fire, (4).

Other aspects that environmentalist’s voice concerns over include the storage of spent nuclear fuels, from commercial nuclear reactors and increasingly from redundant nuclear warships such as submarines.

In particular in the former Soviet Union around the submarine base of Arkangel in Northern Russia there are around sixty nuclear submarines that are rotting away but still with large amounts of nuclear material contained within their hulls.

The Russian economy is unable to afford the costs of de-commissioning these submarines. The cost of decommissioning is between $100-300 million per submarine (5). Continue reading →

May 31, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Pressure on Russia and China to reveal nuclear weapons stockpile numbers

Britain Discloses Size of Nuclear Stockpile: Who’s Next? » FAS Strategic Security Blog, By Hans M. Kristensen, 26 May 2010, “….. Who’s Next? Three of the five original nuclear weapon states have now disclosed the sizes of their military stockpiles of nuclear warheads. The pressure is increasing on the other nuclear weapon states to follow the good example.The size of the Russian stockpile is unknown but Norris and I estimate Russia possesses 12,000 nuclear warheads, of which 4,600 might be operational. A Russian official recently told Reuters that Russia after ratification of the New START agreement “will likewise be able to consider disclosing the total number of Russia’s deployed strategic delivery vehicles and the warheads they can carry.” That would not be disclosing the size of the stockpile, but still be progress.China’s stockpile is even more opaque, although Norris and I estimate it at approximately 240 warheads

Britain Discloses Size of Nuclear Stockpile: Who’s Next? » FAS Strategic Security Blog

May 27, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, weapons and war | antinuclear, disarmament, nuclear, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Russia not transparent on its nuclear weapons

Russian Nuclear Weapons Account Falls Short » FAS Strategic Security Blog, By Hans M. Kristensen, 11 May 2010, A brochure handed out by the Russian government at the ongoing nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York appears to misrepresent the size of the Russian nuclear arsenal. Continue reading →

May 12, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, secrets,lies and civil liberties | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, plutonium | Leave a comment

The Russian idea for fixing oil leaks- nuclear bomb the oil well!

Should we drop a nuclear bomb on the leaky oil well? Washington Examiner, By: Mark Hemingway, 05/04/10 Apparently that’s what the Russians have done in similar circumstances:Komsomoloskaya Pravda, the best-selling Russian daily, reports that in Soviet times such leaks were plugged with controlled nuclear blasts underground. Continue reading →

May 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, safety | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons | 3 Comments

Russia – a nuclear security danger!

the plant designs promoted by Russian companies (in particular, the floating stations) present high proliferation and environmental risks because they use uranium of a very high enrichment level, have caused accidents in the past, and create a byproduct that scientists are yet to learn how to dispose of.

Russia: A Nuclear Security Leader? Partnership for a Secure America , by Volha Charnysh |26 April 2010, Considered the Pandora’s box of nuclear security issues for decades, Russia is now being recast as a nuclear security leader……. However, Russia’s active and at times reckless pursuit of nuclear business contradicts its claim to nuclear security leadership and could weaken the commitments made at the Summit. Continue reading →

April 27, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, safety | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, plutonium, radiation, radioactive, reactors | Leave a comment

Impact of radioactive waste on remote communities in Russia

Russian atomic waste endangers the people and environment of far north, EnerPub – Energy Publisher, April 25, 2010by Paul A. Goble The dying off of the numerically small peoples of the Russian north, already taking place because of economic development and climate change, is being accelerated by the mishandling of nuclear materials at power stations and military bases in that region and especially by the lack of secure storage facilities for nuclear wastes there. Continue reading →

April 26, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Russia | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, plutonium, radiation, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Russia accused of involvement in smuggling of enriched uranium

Saakashvili accuses Russia of supplying enriched uranium to Caucasus, News.Az 23 April 2010, President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili accused Russia “of creating unstableness”.According to RBK, in the opinion of the Georgian leader, the unstableness enables the smugglers to deliver the highly enriched uranium to the Caucasus………..The Georgian leader underlined that Russia should be responsible for maintaining control of the nuclear weapon distribution in these territories so long as “it has occupied them”. In his opinion, the incidents with the highly enriched uranium threaten Georgia’s safety.

News.Az – Saakashvili accuses Russia of supplying enriched uranium to Caucasus

April 23, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, secrets,lies and civil liberties | enriched, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, uranium | Leave a comment

Closure of Russia’s last plutonium nuclear reactor

Russia shuts down last plutonium reactor ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) 16 April 2010, Russia has shut down its last weapons-grade plutonium reactor, in line with a pledge made at a nuclear security summit in Washington this week, officials said. Continue reading →

April 16, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, technology | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, plutonium | Leave a comment

Russia doesn’t count depleted uranium as ‘nuclear wastes’

The Russian state-media report adds the uranium isn’t considered waste material because it can be reprocessed. Depleted uranium, however, has severe health consequences from long-term exposure.

Greenpeace irked by Russia’s uranium, ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, April 14 (UPI) –– A ship from the environmental group Greenpeace arrived Wednesday in St. Petersburg, Russia, to protest nuclear fuel waste shipments from France. Continue reading →

April 15, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, spinbuster | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, uranium | 1 Comment

Weapons plutonium for USA and Russia’s fast neutron reactors

US, Russia, Sign Protocol to Dispose of 17 Thousand Weapons’ Worth of Plutonium, Political Punch April 13, 2010 As the first Nuclear Security Summit began coming to a close, Secretary o f State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed that their countries would each dispose up at least 34 metric tons of excess weapon-grade plutonium – 68 metric tons total — enough material for approximately 17,000 nuclear weapons. Continue reading →

April 14, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, technology, USA | antinuclear, enriched, fast breeder, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Old Russian nuclear warheads to become fuel for U.S. commercial nuclear reactors

Nuclear twist sees Russian warheads warming US homes Herald Sun AFP , April 13, 2010, IN A strange twist of Cold War enmity on the melt, uranium from what once were Russian nuclear warheads is used to heat and light American homes, thanks to the Megatons to Megawatts Program – a successful example of nuclear non-proliferation. Continue reading →

April 13, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, Russia | antinuclear, disarmament, enriched, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment