Ukraine’s HEU to Russia, then back as Low Enriched Uranium

BSANNA NEWS 20 April 2010, Russia will convert Ukraine’s highly enriched uranium into low enriched, and return – MFA head KYIV, /UKRINFORM/. Ukraine’s highly enriched uranium will be sent to the Russian Federation, where it will be converted into low enriched, and then returned in Ukraine, says Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryschenko.In his words, the United States will also provide Ukraine with low enriched uranium.As reported, on April 12, during the talks with US President Barack Obama, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych expressed the intention to liquidate the national reserves of highly enriched uranium by the year of 2012.BSANNA News – BSANNA NEWS

April 20, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | technology, Ukraine | enriched, fast breeder, recycling, reprocessing, uranium | Leave a comment

Ukraine’s enriched uranium to go to Russia

“We are receiving money for the recycling (of the uranium) and the recycling will take place, chiefly, in Russia,”

Russia is likely to take Ukraine enriched uranium, Arab News By REUTERS Apr 14, 2010

KIEV: Russia will take the highly enriched uranium which Ukraine has announced it is giving up, senior officials on both sides said. Ukraine announced on Monday, at a 47-nation summit in Washington on prevention of nuclear terrorism, that it would get rid of a stockpile of highly enriched material by 2012. Continue reading →

April 15, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Ukraine | antinuclear, enriched, fast breeder, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Ukraine will get rid of its Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU)

Ukraine to dispose of enriched uranium, Sydney Morning Herald April 13, 2010 – AFP Ukraine pledged on Monday to dispose of its stocks of highly enriched uranium by 2012, as the United States vowed to work with the nation still haunted by the Chernobyl accident over two decades ago….

Ukraine to dispose of enriched uranium

April 13, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, Ukraine | antinuclear, enriched, nuclear, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Radiation effects: higher birth defects in Chernobyl area

Higher birth-defect rate seen in Chernobyl area NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Amy Norton Wed Mar 24, 2010 – Rates of certain birth defects appear higher than normal in one of the Ukraine regions most affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, according to a new study.The findings, reported in the journal Pediatrics, stand in contrast to a 2005 U.N. report stating that there is no evidence of an increased risk of birth defects or other reproductive effects in areas contaminated by radiation from the Chernobyl accident. Continue reading →

March 25, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, Ukraine | antinuclear, cancer, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive | 2 Comments

Chernobyl taking in money, giving out radiation

Chernobyl: Leaking radiation and sucking up Canadian money Thirteen years after Canada and other nations pledged $768-million to render the destroyed nuclear reactor safe, the cost has ballooned to $2-billion and the job still isn’t done
Kiev —THE GLOBE AND MAIL Doug Saunders Feb. 03, 2010
Almost a quarter-century after its explosion killed hundreds and shocked the world, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor still sits crumbling amid an uninhabitable wasteland in northern Ukraine, still emits surprising amounts of radiation, and still absorbs vast amounts of money. Continue reading →

February 4, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Ukraine | antinuclear, cancer, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radioactive | Leave a comment

Under Chernobyl’s shadow

Jul 15, 2009 21:20

Under Chernobyl’s shadow

Jpost.com By RUTH EGLASH, REPORTING FROM PRIPYAT, UKRAINE “……………..Just two kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear power station, Pripyat – once home to some 48,000 people working at the nearby plant – was evacuated forever in less than three hours when Reactor No. 4 exploded, filling the air with deadly radioactive fallout.

Within 24 hours of the explosion on April 26, 1986, the entire city was emptied, with residents being told to take only essentials. No one has returned to live here since.

Although eerily empty, Pripyat still remains a symbol of one of the worst man-made ecological disasters in history and the repercussions of Chernobyl, both medically and environmentally, still resonate strongly not just for former residents but for the Ukrainian people in general.

A report released by Greenpeace on the 20th anniversary of the accident, with new data based on cancer statistics in neighboring Belarus, estimated that approximately 270,000 cancers and 93,000 fatal cancers in the area were caused by Chernobyl. Additionally, demographic data from the previous 15 years showed that 60,000 people died in Russia as a result of the fallout and the total death toll for Ukraine and Belarus could reach another 140,000 indirectly.

Radiation from the accident has also had ongoing effects on survivors, including damage to immune and endocrine systems, accelerated aging, cardiovascular and blood illnesses, psychological problems, chromosomal aberrations and an increase in fetal deformities.

Despite these horrific aftereffects and even as many Ukrainians still come to terms with what happened, officials in Kiev are actively seeking to expand the country’s nuclear energy capabilities, even if it comes at the risk of another Chernobyl.

The move to enhance nuclear energy, which can power the country’s large cast iron and steel industries, as well as individual homes, is justified today, say officials, because of the growing tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

July 16, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Ukraine | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Cabinet to charge for creation and storage of radioactive waste

Cabinet to charge for creation and storage of radioactive waste Kyiv Post 30 April 09 Interfax

-Ukraine National Nuclear Energy Generating Company Energoatom is to pay charges for creating and storing radioactive waste, according to a new cabinet resolution.

The company is obliged to pay UAH 0.0063 per 1 kWh of produced energy plus extra fees depending on the storage costs and the amount of waste material.

The Cabinet of Ministers on April 24 approved the respective resolution, No. 391, which comes into force on May 1 this year.

According to the document, other companies in the sector are to calculate the sum of charges depending on the level of radiation of the materials, and pay 10% of the value of an ionizing irradiation source every month.

The document stipulates that these fees will not be charged if the waste is returned to the company that produced the initial nuclear material abroad.

Kyiv Post. Independence. Community. Trust. » Homepage » Nation » Cabinet to charge for creation and storage of radioactive waste

April 30, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Ukraine | antinuclear, nuclear, radioactive | Leave a comment

The period of “Chernobyl’s decay” /ДЕНЬ/

The period of “Chernobyl’s decay”U kraine will be exposed to residual radiation for hundreds of years. What can be done today? day.kiev.ua By Oleksandra SHEPEL 28 April 09

Twenty-three years have passed since The Day of April 26 divided human fates into “before” and “after” the disaster at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Until this day it is the world’s worst anthropogenic catastrophe unmatched for its environmental impact.

For Ukraine Chornobyl is an everyday reality and a host of global-scale problems. Unfortunately, the problems caused by the catastrophe are as acute today as they were 23 years ago. Can one get used to devastated villages and abandoned fertile land?………………………..

Radioisotopes of iodine, which were present in the air in the largest quantities, were the most dangerous for people. Therefore, Ukrainians who were outside under the radioactive clouds in the last days of April and early May picked up plenty of this isotope. Their thyroid glands accumulating this substance, received the largest dose of irradiation of all the parts of body, and suffered worst. As a result, several years after the Chornobyl disaster, doctors registered a spike in thyroid cancer among children.

Some experts assert that the life of radioactive iodine is short, so it cannot be affecting our health today. In fact, radioactive iodine does not disappear within eight days, as some write, but plants itself in the thyroid of its victims and stays there for 80 days.

Back in 1978 the children’s doctor Helen Caldicott warned humanity that the silence of doctors about the consequences of nuclear technologies and radiation would lead to an increase in cancer and hereditary diseases. In 1982 Ukraine published data of foreign authors proving the dangerous influence of radiation on the health of pregnant women and children, specifically mentioning children with inborn defects born of irradiated parents.

Before the Chornobyl catastrophe, in 1985, academician Valeri Legasov argued that the residual radioactivity after nuclear plant explosions increases with time because of accumulation of long-lived radionuclides. Alice Stuart, an expert on the effects of low levels of radiation, studied the state of health of the employees of the Hanford military plant, and victims of nuclear bombing in Japanese cities, and proved that small doses of radiation over a longer period of time are more of a carcinogenic threat than a one-time equivalent.

Are the restless experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) aware of this?………………………………….plutonium-241 will “leave the arena” in a century — it will be replaced by more mobile “long-lived” americium-241. Experts are afraid that this isotope, able to percolate into the ground, will contaminate the subsoil waters and will spread from the worst contaminated zone to clean territories over several thousands of years.

The period of “Chornobyl’s decay” /ДЕНЬ/

April 29, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Ukraine | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radioactive | Leave a comment