Despite the tensions, the current flows
Ukraine – press release n°5. March 7, 2022 – 4:00 pm
Nuclear power: Slovakian power plants fill their tanks
On March 1, an Ilyushin-76TD of Volga-Dnepr Airlines specialized in the transport of heavy load flew over Poland with NATO authorization to transport new nuclear fuel to Slovakia. It left Domodedovo Airport in Moscow, flew around Ukraine, over Belarus and through Polish airspace to land in Bratislava. According to IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) rules, only small urgent packages, such as short-lived radiopharmaceuticals, can be transported by air. The potential crash of an airplane carrying nuclear fuel exposes the population and the environment to considerable risks.
Russian gas on the trail
Ukraine – press release n°4. March 4, 2022 – 4:30 p.m. (Updated on March 4 at 5 p.m.)
Following Robin des Bois’ press release “Sanctions against Russia: will they dare?” of February 24, 2022 (1), the day when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the NGO has mapped the current position of the 15 ice-breaking LNG tankers exporting Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to European ports from the Yamal gas terminal in Siberia.
Sanctions against Russia: will they dare?
Cancellation of the Franco-Russian contract for the conversion and enrichment of reprocessed uranium (TRU)
Each year, the reprocessing plant of spent fuel at La Hague peninsula in Normandy near Cherbourg produces about 1,000 metric tons of RU (reprocessed uranium) from spent fuel coming from French nuclear power plants. The RU stock is currently about 27,000 tons. The reprocessing of RU to make “new” fuel cannot be done in France. The only plant for converting RU into Enriched Reprocessed Uranium (ERU) is located in Russia. The circular economy of French nuclear power goes through Tomsk in Siberia.
Atomic cargo ship resumes service
The Russian nuclear-powered container ship Sevmorput, which lost half of her propeller last year on her way to Antarctica, has just left St Petersburg. She is carrying 1400 tonnes of equipment for the Rooppur nuclear power plant in Bangladesh. The heavy packages will be unloaded in Vladivostok and then transferred to a conventional vessel bound for Bangladesh. The Sevmorput will use the north-east sea route. According to the press release from Atomflot, a subsidiary of Rosatom, “the crew is ready for the task at hand, the technical characteristics of the vessel will allow her to travel the entire route without the help of an icebreaker.” “Timely delivery of equipment and materials for nuclear power plants under construction is crucial for the timely and cost effective accomplishment of our projects.” The St Petersburg-Vladivostok journey is expected to take 25 days.
