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.
White flag on nuclear sites
Ukraine – press release n°3. February 28, 2022 – 2 pm.
It is the first time in the world that a nuclearized country is subjected to aerial bombardments of such intensity and to the other complexities of a modern war.
Fifteen nuclear reactors are in operation in Ukraine, all of Russian technology. They require Russian spare parts for their maintenance. Ukraine and Russia are obliged to cooperate in order to ensure their proper functioning as much as possible.
Nuclear reactors and waste repositories are not immune to misfiring or sudden loss of power supply, which could endanger the people and environment of continental Europe and the countries bordering the Black Sea.
The Atom of Discord
Russia is taking over Chernobyl. For ROSATOM, Russia’s national atomic energy company, this is a way of preventing the European Union and the United States from taking control of the nuclear industry in Ukraine (see box below). The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has spent over 700 million euros to build a protective sarcophagus over the Chernobyl No. 4 reactor, which caused the devastating events of 26 April 1986. According to an EBRD press release, this project is meant to act as a “giant cage to contain the monster”, and also as a long-term infrastructure investment to improve nuclear waste management. The sarcophagus was completed in October 2019.
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.
Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Nada!
This Friday 22 January 2021 is a great day. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (1) enters into force.
On 7 July 2017, 122 countries adopted this Treaty. In accordance with its Article 15, it enters into force 90 days after the deposit of the 50th instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession. Honduras was this 50th categorical opponent to atomic weapons. All the nuclear powers have withdrawn from the adoption Conference and some of them, France, the United States of America and the United Kingdom, are openly hostile to it.
Sevmorput, continuation and conclusion, or very nearly
Press release n°9 – 11:20 am
The atomic container ship Sevmorput anchored at 10:20 French time in the Bay of Neva in front of St. Petersburg with her 2 cut down blades propeller, 97 crew members and technicians and without her captain. She had left St. Petersburg for Antarctica on October 5, 2020 with a new 4-blades propeller and 5000 tons of general cargo intended for the reconstruction of the Vostok scientific station. In September, she had unloaded in St. Petersburg 5000 tons of sea products from Kamchatka via Murmansk. The prestigious mission of the Sevmorput was to achieve a world premiere, the crossing from the North Pole to the South Pole by a nuclear-powered cargo ship.
