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Moscow (AFP) Aug 12, 2010 Here is a list of sensitive nuclear sites threatened by the spread of fires raging in Russia since late July. - SAROV NUCLEAR PLANT Russia is stepping up efforts to halt wildfires near its main nuclear research site, where nuclear weapons are also made, at Sarov in the Nizhny Novgorod region, 500 kilometres (310 miles) to the east of Moscow. While no blazes had been registered on the territory of the centre itself, a nearby nature reserve has been on fire for around a week. Authorities on Thursday were boosting firefighting teams to more than 3,400 people to keep the fire from spreading to the town, still closed to foreigners as in Soviet times. After stating several times that the wildfires posed no threat to the nuclear facilities, Russian authorities announced they had removed all radioactive and explosive materials from the site. Radioactive materials were later returned, authorities said. - SNEZHINSK NUCLEAR PLANT The Snezhinsk centre, which makes nuclear weapons, is located in in the Urals around 1,500 kilometres (925 miles) east of Moscow. The emergencies ministry says the situation has improved near the centre where a fire has been brought under control. - THE MAYAK COMPLEX Russian authorities have declared a state of emergency in the Urals town of Ozersk, some 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) to the east of Moscow and home to major nuclear reprocessing and stockage plant Mayak. The Mayak plant can process 400 tonnes of waste a year. It was the scene of one of the former Soviet Union's major nuclear disasters in 1957 when a liquid waste accident affected some 260,000 people and forced the evacuation of several towns. In addition, concerns remain over the radiation risk from burning forests still contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the world's worst nuclear accident, after officials admitted on Wednesday that forest fires had hit hundreds of hectares of contaminated land. Officials said that radiation was normal in the contaminated regions amid concerns wildfires could send a cloud of radioactive particles as far as Moscow. In Ukraine, a two hectare peat bog fire is burning 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of Chernobyl but the situation poses no danger, a Ukrainian official said.
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Chernobyl - the world's worst civilian nuclear disasterKiev (AFP) Aug 12, 2010 It was shortly after one a.m on April 26, 1986 when the number-four reactor at the Chernobyl complex was shattered by massive blasts, releasing radiation and causing the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster. The explosion at the power station in Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union, was to make the name of Chernobyl practically synonymous with the dangers of atomic energy. ... read more |
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