Russia's nuclear power plants are dangerously under-prepared for earthquakes and other disasters, said a state review conducted after Japan's Fukushima disaster and obtained by AFP Thursday.
Russia
's nuclear power plants are dangerously under-prepared for earthquakes
and other disasters, said a state review conducted after
Japan
's
Fukushima
disaster and obtained by AFP Thursday.
The unusually candid report was presented to a council chaired by President
Dmitry Medvedev on June 9 and obtained by the Oslo-based environmental NGO
Bellona Foundation, which released a copy to AFP.
Russia
has until now steadfastly defended its 10 nuclear power plants and 32
reactors against criticism and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on April 30
pronounced the country's nuclear safety system "the best in the
world."
But the State Council review revealed 32 glaring weaknesses including reduced
seismic impact safety standards and a lack of a clear strategy for securing
spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste at many plants.
"The strength (stability) of engineering structures of most nuclear power
plants does not meet current regulatory document requirements for stresses that
occur from extreme natural impacts," the report said.
"Spent nuclear fuel storage facilities near reactors ... are in a critical
condition" at the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant in
Ural Mountains
region of
Sverdlovsk
, it
added.
The Beloyarsk plant was the second constructed by the
Soviet Union
and first went on line in
1964.
The report was released to senior government officials and a select group of
Russian non-governmental organisations but not publicised in the Russian media.
Rosatom state nuclear agency chief Sergei Kiriyenko mentioned the report in
passing over the weekend and said the various recommended changes would cost
around five billion rubles ($180 million).
Environmentalists said the report for the first time acknowledged problems
whose Soviet-era shortcomings have been criticised by watchdogs and Russian
neighbours such as
Norway
for many years.
"We knew everything" in the report, Bellona's Russian nuclear
programme director Igor Kudrik told AFP.
"But this is honest information from Rosatom itself that there are
problems, and we are kind of surprised that they admitted it publicly in such a
dramatic manner," he added.
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