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Dangerous Russian nuclear technology to be tendered at Bulgaria's NPP Belene bid
Source: BeleNE Coalition
A Russian independent commission gave the following warning: The project for unit 5 and 6 of the Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) Balakovo in Saratov County is dangerous; the same project will be tendered at Bulgaria's NPPt Belene bid, information agency REGNUM reported.
Several Russian environmental organizations released results of the public environmental impact assessment of the project of additional construction operations at the Balakovo NPP. According to an independent public commission, the project has to be rejected and its realization banned. The construction is hazardous and inexpedient. The members of the commission were representatives of Greenpeace, Green Cross, Balakovo Department of All-Russian Environmental Protection Society (VOOP) as well as independent experts. They were pressed not to give a negative opinion on the project because Russia was going to take part in a tender for NPP Belene with a similar project.
The plan of the second stage of construction of the Balakovo NPP is even worse than it was expected by experts. The site for new the fifth and sixth energy blocks is very badly chosen from the perspective of soil stability, seismic conditions, their proximity to a large city and a river that is a source of drinking water and the water for agricultural needs for several Russian regions. The new energy blocks are going to be built on the base of old constructions that have been exposed to water and open air conditions for 15 years.
“The main requirement concerning the level of seismic activity, set by the Emergency Ministry office in the Volga district, was not met. It is magnitude 8. In the project all constructions are supposed to stand the 6-7 magnitude earthquakes, which is absolutely inadmissible for such radiation hazardous object as a nuclear power plant”, says Vladimir Kuznetsov, deputy chair of the Commission, former employee of Gosatomnadzor (Federal Nuclear and Radiation Safety Authority). “This is aggravated by the possibility of flooding the NPP site by the waters from the Saratov NPP, which is located upstream and can be destroyed as a result of an earthquake or another event”.
The problem of radioactive waste disposal is not solved. The waste will be accumulated on the banks of the Volga River. Dismantling and eliminating the reactor are planned for next 100 years. As experience shows, there is always some underfunding for such activities. This means that responsibility for dismantling the reactors is shifted to future generations. There are no technical and economic evaluations that would prove the durability of the NPP’s constructions and provide their safe operations for such a long period.
“The project is dangerous from the perspective of protection of the population”, adds Anna Vinogradova, chair of the Balakovo Department of VOOP. “There are not enough dugs-out for the city of Balakovo with the population of more than 230 thousand people. To evacuate the residents the second bridge and better roads need for be constructed and more units of public transport need to be bought. None of these things are done. If radioactive materials are discharged in the Volga River, Balakovo will have to use radioactive water. We have no protection, our lives, health, property are not secured against a possible serious accident”.
The project is unattractive from the economic perspective. It is evidently intended for higher prices for electricity. The experience of additional constructions at a similar block of the Kalinin NPP shows that the cost of the projects will be three times higher that the planned one. The authors of the project didn’t mention many obligatory items of expenditure: allocation for development, for physical security and radiation safety. However, without proper funding all talks about nuclear and ecological safety are in vain.
The region has enough energy capacity and the second stage of the construction of the Balakovo NPP in the near future makes no sense, at least for the Saratov region”, said Vladimir Chouprov, head of Greenpeace Russia Energy Unit. “It is more reasonable for the plants of the region to invest in energy efficiency and energy saving”.
“We want to warn every decision maker on the issue of construction of the fifth and sixth energy blocks 8 kilometers from the city of Balakovo (right on the bank of the Volga River) about the real danger of this project and we urge to reject the project and to ban the construction of new blocks of the Balakovo NPP”, says Igor Nikolaevich Ostretsov, head of the public assessment commission, vice director for scientific issues of the Russian Research Institute of Nuclear Power Mechanical Engineering. Results of the assessment will be sent to all appropriate bodies that participate in the decision making process”.
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