Архів категорії: Енергетика

Енергетика

Ukraine nuclear power plant extensions ‘undemocratic’

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Nuclear No Thanks Badges

Campaign groups today called on the European Commission to withdraw financial and political support for the lifetime extension of Ukrainian nuclear facilities.

Friends of the Earth Europe and its Ukrainian member Zelenyi Svit, CEE Bankwatch Network and Greenpeace CEE want the Commission to withhold the granting of a €300 million loan to the Ukraine NPP Safety Upgrade Project which would prolong the life of reactors scheduled to close in 2020.

The groups assert that the European Commission is supporting the Ukrainian authorities despite their clear failure to inform and consult with European citizens about continuation of their nuclear power generation.

Their call came in the form of an open letter to the European Council and European Parliament.Magda Stoczkiewicz, director of Friends of the Earth Europe said: “The European Commission is on one hand encouraging  Ukraine to enforce democracy and the rule of law via the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, and on the other  hand, completely ignoring Kiev’s clear failure, as a signatory, to comply with the Espoo Convention. We believe that the European Commission should be decommissioning risky, expensive nuclear energy generation instead of propping it up.”

The United Nations ESPOO convention committee is responsible for examining whether appropriate environmental impact assessments have been conducted when the impacts of a project may be felt beyond one country. Ukraine has been a signatory of the Convention since 1999.

The ESPOO committee ruled non-compliance by Ukraine in the case of its nuclear reactors because it took the decision to extend the use of its old reactors without fully assessing the impact this could have on neighbouring countries.

UKRAINE Читати далі Ukraine nuclear power plant extensions ‘undemocratic’ →

Енергетика

Shell: Global Mega-Frackers

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Pages-from-Shell-Global-MegafrackersThis briefing compiles numerous examples of Shell fracking around the world, but does not claim to be an exhaustive list. By timing the release with Yoko Ono’s involvement in the Meltdown Festival at the Shell-sponsored Southbank Centre, we hope to:

  • Increase awareness of the enormous role that Shell is playing in expanding fracking operations all over the world.
  • Create political space amidst the cultural showcase of the Meltdown Festival to understand the role that sponsorship plays in creating social legitimacy and cover for Shell’s dangerous operations.
  • Promote the creative, community resistance to fracking that is taking place all over the world, which is especially instructive in the context of the industry being poised to start fracking in numerous sites across the UK.

Download the briefing here.

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The era of relatively ‘easy to reach’ oil is over.

All fossil fuel extraction involves drilling and localised pollution, so none of it was ever ‘easy’ to reach. But global extraction levels for the oil that is comparatively straight forward to pump out of seems to have peaked. Instead, the fossil fuel industry is increasingly focusing on harder to extract resources. Enter ‘unconventionals’ – dirtier fossil fuels which are more complicated to extract and refine, like tar sands, oil shale and shale gas, or those that are located in hazardous and challenging regions like the Arctic, or deepwater drilling. Читати далі Shell: Global Mega-Frackers →

Енергетика

ANALYSIS: Roof collapse at Chernobyl: What does it mean for Russia’s aged Chernobyl-type reactors?

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Part of: Chernobyl accident , Nuclear Russia

MOSCOW/ SLAVUTCH, Ukraine – A “combination of negative factors” rather than excessive snowfall was the cause of the February 12 partial wall and roof collapse at Chernobyl’s infamous Reactor Unit 4, recent findings of two commissions that investigated the incident revealed. Notably, the risk of concrete slabs collapsing over the reactor halls of the defunct nuclear plant’s three other units had been discussed just one day earlier, on February 11, in Ukraine’s Slavutich. And Russia has three stations running Chernobyl-type reactors, RBMK-1000s – all three of similar or older ages and still in operation. How badly should Russia be concerned about its old stations’ safety?

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Chernobyl NPP: Is the station gradually crumbling to pieces?

Andrei Ozharovsky, Maria Kaminskaya, 03/03-2013

News that a portion of wall panels and roof collapsed at Unit 4 of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) came on February 12. Just one day before, the possible risk of some of the upper structures caving in on the reactor buildings housing the station’s Units 1, 2, and 3 – which were not themselves damaged during the catastrophic explosion of April 26, 1986, but were shut down in subsequent years – was discussed at a public hearing in the Ukrainian town of Slavutich, 50 kilometers from Chernobyl.

On February 26, a report stating the findings of two commissions convened to look into the causes of the February 12 incident was released on Chernobyl NPP’s website(in Russian), saying, in particular (quoted in Bellona’s translation):

“Snow load on the roof of the turbine hall at axes 50-68 from Range A to Range B did not at the moment of the collapse exceed the values established in the project and operating documentation of [Chernobyl] NPP.”

Instead, the report said, a truss failure – precipitated by a “combination of negative factors,” detailed in the findings – may have caused the collapse of a fragment of roof and walls at Unit 4.

The partial roof and wall collapse at Reactor Unit 4

On February 12, Chernobyl NPP’s press service reported an “abnormal situation” at the plant (quoted here verbatim):

“12.02.13. Partial failure of the wall slabs and light roof of the Unit 4 Turbine Hall occurred at 14.03 above non-maintained premises on the level 28.00 meters in the axes 50-52 from range A to range B. The area of damage is about 600m2. This construction is not critical structure of the ‘Shelter’ object.” Читати далі ANALYSIS: Roof collapse at Chernobyl: What does it mean for Russia’s aged Chernobyl-type reactors? →