Russia’s nuclear power plants are dangerously under-prepared for earthquakes and other disasters, said a state review conducted after Japan’s Fukushima accident and obtained Thursday by AFP.
The unusually candid report was presented to a council chaired by President Dmitry Medvedev on June 9 and initially reported on its website by the Oslo-based Bellona environmental organisation. Russia has until now steadfastly defended its 10 nuclear power plants and 32 reactors against criticism. PM Vladimir Putin on April 30 pronounced the country’s nuclear safety system “the best in the world”. But the State Council review revealed 32 weaknesses including reduced disaster 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. The report was released to senior government officials and a select group of Russian non-governmental organisations but not publicised in the state media. Rosatom 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 Soviet-era shortcomings that 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 said.
