30 Years After the Chernobyl Meltdown, Why Is the Ukrainian Government Pushing Nuclear Energy?
April 25, 2016
Or, how Ukraine learned to stop worrying and love its nuclear power plants. Later this year, the largest movable structure on earth—essentially a colossal steel tomb shaped like an oversized airplane hangar—is scheduled to begin its slow journey along a rail system, traveling at a glacial pace of 33 feet an hour. Its destination: the crumbling ruins of Chernobyl’s reactor number four, which, 30 years after the worst nuclear meltdown in history, continues to ooze radiation like a wound that refuses to heal.
A Ukrainian nuclear power plant and the containment of a disaster
April 22, 2016
Zaporizhia is one of Ukraine’s four active nuclear plants. It has six reactors, each with the capacity to produce 1000 MW, and was built at the same time as Chernobyl, with Soviet-era reactors. Oleh Dudar, head of operations, joined the plant in 1986 – the year of the Chernobyl catastrophe.
Four big reasons not to sell uranium to Ukraine
April 18, 2016
As the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster approaches, Noel Wauchope outlines just a few compelling reasons why the Coalition Government’s uranium deal with Ukraine may have further disastrous consequences. WHAT AMAZINGLY insensitive timing. As the anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe approaches, Australia makes a deal (at the Nuclear Security Summit) to sell uranium to Ukraine. This is such a bad idea for so many reasons — it’s hard to know which to pick first! Economics: simply because uranium exporting is not really economically worthwhile.
Chernobyl nuclear disaster marks 30-year anniversary with ‘extreme tours’, boom in wild animals
April 12, 2016
Thirty years after the world’s most catastrophic nuclear accident, the abandoned Ukrainian town of Pripyat, home to the infamous Chernobyl nuclear reactor number four, has been transformed. From the ashes of the site has emerged a $US200 per person “extreme tourism” theme park. Each week more than 1,000 tourists are taken through security and radiation checkpoints, before being allowed to walk through the abandoned buildings, including the swimming pool complex, kindergarten and police station.
Ukraine needs European values and Europe’s solidarity
April 4, 2016
Ahead of a referendum in the Netherlands on the association agreement between the European Union and Ukraine, Olexi Pasyuk from the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine discusses the agreement’s importance for Ukraine’s civil society and why Europe must still improve how it engages with the country.
Ukrajina predlžuje životnosť „zombie“ reaktorov
March 30, 2016
Aktivisti upozorňujú na vážne bezpečnostné nedostatky starnúcich jadrových kapacít. V apríli si svet pripomenie 30. výročie najväčšej jadrovej katastrofy v Európe, ktorá sa odohrala v ukrajinskej elektrárni Černobyľ. Len o niekoľko dní neskôr plánuje ukrajinská Štátna inšpekcia pre jadrový dozor začať proces predlžovania životnosti dvoch reaktorov v najväčšej atómovej elektrárni v Európe v Záporoží na východe krajiny, približne 250 kilometrov od bojovej línie.
Ради Westinghouse США готовят на Украине второй Чернобыль. Перспективы атома
March 29, 2016
Украинская атомная энергетика практически полностью связана с российским атомным комплексом. Все 4 станции с 15 энергоблоками оборудованы реакторами производства РФ ВВЭР-400 и ВВЭР-1000. До 2011 г. все ядерное топливо поставлялось из России компанией ТВЭЛ. Но тренд «гэть від Москви» в полной мере коснулся и этой отрасли, которая на протяжении многих лет в ущерб безопасности подвергается жестоким и опасным экспериментам.
Europe’s false solutions for Ukraine’s energy woes
March 9, 2016
Current EU support is not just a distraction from the energy path Ukraine needs to take, it also puts countless communities in Ukraine and abroad at risk.
Thirty Years After Chernobyl, Ukraine Doubles Down On Nuclear Power
February 8, 2016
Nearly 30 years after Chernobyl spewed nuclear dust across Europe and sparked fears of fallout around the globe, a strapped, war-torn Ukraine is opting for “upgrades” rather than shutdowns of its fleet of Soviet-era nuclear power reactors. Kyiv is planning to spend an estimated $1.7 billion to bring the facilities, many of which are nearing the end of their planned life spans, up to current Western standards.
Ukraine Nuclear Safety Upgrade Programme: loan conditions not met
January 21, 2016
The Ukrainian government continues to disregard the legal conditions attached to the financial support it receives from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Euratom for its nuclear safety upgrade program.
