(February 21, 1992) In WISE News Communique No. 365 (page 10) we mentioned a report by the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI) in which the Ignalina and Sosnovy Bor reactors were described as unsafe and dangerous. But no details were given. Since then, more specific information about the report has become available to us.
(367.3604) WISE Amsterdam - Investigators from Sweden, including experts from SKI and the Institute for the Protection to Radioactivity, examined nuclear power stations in Russia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. They were, according to an article in Izvestia, especially alarmed by the reactors at the Ignalina and Sosnovy Bor stations. They found the safety systems at both to be insufficient, especially with regard to fire protection. Their report says both of the Ignalina reactors (1500 MW LWGRs) are in urgent need of modernization, and that two of the four Sosnovy Bor reactors (1000 MW LWGRs) should be shut down.
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SABOTAGE ATTEMPT AT IGNALINA N-PLANT |
With specific regard to the Ignalina reactors, their control rooms have no special protection and are situated in the reactors' turbine buildings. A fire (which occurs often with turbines) or an explosion would mean that the control room is no longer accessible, thus making operation of the reactor impossible. Fire could easily and quickly spread, reaching the radio-active material, because all the doors are made of wood. Everything relating to the emergency system is together in one room, absolutely inadequate and separated from the main systems. They are controlled by only one cable. If the cable were destroyed, all emergency systems would be useless. This is also the case in regard to the pumps for the emergency cooling system.
The Ignalina nuclear power plant is situated 400 km from the Swedish coast. Only 20 percent of the electricity it produces is used in Lithuania. The rest is exported to Byelorussia, but Lithuanian authorities are unwilling to close the plant and it will be in operation for at least a few years more.
The Swedish report expresses doubts about current plans by the independent states of the former USSR to modernize their nuclear power stations. There is a shortage of means, workers at the stations spend their time "in search of food", and suppliers demand foreign currency for the equipment. At the end of the report, investigators mention another worrying fact: highly qualified specialists at the stations are leaving to work for, for example, industrial firms, where they can get higher salaries. According to the Swedish data, there are 34 nuclear plants of the Chernobyl type presently opera-ting in the CIS. "Of course, it is very difficult to shut them down," the Izvestia article says. "Even the Swedish experts confirm that shutting down, lets say, the nuclear power station in Sosnovy Bor, would leave the whole region of St. Petersburg without energy."
Sources:
- Izvestia (CIS), 2 Jan. 1992
- Taz (FRG), 18 Jan. 1992.
Contact:Zeleny Swit (Green World), Post Box 64, 252060 Kiev-60, Ukraine, CIS; fax: 007-044 440 30 17.