10 Aug (NucNet): Russian state-owned utility Rosenergoatom confirmed yesterday evening that its nuclear units were operating “steadily and safely” despite abnormal heat conditions and forest fires, which remain ablaze to the east and south of Moscow.
“All Rosenergoatom’s nuclear power stations developed and implemented action plans to reduce the likelihood of fires in the vicinity of nuclear power plants,” said the Russian utility yesterday. Rosenergoatom operates 32 nuclear power plants at 10 sites.
The statement said, however, that “pockets” of forest fire had been found near Novovoronezh nuclear power plant, even though this represented no risk to operation.
An additional update from France’s Institute of Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), which undertakes permanent monitoring of radionuclide contamination of the air above France, also confirmed yesterday that no civil nuclear power plants in Russia are currently threatened by the fires.
However, three nuclear sites in particular have been a primary cause of concern due to forest fires in the surrounding areas: Sarov, Snezhinsk and ‘Mayak’ (Ozersk). However, all three have been declared free of direct danger from fire.
Sarov is located 380km east-south-east of Moscow within the Nizhny Novgorod ‘oblast’ (or province) and hosts a Rosatom centre for military weapons R&D activities. It was formerly known as Arsamov-16 or Kremlyov.
Speaking on Sunday 8 August 2010 in a television interview in Sarov, Rosatom deputy director general Ivan Kamensky said there was “no threat to nuclear and radiation safety at the site”. The Russian emergencies ministry also confirmed the same day that there were “no open fires” at the site.
According to another Rosatom official, “the institute is operating routinely” and the equipment and explosive materials removed before fires approached the site have been returned to their facilities.
But Mr Kamensky said that the centre’s perimeter, constructed during the Soviet era under different safety rules, was inadequate in terms of fire safety and even protection and physical security, which were the principal objectives upon construction.
“The regulations (applied at that time) do not meet today’s requirements” he said, adding that the site protection legislation created in Soviet times “will also be reviewed” and that Rosatom would undertake a review of the installation’s compliance with new regulations.
However, Mr Kamensky said that Sarov, which is one of ten ‘closed towns’ in Russia under the supervision of Rosatom, would not be opened “any time soon, nor in the longer term”.
Forest fires have also been brought under control at the Snezhinsk site, located in the Chelyabinsk oblast 1,500km east of Moscow.
According to a 9 August 2010 press release from Rosatom, the Russian ministry of emergency’s Ural Regional Centre announced that “fire fighters managed to stop the spread of fire near Snezhinsk” and that there were “no threats to residents and businesses”.
Snezhinsk, formerly Chelyabinsk-70, is a Russian Federal Nuclear Centre established in 1955. The institute develops and tests nuclear weapons technology and undertakes commercial uranium enrichment.
It was also announced this morning that the forest fires pose “no direct threats for Mayak”, according to the head of civil defence and emergency at Mayak Production Association, which is a subsidiary of Rosatom.
The Mayak site – also referred to as Chelyabinsk-65, Ozersk or Kyshtym – operates the spent fuel reprocessing plant for RBMK and breeder reactors, in addition to a number of auxiliary nuclear fuel cycle chemical plants and radwaste storage facilities. The site is located 40km south of Snezhinsk.
Following three serious contamination disasters, the first occuring from 1949 to 1956, the second in 1957 and the third in 1967, large sections of nearby land remain heavily contaminated. Altogether they cover 180km squared.
On 5 August 2010, the IRSN said that if the forest fires reached areas contaminated by radioactive fallout, such as that which followed the Chernobyl accident in 1986, there would be a risk of local contamination of the air by radioactive particles, notably caesium-137.
According to statements released on 6 August 2010 from the national radiation safety authorities in Sweden, Norway and Finland, which alone has 255 radioactive particle monitoring stations, no risks to health or environment would be expected given the probably very low levels of caesium-137. Even in nuclear events, caesium-137 is responsible for very little of the radioactivity in the air.
This has been confirmed by the IRSN, which operates the hyper-sensitive surveillance network OPERA-air in France. The network detects levels of radioactivity which are ten to a hundred times lower than natural radiation.
>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)
Russian Nuclear Head Backs Mayak Reprocessing Facility (News In Brief No. 46, 21 April 2005)
Global Nuclear Emergency Response Network Goes Operational (News No. 11, 07 February 2008)
IAEA Team Completes Regulatory Framework Review In Russia (News In Brief No.160, 09 December 2009)
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