МАЙДАН - За вільну людину у вільній країні


Архіви Форумів Майдану

Хто про що, а кремліни про гроші (л)

03/16/2011 | nandi
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/16/us-japan-quake-russia-nuclear-idUSTRE72F7NJ20110316

(Reuters) - Japan's nuclear crisis is escalating according to the worst case scenario, potentially damaging future demand for atomic power stations, the head of Russia's state nuclear corporation said on Wednesday.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said atomic energy was safe if used properly, and he and visiting Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the two states would go ahead with plans for Russia to build Turkey's first nuclear power station.

Japan is struggling to avert a catastrophe at a nuclear power station damaged by the worst earthquake in its recorded history.

Sergei Kiriyenko, who presides over the bulk of the former Soviet Union's military and civilian nuclear facilities, told Reuters: "Unfortunately, the situation is developing under the worst scenario."

"We forecasted the scenario under which the other reactors would be affected, which unfortunately happened yesterday. So the worst scenario has been confirmed," he said.

Russia still did not have full information from Japan on the situation, Kiriyenko said, so Russian experts were having to model developments at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, some 800 km (500 miles) southwest of the Russian city of Vladivostok.

Kiriyenko, who often accompanies Russian leaders on trips abroad to seal multi-billion dollar nuclear deals, said the crisis was likely to have a negative impact on Russia's booming overseas nuclear power station construction business.

"Of course it will have an effect," he said when asked if it would hurt Russian sales of nuclear power stations.

"IT CAN BE AND IS SAFE"

The worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Soviet Ukraine is likely to sour public opinion on nuclear power, which accounts for 16 percent of Russian electricity.

After his talks with Erdogan, Medvedev told a briefing in the Kremlin: "Everyone is asking a simple question: can atomic energy be safe?

"The answer is clear: it can be and is safe, but for this it is necessary to make the right decisions about the location of the plant, about the design and the operator."

Russia said it would begin to evacuate the families of its diplomats serving in Japan this week. Russia's Far East -- a vast swathe of land home to 6.5 million people -- watched the surging radiation levels in Japan with trepidation.

Radiation levels in Vladivostok, a city of 600,000 people, rose to 14 microroentgens an hour at 0400 GMT, from 12 a day earlier, though they were well within norms.

Residents set up forum sites on the Internet to monitor and discuss radiation levels.


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