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Russia's powerful state corporation on nuclear energy Rosatom has decided to construct a new nuclear power plant in the Kola Peninsula. The new plant will replace the capacities of the existing Kola NPP and begin production in the period 2017-2019. The Kola NPP-2 will be built on the coast of the Imandra Lake about ten kilometres from the existing Kola NPP, Rosatom's department on contact with public organisations and the regions, Igor Konyshev said to news agency Rosbalt.

"An energy transformer exploded into bits and pieces at the Kola Nuclear Power Plant located on the Kola Peninsula, in Northwest Russia. The incident led to a 50% reduction of power output from two reactor units leaving onsite spent nuclear fuel storage without energy supply. The authorities at the plant neglected to report about the incident. Igor Kudrik, 04/02-2010 "On January 15, 2010 at 16:48 while the plant was operating at 1433 MW capacity, due to a failure in the energy transformer, two 330 kilowatt electric mains, which supply consumers in the Murmansk region, were switched off. The 3rd and 4th reactor units reduced their capacity to 50% of nominal output in accordance with the guidelines," reported the press service of the Kola Nuclear Power Plant on February 3rd, 18 days after the incident took place. But the dry language of the press release disguised the severity of the event"

"In late January, Dmitry Dmitriyenko, governor of Russia's Far Northern region of Murmansk, on the Kola Peninsula, met with representatives of the region's public organisations, ethnic and cultural groups, and members of the Public Chamber. Altogether, Dmitriyenko heard some 20 people - but not an environmentalist among them. Below is an opinion piece by Alexei Pavlov, Director of Bellona's St. Petersburg offices. Alexey Pavlov, 16/02-2010 - Translated by Maria Kaminskaya For those who have observed the situation, however, the meeting hardly came as a surprise. As soon as Dmitriyenko took the reins in March 2009, replacing Yury Yevdokimov at the post of Governor of Murmansk Region, environmentalists found themselves struggling to get the new governor's attention. Dmitriyenko's predecessor used to meet with environmentalists regularly and would listen to their opinions even if they were contrary to his own. Dmitriyenko, by contrast, never responded to the meeting request extended last year by Severnaya Koalitsiya (Northern Coalition), a group uniting five environmental non-for-profit organisations: Bellona-Murmansk, a WWF branch operating in the Barents region, Murmansk's Priroda i Molodyozh (Nature and Youth), the Kola Centre for the Protection of Wildlife, and the Kola Ecological Centre Gaea. Last May, a couple of months after the governor took office, the coalition asked for a meeting to discuss the Kola Peninsula's most pressing environmental problems, but never received an answer. "

"Disturbing reports are coming from Russia that the former nuclear maintenance vessel Severka may have sunk at the wharf of a shiprepairing yard in Alexandrovsk (former Polyarny) on the Kola Peninsula, in close vicinity to the large administrative centre of Murmansk. Russian authorities have yet to confirm or deny the information. Before the 1990s, the Severka was used to move spent nuclear fuel in Soviet-produced shipping containers of the type TK-12 from Andreyeva Bay - the former naval base in the northwestern part of the Kola Peninsula - to a transshipment site in Murmansk dubbed Area SRZ-35. There, not far from the grounds of Atomflot, Russia's nuclear fleet operator, the spent nuclear fuel was reloaded into railway cars to be shipped off to the reprocessing plant Mayak in the Urals. The Severka was also equipped with special tanks for shipments of liquid radioactive waste."

"Legislators in Russia's Far Northern Murmansk Region, on the Kola Peninsula, have signalled a green light to the interment of liquid radioactive waste in their region - brushing aside the public and environmentalists' concerns and, effectively, giving Moscow authorities a carte blanche to create nuclear repositories in Murmansk, while the costs of handling the already accumulated stockpiles of radioactive waste will have to be borne by regional and municipal budgets. Anna Kireeva, 23/02-2010 - Translated by Maria Kaminskaya The questionable bill "On Management of Radioactive Waste" was passed in its first reading in the federal parliament in the Russian capital during a plenary session on January 20 and raised a storm of objections from Russia's ecological organisations. Non-governmental organisations decried the bill as a means for the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom to attend to its own narrow interests while going bluntly against the interests of the nation. In an open letter to lawmakers in Moscow, they urged them to halt on passing the bill without making serious amendments."

"The Murmansk regional parliament last week approved the federal law on radioactive wastes. That could turn the region into a nuclear dump, environmentalists say. The law opens up for the underground storage of radioactive waste materials in the regions and leaves the regional and municipal administrations with a major responsibility for financing the storage facilities. The regional parliament - the Duma - approved the law amid massive protests from environmental organizations in the region. The new legislation is believed to have potentially serious consequences for people in the far northern region. Murmansk Oblast has a number of nuclear installations, both nuclear submarines, icebreakers and the Kola NPP, all of which leaves behind lethal waste materials."

The Russian state company on nuclear energy Rosatom this week signed an agreement with the Italian Ministry of Economic Development over the construction of a vessel for transports of spent nuclear fuel from bases on the Kola Peninsula.

40 year old rusty spent nuclear fuel containers from Russia's abounded submarine base Gremikha were shipped to Murmansk this week. The voyage from Gremikha to Murmansk normally takes one day. This is the same route as the Russian retired submarine K-159 took when it sank northeast of the inlet to the Kola Bay in August 2003. The vessel which is sailing with the highly radioactive spent fuel this week is the 35 year old Serebryanka. The rusty spent nuclear fuel containers have been stored outdoor at Gremikha for 40 years, posing a grave radiation threat. They contain uranium fuel from some of the Soviet Union's first nuclear powered submarines, at that time were based at Gremikha. The submarines reloaded their deadly radioactive spent fuel to the onshore open-air storage site.

When the planned nine submarines are cut up during the year, the total number of decommissioned Russian nuclear powered submarines will reach 186, reports Izvestia with reference to Russia's state nuclear body Rosatom. Last year, 15 nuclear powered submarines were decommissioned, and for next year it is planned to utilise another 10 submarines. Most of the nuclear powered submarines are decommissioned at the naval yard Zvezdotchka in Severodvinsk, but also Nerpa on the Kola Peninsula and other naval yards in Russia's Pacific region are scrapping older submarines.

The nuclear powered icebreaker "Yamal" collided with the tanker "Indiga" during ice escort in the Kara Sea last week. The accident occurred in the Gulf of Yenisey on the 16th of March, the Ministry of Transport's Coordination Centre for Salvation Operations at Sea told news agency Sea News. The tanker got a 9.5 meter long crack on the main deck from the impact. The tanker was only carrying ballast at the time, and there was no pollution of the environment in the accident. The 16 168 tons dead weight tanker "Indiga" belongs to Murmansk Shipping Company. It shuttles between the oil terminal in the Gulf of Ob and the floating oil storage vessel "Belokamenka" in the Kola Bay.

"Political attacks and pressure from governmental structures against Russian environmental organizations has significantly increased during the last months, according to a report issued by Friends of the Earth Norway. - We are seriously worried over the latest development. The environment in the north is facing increased pressure with climate changes and more resource exploitation. Therefore it is essential to have a strong Russian environmental movement able to influence the politics and development in Russia's northern regions, says Yngvild Lorentzen, head of International project department in Norges Naturvernforbund, the Norwegian branch of Friends of the Earth. The Norwegian organization has actively cooperated with several Russian environmental NGOs since the establishment of the Barents cooperation in the early 90ties. - We don't need an environmental movement that are kept silent in important issues, says Lorentzen to BarentsObserver."

"On a state visit Monday to Oslo coinciding with the anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe on April 26, 1986, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was greeted by banners brought 2,000 kilometres by representatives of Bellona Murmansk reading "Mr President, turn the attention of Murmansk's governor to Ecoproblems." Bellona, 28/04-2010 - Translated by Charles Digges Their appeals were heard as Bellona President Frederic Hauge attended a state lunch with Medvedev at Oslo's Akershus Fortress. Hauge delivered a letter from three of Bellona Murmank's representatives that was an invitation to current Murmansk Governor Dmitry Dimitriyenko to resume cooperation with grassroots organisations in the region to ensure a focus on renewable energy potential on the northern Kola Peninsula."