The major of the city Sosnovy Bor, where Leningrad nuclear power plant is situated, is member of the organizing committee for the international hearing on decommissioning in the end of October. This week, the major met with NGOs from the DecomAtom network, which gathered in Sosnovy Bor to prepare the hearing.

On 4th of July at the information center of Kola nuclear plant, a round table with participants from the environmental organization GAIA, leaders of the Kola nuclear plant trade union and administrative officer of Murmansk public union for nuclear energy safety, took place. The main topic of the round table was the ‘Concept of decommissioning of old nuclear reactors’ which was prepared and presented by the public environmental organizations within the international DecomAtom project.

The hull of what is supposed to be the world’s first floating nuclear power plant will be moved from a shipyard in the Arkhangelsk region on the White Sea in North-West Russia to another shipyard near St.Petersburg on the Baltic Sea.

An important step has been taken towards a decommission plan for Russian nuclear reactors. Rosatom, the regulatory body of the Russian nuclear complex, has drafted a concept for decommissioning. This is a great victory for the DecomAtom cooperation project.

Our dear Russian colleague, Lydia Popova, has passed away. Lydia has been our colleague for more than 10 years, doing invaluable work on a number of subjects connected with nuclear safety issues and other energy related issues. Our latest cooperative effort was a report about a NGO concept of a Russian decommissioning plan for the oldest nuclear power reactors. Lydia contributed very valuable knowledge to this report, chiefly regarding how to make a legislative framework for the handling of the nuclear waste generated by breaking up old nuclear reactors.

The Rosatom magazin "Safety of Environment" number 1/2008 features an article about the concept for a decommissioning plan made by Decommission network NGOs. In Rosatom Public Council 28th February authors of the concept presented the suggestions made by the non-governmental organizations regarding the concept of decommissioning of nuclear power units that have passed their operating lifetimes.

On May 29 in the center of St. Petersburg, on the corner of Nevsky Prospect and Malaia Sadovaia streets, a protest demonstration was held by environmental NGOs Bellona (St. Petersburg), Ecodefense (Moscow) and Green World (Sosnovy Bor – St. Petersburg). It was action against the rejected registration of independent environmental impact assessment of new Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant -2 (LAES-2) and the arriving to St. Petersburg by way of the Baltic Sea of a shipment with French nuclear waste.

On May 14th, representatives of Gaia, Green World and Naturvernforbundet met with deputy governor of Murmansk oblast, Sergey Sobbotin, to present the concept of decommission plan that the NGOs have written together.