RF, Norway audit bodies to continue radiation safety coop

OSLO, September 1 (Itar-Tass) - Russia and Norway continue to develop
cooperation in ensuring nuclear and radiation safety of the polar region.
Chairman of Russian Audit Chamber Sergei Stepashin and Auditor General of
Norway Mr. Jorgen Kosmo will hold a bilateral meeting here on Thursday on
the results of a parallel check of the effectiveness of the use of public
funds for these purposes.
"This testifies to trust between our countries in this field. We are
glad that we have established effective interaction also in the financial
control issue. In general, such an extensive environmental partnership is
unique in the world practice," Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Erik
Lahnstein said in an interview with Itar-Tass. According to him, the
events at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan have been are a
reminder to the whole world that nuclear facilities should be prepared for
worst-case scenarios.
"It is evident to everyone that the oldest and most dangerous power
units should be decommissioned," he said. According to Lahnstein, several
experts of his country are confident that it is necessary to develop the
atomic energy of new generation. "The discussions of the kind have already
been held in the [Norwegian] parliament. In particular, the participants
in the discussions raised the question on the use of safer lead-cooled
fast thorium reactors," the Norwegian deputy foreign minister said. "At
the same time, this is still a long way in the future. There is no
majority in the national parliament in order to consider such a
possibility in principle. Progress is running out, and we are keeping eyes
on the development of high technologies," the Norwegian high-ranking
diplomat said.
For the support of the relevant environmental projects in
north-western regions of Russia in the period from 1995 to 2009 the
Norwegian parliament allocated a total of about 1.4 billion kronas (262
million US dollars). According to a report of the Office of the Auditor
General of Norway, a significant part of activities envisaged by the
program has already been completed. In particular, it is the modernisation
of systems for the protection of the Kola NPP, the dismantling of
strontium batteries in lighthouses and scrapping of decommissioned nuclear
submarines. In addition, repairs of a spent nuclear fuel storage facility
in the Andreyeva Bay have been made, however, the nuclear waste removal
from it has not yet been started.
Signing of a memorandum and a joint press conference is planned on the
results of the Thursday talks in Oslo.
-0-ezh