ID :
94930
Tue, 12/15/2009 - 03:01
Auther :

Russia's Chief of General Staff to discuss military coop in France

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MOSCOW, December 14 (Itar-Tass) -- Chief of the Russian Armed Forces
General Staff Gen. Nikolai Makarov will arrive on a visit in France on
Monday to discuss with French colleagues prospects of military cooperation
between the countries, the press service of the Russian Defence Ministry
told Itar-Tass.
"Nikolai Makarov will meet with Chief of the French Armed Forces
General Staff Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, chief of the Main Department for
Armaments of the French Defence Ministry Laurent Collet-Billon and other
military officials. The meeting will highlight the development and
broadening of military cooperation between the countries," the press
service said.
The chief of the Russian General Staff will visit several French
military facilities and agencies - the French Military Academy, the center
of planning and command of military operations and the Air Force Command
of Airborne Operations and Air Defence Forces.
"Nikolai Makarov will also visit the airbase Saint Dizier (150
kilometers east of Paris), where he will watch a presentation of a
fighter-bomber Rafale and will attend the command and staff exercises of a
French Ground Troops brigade (350 kilometers west of Paris)," the press
service said.

.Ulan-Ude power plant eliminating crash with heating supply cuts.
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ULAN-UDE, December 14 (Itar-Tass) -- A major crash occurred at the
Ulan-Ude thermal power plant-1 overnight to Monday in the capital of the
Russian republic of Buryatia. "The short circuit in the electric equipment
put out of order three boiler units of the power plant. They were
disconnected, as well as four district heating pumps," the press service
of the republican emergencies department told Itar-Tass on Monday.
Two boiler units and three district heating pumps remained
operational. Forty minutes after the malfunction had been repaired one
more boiler unit and all four disconnected district heating pumps were put
into operation. The hydraulic control system has been restored. Currently
four boiler units of the thermal power plant are operational. One more
boiler unit is planned to restart on Monday morning. The heat carrier
temperature at the exit from the power plant makes 76 degrees Celsius with
normal 95 degrees Celsius, the press service said.
Meanwhile, it is getting much colder at the flats in Ulan-Ude, though
the heating batteries did not cool down at all. Biting frosts to minus 34
degrees Celsius came to the city on Sunday. The air temperature amounted
to 23-24 degrees Celsius on Monday morning.
The first major crash occurred at the Ulan-Ude thermal power plant in
February 2001. The so-called conservator tanks exploded damaging the
thermal configuration of the power plant. The repair works took more than
1.5 days. Several years later, on February 9, 2008, the short circuit in
the electric equipment of the sixth turbine triggered a hydrogen blast
with 1,000 square meters of roofing caved in. The other six turbines were
disconnected automatically. Some 180,000 residents in two districts of the
city lived without the heating supply under a threat of evacuation amid
the 40-degree frosts for three days. The emergency situation regime lasted
for a week in the city.
In September 2008 the territorial power generating company-14 put the
damaged thermal power plant into operation. Some 300 million roubles were
spent for the reconstruction of the thermal power plant.
-0-baz

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