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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Blast at Russian nuclear plant kills one |
| 2005-12-16 |
| Probably an accident THIS time, but a warning. Blast at Russian nuclear plant kills one IRINA TITOVA Associated Press ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - An explosion at a Russian nuclear power plant complex killed one worker and badly hurt two others, but Russia's nuclear agency said Friday no reactors were affected. The Rosenergoatom agency said radiation levels remained normal as the reactor in that part of the Leningrad nuclear plant was undergoing repairs and was not in operation. But Thursday's blast threw a spotlight on what environmentalists called uncontrolled operations at Russian nuclear sites. The blast happened in a smelter at the plant in the closed nuclear town of Sosnovy Bor, 50 miles west of the northern city of St. Petersburg. The smelter is operated by Ekomet-S, a company reprocessing scrap metal. ... A 33-year-old worker died of his injuries Friday morning, and two others were injured, Yuri Lameko, chief doctor of the Sosnovy Bor hospital, told the AP. "There were no violations of safety levels and operating conditions of the energy units of the Leningrad nuclear plant," Rosenergoatom said in a statement. ... He said this was the second accident to occur at Ekomet-S. The first happened in summer 2003, injuring some workers. In March 1992, an accident at the Sosnovy Bor plant caused radioactive gases and iodine to be leaked into the air, according to nuclear watchdog groups. ... In an unrelated development, Chechen prosecutors said they have opened a criminal investigation into the improper storage of radioactive waste by a state-owned company, Prosecutors said a "catastrophic radioactivity situation" had developed at the Grozny Chemical Factory in the breakaway province in southern Russia. Grozny is Chechnya's capital. Radiation levels at one storage center at the plant are 58,000 times higher than normal, the Russian Prosecutor General's office said Friday.... |
| Posted by:Glenmore |
| #3 They were smelting scrap metal, an explosive operation if there ever was one. All kinds of things get mixed in with the scrap. Everything has to be strictly controlled, or you get a splashback. Nasty! My dad's brother was burned over 80% of his body when he was caught in a smelter splashback at the steel mill in Houston where he worked. It took him nine months to die. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2005-12-16 15:12 |
| #2 If Maclean's is right, the two injured people were burned over 90 percent of their bodies. The guy who died might have been the lucky one. If those guys make it, they are in for some extremely rough times. May God have mercy on them. |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2005-12-16 09:14 |
| #1 "The blast happened in a smelter at the plant" A smelter is a peripheral operation, not a part of the power plant. So the blast was not "at" the plant as the "China Syndrome" headline writers infer. This was no TMI. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2005-12-16 09:14 |