Sosnovy Bor, just 70 km from St. Petersburg, is a home to 5 million people. Sosnovy Bor is also a place where, in 1976, the original Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant was built [1]. The original plant is one of the country’s oldest Soviet-time built facility [2]. Given ageing, in 2008, a proposal was made to build a new NPP as an extension to the original one. The project was named Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant 2 (LNPP2) [1,2].
That same year, environmentalist groups gathered in St. Petersburg and protested against the new LNPP2 plan (see photos) [1].
As protests advanced in subsequent months, the activists also demanded a public environmental impact study, which according to a law, has to be undertaken either before a government environmental impact study or while the governmental study is being conducted [3].
If the outcomes of a public environmental study were submitted after the confirmation of a government study, the findings of NGOs and civil society organisations will not taken into account, according to the law [3].
However, the administrative body denied the activist's demands arguing that the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant is a “federally significant installation” and a part of the “nuclear complex,” which, according to Presidential Order No. 1203 of November 1995, makes the new installation a classified as secret [3].
Giving that decision, the activists further argued that the new installation is certainty not a military one, and therefore neither a state secret one [3]. Further claims of of the activist against the new Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant included:
- an independent environmental impact study of the LNPP 2 project was denied by administrative body.
- official documents about an accident that took place in 1975 at the original Leningrad Nuclear power Plant are still classified.
- Potential accidents since the original Leningrad NPP is very old (Chernobyl-like RBMK 1000 reactors)
- Proper nuclear waste management and safely still remain unsolved at local and global levels
- There are no official protocols through which for the original Leningrad NPP would be turn off in a safe manner
- Two reactor blocks at the Leningrad NPP were illegally extended and no environmental impact study was conducted
- about78 percent people are against the construction of the new nuclear power plants (according to a ROMIR poll, activist stated)
- Even if there are safe operating conditions, only living near a nuclear power plant, the possibility to to became ill is 2.5 higher for people who live near a NPP
- 5 million residents can be seriously affected by a high possibility of a nuclear "accident" due the old Leningrad NPP.
However, the new LNPP2 was approved [4,5]. The preliminary work and implementation of the LNPP2 project at the construction site started in July 2020. Unit 2 of the new project is expected to start this year - 2021 While units 3 and 4 by the end of 2025 [4] [5].
The company involved in this case is Rosenergoatom [4].
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