Russia 090310 Basic Political Developments Russia, Hungary pms to discuss energy coop'n, gas issues

A joint Norwegian-Russian crime plan

http://www.barentsobserver.com/a-joint-norwegian-russian-crime-plan.4564976-58932.html
2009-03-09

Head of police in the Norwegian border town of Kirkenes wants Norwegian and Russian police authorities to jointly elaborate a plan on cross-border crime prevention and crime investigation.

-A cooperation agreement on the issue is to be signed before summer, police boss Håkon Skulstad says to newspaper Sør-Varanger Avis. He confirms that a constructive meeting between Norwegian and Russian police representatives was held last week in Kirkenes.

-The Russian representatives expressed a clear interest in such a plan, Mr. Skulstad, leader of the Norwegian East Finnmark Police District says. Russian police from before has a similar cooperation plan with Finnish authorities.

Cross-border traffic across the Norwegian-Russian border could pick pace if a planned cooperation zone between the two country's border areas is implemented. The cooperation zone would include facilitated cross-border travel conditions for the people living in the zone.

As BarentsObserver reported, Mr. Skulstad recently expressed concern that a more open border would trigger more cross-border crime. For that statement he was fiercly criticised both by local authorities and the Norwegian Barents Secretariat, which work for more cooperation across the 196 km long border.

Kiriyenko Sees Prices Rising
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1009/42/375165.htm

Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko, who presides over one of the biggest players on the world atomic market, forecast that spot uranium prices would increase slowly in 2009.
Prices for the nuclear fuel have collapsed to about $43.75 per pound from a record of $136 in June 2007, according to prices from Ux Consulting, a leading publisher of uranium prices.
Kiriyenko said speculators -- rather than consumers -- had helped drive up uranium prices and then dumped the metal during the financial crisis.(Reuters)

Uranium field on Kola Peninsula of federal importance

http://www.barentsobserver.com/uranium-field-on-kola-peninsula-of-federal-importance.4564982-16176.html
2009-03-09

A uranium field in the central parts of the Kola Peninsula has been included on a list over federal important mineral resources in Russia.

The Litsevskoye field in the south-western parts of the Khibiny tundra is one of 135 uranium fields that the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources have declared to be of federal importance.

The fields are to be sold on auctions by the Russian government.

Shipload of spent radioactive fuel from Gremikha arrives Murmansk

http://www.barentsobserver.com/shipload-of-spent-radioactive-fuel-from-gremikha-arrives-murmansk.4564922-58932.html
2009-03-09

The specially modernized vessel “Serebryanka” has arrived at Atomflot’s harbor facilities in Murmansk with six containers of spent nuclear submarine fuel from Gremikha.

Built in 1974, Serebryanka is intended for loading, temporary storage, transport, and offloading of liquid radioactive waste. The vessel has been modernized to transport containers with highly radioactive materials, Murmansk Vestnik reports. The containers will be loaded on trains for further transportation to the Mayak reprocessing plant in the South-Urals.

Gremikha is located on the eastern shore of the Kola Peninsula and is the second largest of the two onshore facilities used by the Russian Northern Fleet to store its radioactive waste. Located 350 kilometers off the Kola Inlet near Murmansk, Gremikha is not connected to the rest of the peninsula by roads. Andreyeva Bay is the other naval nuclear waste dump, located 45 kilometers east of the Norwegian border.

Over the years, Gremikha has accumulated around 800 spent nuclear fuel assemblies from first-generation Soviet submarines and six reactor cores with liquid metal-coolant taken out of Alpha class submarines, Bellona reports.

The first spent nuclear fuel was delivered to Gremikha in the early 1960s after Russia’s first nuclear-powered submarines underwent their first refuelling. For more than 40 years, this waste was hoarded up at an open-air storage facility, posing a grave radiation threat. Besides the spent nuclear fuel, in storage at Gremikha are also substantial quantities of radioactive waste: various equipment, used ion-exchange materials and other tools, as well as storage containers – all bearing very high levels of radioactive contamination.

The storage facility in Gremikha has been hit by several accidents during the years. Bellona mentions that in July 2003, 12 workers suffered various radiation doses while cleaning up an undocumented storage site littered with solid radioactive waste. The irradiated workers were sent to a medical examination only a month after the incident. The base made international headlines on August 30th, 2003, when the submarine K-159 sank in the Barents Sea while being towed to the Polyarny shipyard near Murmansk, killing nine of the 10 crew members on board. The submarine, which was still loaded with spent nuclear fuel, sank in 240 meters of water.

Bashkir president to fulfill duties until term in office expires –spokesman

http://www.interfax.com/3/477656/news.aspx

UFA. March 10 (Interfax) - Bashkir presidential spokesman Airat

Murzagaleyev has refuted reports on the possible resignation of

President of Russia's internal republic of Bashkortostan Murtaza

Rakhimov.

"All reports that Bashkir President Murtaza Rakhimov will allegedly

soon resign are mere rumors and speculations," Murzagaleyev told

Interfax on Tuesday.

"Bashkir President Murtaza Rakhimov will fulfill his duties until

his term in office expires in 2011," the spokesman said.

Two explosions rock south Russia's Daghestan, no injuries

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090310/120486272.html

MAKHACHKALA, March 10 (RIA Novosti) - Two bombs have gone off in the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Daghestan, police said on Tuesday, adding that no injuries had been reported.

The bombs exploded at around 11:30 p.m. (20:30 GMT) on Monday in downtown Makhachkala. The blasts took place near a residential building and had a combined force of the equivalent of 8 kg of TNT.

Bomb disposal experts later discovered and defused a third bomb, with an explosive power equivalent to 2 kg of TNT.

In a separate incident on Monday, unknown assailants opened fire on a police station in Daghestan's Buynaksk District.

"No police officers were injured as a result of the attack," a police spokesman said.

President to chair anti-corruption council meeting

http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20090310094532.shtml
      RBC, 10.03.2009, Moscow 09:45:32.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will hold a meeting of the anti-corruption council in the Kremlin today. Earlier, in late 2008, the Russian leader signed a federal law on countering corruption that was passed by the State Duma on December 19 and the Federation Council on December 22.

      The law sets the primary principles for fighting corruption, as well as legal and organizational platforms for preventing corruption and the minimization or elimination of the consequences of corruptive actions.