Nuclear cleanup plan behind schedule

This week, representatives of the environmental community and the nuclear industry came together to discuss progress in the so-called Master Plan for ridding Northwest Russia of sources of radioactive contamination, Bellona Web reports. The meeting revealed, at least to environmentalists and engineers involved in realising the project, that for the most part, the Master Plan is far behind targets, lagging in comprehension of pressing issues, and lacking in funding, the organisation concludes. The Master Plan began development in 2004 with financial help from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development. Remos Kalinin, who heads the Institute for the Problems of the Safe Development of Atomic Energy, said that it has been outlined that the decommissioning and environmental rehabilitation of all installations in Northwest Russia is to take place by 2025. “We already won’t make that,” he said,