Ice-cold swimming nuclear protest
25 years since the Chernobyl disaster. Environmentalists in Murmansk say modern society has no right to repeat such mistake and call for closure of Kola nuclear power plant.
Several anti-nuclear events have been arranged in Murmansk over the last days marking that it is 25-years since the worst nuclear accident in Europe ever.
Reactor No. 4 at Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded on April 26th 1986. The radioactive cloud contaminated large areas of Europe, including the southern parts of the Barents Region.
Today, youth in Murmansk are afraid a nuclear accident can happen at Kola nuclear power plant, near the city of Polyarny Zori south of Murmansk.
The accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant following last months earthquake and tsunami in Japan again remained the world that nuclear accidents can happened and will have serious consequences.
The most spectacular anti-nuclear protest in Murmansk took place at the city’s still ice-covered lake, where members of the Walrus ice-bathers club and the youth organization Priroda i Molodezh jumped into the freezing cold water wearing radiation swim caps.
The organizations says the level of security at Kola nuclear power plant is significantly lower than required in a modern society in order to withstand natural disasters and terrorist threats.
In addition, three of the four reactors at Kola NPP operate beyond its design life. Priroda i Molodezh says the operation licenses for the three oldest reactors were obtained without state environmental expertise, including environmental impact assessment and public hearings.
