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Russian ministry against building nuclear power plant in Baikal region

A researcher said earlier such a power plant would be able to save the Baikal region and Mongolia from energy shortage if precipitation in the region declined dramatically due to global warming

Lake Baikal ITAR-TASS/Mikhail Mordasov

Lake Baikal

© ITAR-TASS/Mikhail Mordasov

MOSCOW, May 5. /TASS/. The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources does not consider feasible to build a nuclear power plant in the Baikal region, minister Sergey Donskoi said on Tuesday, commenting on the proposal of the Director of the Limnology Institute Mikhail Grachyov.

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There is need to construct a nuclear power plant with a fast neutron reactor in the Baikal Region, academician Grachyov said earlier. Such a power plant would be able to save the Baikal region and Mongolia from energy shortage if precipitation in the region declined dramatically due to global warming, the researcher said.

"Significant environmental risks will arise in the course of nuclear power plant construction. Such risks appear in standard operating conditions and, furthermore, in emergencies under conditions of high seismic activity on the Baikal natural area," the minister said.

"As far as this issue is concerned, we should primarily take into consideration the special status of Lake Baikal as a UNESCO world heritage site and requirements of the federal law on the Baikal. Even fairly complex socioeconomic problems of territories need to be resolved on the basis of the priority task of preserving the lake’s ecosystem," Donskoi said.

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World's deepest lake Baikal shrinking

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