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August 24, 2004 at 6:19 pm

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General Lighting

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From http://www.bellona.no

All nuclear powered lighthouses to be removed by 2005

Murmansk authorities are removing lighthouses run on radioactive strontium-90 batteries and replacing them with modern solar energy lighthouses, NTV reported.

2004-08-20 15:16

The strontium batteries will be transported with helicopters to the storage facility in Murmansk and then further by railway to the Mayak reprocessing plant in the South Ural. All the strontium lighthouses (about 500) along the coast of the Kola Peninsula are to be removed this year before polar night comes. The radioactive lighthouses could pose a major security threat if falling in the hands of terrorists. Norwegian authorities are financing the new solar lighthouses. The price of each solar panel lighthouse is about $34,200.
August 25, 2004 at 10:35 pm

#851152
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globalloon

@globalloon

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it’s so good to hear that after so many years of people trying to draw attention to environmental hazards good decisions are finally being made.

i wonder if the two things (dissent and change) are related? I’d like to think so 😉

i remember years ago, as a protest, a bunch of us naively climbed onto the railway embankment with torches and cameras to highlight the total lack of security around transporting nuclear waste by rail in densely populated areas (even as a teenager I had a fair idea how to derail a train f i’d wanted to).

the sight of guys in radiation suits with machine guns lining the running board and shining massive spotlights scared us away soon enough (and perhaps even haunted me through some early acid experiences…white flat beam lasers and Hackney Hardcore anyone?).

😀
August 28, 2004 at 10:45 am

#851151
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General Lighting

@general-lighting

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Originally posted by globalloon
it’s so good to hear that after so many years of people trying to draw attention to environmental hazards good decisions are finally being made.

i wonder if the two things (dissent and change) are related? I’d like to think so 😉

more likely merely Oslo being pragmatic. They are next door, the Barents sea is a shared resource between the EU and former USSR countries, and any contamination affects all the nations. $35,000 for upgrading the lighthouses (surprisingly cheap IMO!) is nothing compared to dealing with a radiation incident.

In Russia one particular environmental campaigner got arrested and detained for “Anti-Soviet activities and spying” – in 1996! (apparently the Duma (Russian Parliament) has never ratified the break-up of the USSR so all their laws still exist)
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