10 cities to be selected for waste management project in 2011
The working group “National Projects” of the president’s economic reforms committee plans to finally select 10 cities to realize the pilot project of solid domestic waste processing within the framework of the “Clean City” project in January-March 2011. This was announced in a note of the State Agency for Investments and Management of National Projects. According to Andrii Artazei, the head of the working group, the “Clean City” project provides for savings, ranging from 40 to 80 hectares of clean area, every year. We remind that earlier the working group claimed that Yalta, Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Odesa were selected for the project. The working group offers to build the complexes for waste processing in 20 cities. They are to be built over the next four years. The project is estimated to cost five billion hryvnias. The total area of 770 landfills for storing solid domestic waste in Ukraine is more than 3,000 hectares. Most of them are overloaded and 80-90 percent do not meet ecological safety requirements.
Second life for power plants
The lifetimes of the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant’s reactors No. 1 and No. 2 were extended by 20 years. This is the first extension of this kind in the Ukrainian nuclear industry. The decision was made during a meeting of the board of the State Nuclear Regulation Committee of Ukraine, which was held in the town of Kuznetsovsk, Rivne oblast. In the course of the next decade, the lifetimes of 12 out of the 15 functioning nuclear power units will come to an end. The two aforementioned reactors of the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant are the oldest in Ukraine, and began their operation in 1980 and 1981, respectively. Meanwhile, they are also the first in line to see their lifetimes prolonged beyond designed terms. According to the plant’s PR department, such extensions are widespread in international practice. The decision to extend the plants’ lifetimes was made on the basis of analysis and independent expert research, says the head of the State Nuclear Regulation Committee of Ukraine Olena Mykolaichuk. The plants will be continuously monitored, and will undergo comprehensive testing in 2020.
Ukraine suggests common border control to the EU
Ukraine offered the EU to introduce a common border control by 2012. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryshchenko announced this at the Eastern Partnership Summit, RBC-Ukraine reports. He explained that this would facilitate travelling for fans and tourists during the Euro-2012 Soccer Championship. “One of our proposals is to take the Eastern Partnership Summit as a basis for establishing common border control between Ukraine and EU countries on our western borders by 2012, when millions of the soccer fans will travel back and forth between our borders,” Hryshchenko noted. According to him, this can show the EU and Ukrainian citizens just how effective the Eastern Partnership is.
Tehran cuts relations with London
Iranian parliamentarians approved a bill presupposing the complete termination of the country’s relations with Great Britain. “After the voting of the members of the security and foreign policy committee (Iran’s Majlis), it was decided to completely severe diplomatic relations with Britain,” said the head of the committee Mohammad Karami-rad. Relations between Iran and England have been tense for a long time because of the Iranian nuclear program. Things became even more complicated after Iran accused Great Britain’s special services of being involved in the organization of acts of terror on November 29 in Tehran, during which the atomic physicist Majid Shahriari was killed. “Members of the committee also condemned recent comments made by the British ambassador in Tehran, and other hostile steps taken by the government of Great Britain against our country throughout history,” stressed Karami-rad. He also pointed out that despite the fact that some parliamentarians insisted on lowering the level of relations with Great Britain, the security and foreign policy committee decided to completely cut relations with London. Now the bill will be submitted for final consideration and approval to the members of the chair’s council of the country’s parliament. Earlier on Sunday, Iranian parliamentarians appealed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to expel Simon Gass, UK ambassador to Iran.
