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Enneagram Chat Board Archive Re: How many of you live near a nuclear power plant?Posted by Mikko on October 30, 2001 at 19:59:54: In Reply to: How many of you live near a nuclear power plant? posted by Mikko on October 30, 2001 at 09:04:38: Ok, the reason why posted this question was thinking about the current situation in the neighbouring regions. I live in Helsinki. In Kona Peninsula, about 600 to 700 hundred miles away there's a nuclear power plant and a bit further away the base of the Russian Northern Fleet, which is the home base for their Atlantic nuclear submarines. The highest concentration of nuclear reactors anywhere in the world. A bit closer, In Kona NPP (Nuclear Power Plant) there are 4 VVER-440 reactors running, none of which is up to par nor can be upgraded to meet Western safety standards. The reactor hall is in such a shape that birds can fly in. The wind blows from that direction whenever it gets cold during the winter. Oh, and that's the real reason why Rudolph the Reindeer's nose glows. Even closer is the darling of all nuclear activists in Northern Europe, Sosnovyi Bor NPP (or Leningrad NPP as it's also known. The name of the administrative region wasn't changed when Leningrad was changed to St Petersburg). There are 4 Chernobyl type reactors there, which are characterized by a constant need of operating and a tendency to blow up when mishandled, unlike any western reactor types. (This was proven at Chernobyl) That facility is 120 miles from where I'm sitting right now. You get all kinds of interesting news from there, ranging from the occasional shutdown of a reactor because of potential less of control to hunger strikes by the employees and an occasional OD on heroin by a reactor operator. It was classfied as the biggest safety and health risk, foreign or domestic, by Finnish authorities a few years ago. But Finland buys 25% of the electricity produced at Sosnovyi Bor so it can't be that bad, right? Oh, their nuclear waste facilities are 30% overfilled and only 100 yards from the Gulf of Finland coast line. But that portion of the Baltic sea is almost dead already, so why bother... Oh, the domestic nuclear power plants, one is 50 miles east from where I live and the other some 200 miles or so to the west. But they don't really count when compared to the Russian ones. Or to the most important power facility in Lithuania, Ignalina which is 650 miles south from here. Another huge Chernobyl type facility. Nuclear power itself might be rather safe, but there's the problem with the waste. It stays contaminating for thousands of years. A pretty huge problem that's probably not worth of the benefits.
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