Russia fire threatens N-arms site
Source: Agencies |
August 8, 2010, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
RUSSIAN troops dug a n8-kilometer-long canal to keep fires caused by a record heat wave away from a nuclear arms site, local media said yesterday as air pollution from the crisis rose to more than six times above normal.
Forest and peat fires caused by the highest temperatures ever registered in Russia have killed 52 people, made more than 4,000 homeless, diverted many flights and forced Muscovites to wear surgical masks to filter out foul air.
"The fire situation in the Moscow region is still tense, but there is no danger either to residential areas or to economic sites," an Emergencies Ministry spokesman said.
Weather forecasts said the smoke, which has reached even underground metro stations, would persist until Wednesday.
Echo Moskvy radio station said army troops excavated the canal to prevent the flames from advancing into the Sarov nuclear arms facility, ringed by forest in the Niznhy Novgorod region around 350 kilometers east of Moscow.
The Emergencies Ministry said the situation in Sarov had "stabilized." Sarov is a closed town whose nuclear site produced the first Soviet atomic bomb in 1949 and remains the main nuclear design and production facility in Russia.
On Thursday, Russia's nuclear chief assured President Dmitry Medvedev that all explosive and radioactive material had been removed from the nuclear site as a precautionary measure.
Air pollution surged to more than six fold over the normal reading in Moscow, a city of 10.5 million, the highest sustained contamination since Russia's worst heat wave in over a century began a month ago, Moscow's pollution monitoring agency said.
Many people on the streets of Moscow were wearing masks to ward off the heavy smog, while suffering from sweltering heat as the temperature climbed to 36 degrees Celsius, verging on the record high for the day.
Forest and peat fires caused by the highest temperatures ever registered in Russia have killed 52 people, made more than 4,000 homeless, diverted many flights and forced Muscovites to wear surgical masks to filter out foul air.
"The fire situation in the Moscow region is still tense, but there is no danger either to residential areas or to economic sites," an Emergencies Ministry spokesman said.
Weather forecasts said the smoke, which has reached even underground metro stations, would persist until Wednesday.
Echo Moskvy radio station said army troops excavated the canal to prevent the flames from advancing into the Sarov nuclear arms facility, ringed by forest in the Niznhy Novgorod region around 350 kilometers east of Moscow.
The Emergencies Ministry said the situation in Sarov had "stabilized." Sarov is a closed town whose nuclear site produced the first Soviet atomic bomb in 1949 and remains the main nuclear design and production facility in Russia.
On Thursday, Russia's nuclear chief assured President Dmitry Medvedev that all explosive and radioactive material had been removed from the nuclear site as a precautionary measure.
Air pollution surged to more than six fold over the normal reading in Moscow, a city of 10.5 million, the highest sustained contamination since Russia's worst heat wave in over a century began a month ago, Moscow's pollution monitoring agency said.
Many people on the streets of Moscow were wearing masks to ward off the heavy smog, while suffering from sweltering heat as the temperature climbed to 36 degrees Celsius, verging on the record high for the day.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
