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China To Build a Solar Plant In Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Two Chinese firms plan to build a solar power plant in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, which has been off limits since a devastating explosion contaminated the region with deadly radiation in 1986. GCL System Integration Technology (GCL-SI), a subsidiary of the GCL Group, said it would cooperate with China National Complete Engineering Corp (CCEC) on the project in Ukraine, with construction expected to start next year. CCEC, a subsidiary of state-owned China National Machinery Industry Corp, will be in overall charge of the project, while GCL-SI will provide and install solar components. GCL-SI did not say how much it would cost. The Chernobyl reactor, which is due to be covered next year by a 1.5 billion euro ($1.6 billion) steel-clad arch, is surrounded by a 2,600 square km (1,000 square mile) exclusion zone of forest and marshland. GCL-SI would not disclose exactly where the solar plant would be built, but a company manager told Reuters that the site had already gone through several rounds of inspections by the company's technicians. China is the world's biggest solar power generator, with 43 gigawatts of capacity by the end of last year. It is also the world's top manufacturer, producing 72 percent of global solar power components in 2015, according to a research note by Everbright Securities last week. "There will be remarkable social benefits and economic ones as we try to renovate the once damaged area with green and renewable energy," said Shu Hua, chairman of GCL-SI. A company manager added: "Ukraine has passed a law allowing the site to be developed for agriculture and other things, so that means (the radiation) is under control."
I wonder how this would be making Russia feel, having its BFF help Ukraine wean itself off Russian energy...
Hanlon's Razor -- Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
They faced contamination over a vast area. Water and ploughing was used to lock the contamination into a restricted zone.
The idea of a restricted zone is then not to go back and dig holes or do "agriculture".
Laws don't clean up contamination. Time and no access is the idea behind a restricted zone.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
"Ukraine has passed a law allowing the site to be developed for agriculture and other things, so that means (the radiation) is under control."
Oh my God... help us all if politicians think radiation will disappear because they passed a law that says its ok..
I think Solar power generation is a good use for this land maybe... if the radiation doesn't break down the materials in the solar cells or the power systems.. Agriculture no F'in way!!
Who needs WiFi when we can have Packet Over Sheep! http://datacomm.org/PoS-InternetDraft.txt
There is only about 1000 kWh/m2 annually in Chernobyl. Far from the best place to build a solar plant. Also, being a contaminated area and such, construction will be extra expensive.
I guess Russia won't really mind its BFF pocketing poor Ukraine's money on a non-viable project that only happens to sound good on words, and whose impact will leave it as dependent on Russia for energy resources as it ever was and will be.
Sorry to break it to you, but it won't be the rift in Russia-China relations you are hoping for. Just last week the two expanded their trade by another 200 billion. Gotta love your desperation though :)
i seem to recall from researching nuclear batteries that semiconductor junctions degrade quickly when exposed to high energy ionizing radiation.
that means this site has to be very low on the contaminants, or the upkeep will be hell from the panels failing.
unless the chinese are also testing some new PV designed for use in strongly ionizing radiation, and want to collect energy at night too. :)
When have Russia and China ever been BFFs? They've always been competitors with very different interests... even when they were both communist.
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Since the whole area is irradiated already, it won't matter too much if the second one has a "technical problem".
Before we get up in arms, read up on the science.
http://www.hiroshimasyndrome.com/
Kriston
Just make radiation panels, that can harvest the power of radiation!
Quick everybody... Copy the highest up-voted comments from the last time this story was posted, and paste them here as your own:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/...
No need to thank me.
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I hope this solar power station would not interfere with the de facto vast wildlife refuge, which formed in the Chernobyl Exclusion zone. Surprisingly the deadly radiation turned out to be a lesser evil for wildlife than a human with its exoskeleton - a car.
Won't the produced power be radioactive? :-)
When was Russia or China ever communist? I know they have been totalitarians, authoritarian statists for a while, and made a bunch of claims about being for the little guy, but actually being communist? Having a Gini coefficient of about 1.0? Not in my lifetime. Nor anyone else's that's alive today.
But according to the president-elect, the Chinese invented global warming to stifle US innovation in the coal sector. So why would they want to encourage more countries to switch to green energy technology and thus become more competitive with them, when they're making a fortune by leading the charge in renewables?
It's just doesn't make sense! Someone on the alt-reich, please, tell me what to think!
Russia and China aren't that close, this is a common myth peddled by the idea that because they both oppose US domination, that they must be friends.
But let's be clear, even China agreed that Russia's annexation of Crimea was wholly unacceptable, and regardless of Putin trying to put a brave face on things by announcing deals with China to sell them Russia's oil and gas, this is really desperation by Russia and exploitation by China as the prices China has agreed to pay are grossly in favour of China.
It's arguable that China actually has a better relationship with some European nations such as Britain than it does with Russia. Ultimately China cares about two things - trying to gain control of the South China sea, and growing wealth through trade. The reality is that contrary to it's claims Russia can't help much in the South China sea because it's navy is decrepit (and focussed on Syria) and it's economy is small, declining, and of low quality to external investors anyway.
As such, China has more to gain from working with the West than it does with Russia as much as Russia may be desperately happy to play the useful idiot for China when it needs one every now and then. Even historically one shouldn't forget that China and Russia were technically at war with each other over a border dispute for most of the cold war and up until 1991.
"...The Fukushima accident's radiation will not harm anyone."
Fukushima isn't even over yet. There was a meltdown, Tepco covered it up and later admitted it, and it's still releasing radiation into the ocean.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Perhaps it is now time to stop saying "China does ..." when it is actually not the Chinese state that does it? After all, when Oracle, Microsoft or IBM do something, we don't refer to them as "America ...", or if a smallish company in Denmark does something, for that matter, the headline is something like "Danish company X ...". Otherwise it comes across as poorly researched, in my view.
Another apologist web site - if persisted reading it I would be convinced that nuclear reactors are powered by carrot sticks and expel fairy floss.
So many motherhood statements.
Think about infrastructure - the transmission networks are already in place from the old nuclear power plant, so situating distributed solar generation there is cheaper.
Before the 1960 sino-soviet split. Look it up.
Not at all, that is just the American viewpoint. You need to read more.
Visiting the Zone was my dream vacation. But if it's been cleared for development, what's the point...
That's nothing. In recent polls in the Crimea, 106% of residents were in favour of Russia.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
at war with 30 year military alliance together?
China also appears to be looking to put money/effort into building out the second An-225 (Soviet-era Buran space shuttle hauler).
That's nothing. In Russia even 100% of the dead are in favor of Putin.
Only in the newspeak of the hijacked environmental movement would cutting down a forest to put up a power plant be considered "green"
A Russia vs China battle will be like Alien vs Predator. President Nixon famously took advantage of the rift b/w Khrushchev and Mao to wean China off the Soviet Union. President Trump can go the other way - create an alliance w/ Russia against the Muslims (ISIS being one) and extend such an alliance to oppose China as well
They were BFFs before 1960, and then again since 2000, when Putin came to power
I'm sure Vladimir just loves this. Maybe he can call his orange money whore to do something about it.
Ukraine's value to Russia is the Gazprom pipelines that run from Russia into Western Europe across Ukraine. Duh.
Sources please.
In Kyiv (South of Chernobyl) housewives shop with dosimeters to ensure the food is safe. Travelers are advised to brush their teeth with bottled water as the water is believed to be radioactive.
The locals clearly don't believe its safe.
Murphy was an optimist
I remember Clancy's comment on the relationship between Russia and China.
"I can assure you that my country will not meekly submit to an invasion of our soil."
"Even if China is involved?"
"Especially if China is involved."
Did you mean to respond to me? What I posted is the exact opposite of the American viewpoint because the American viewpoint is exactly what I pointed out - that China and Russia are working in concert against the US and are inseparable communist allies, which is clearly nonsense.