Norway wants nuclear alert revived

Russia no longer warns neighbours of accidents

By BBC News Online environment correspondent Alex Kirby in Vadsø, northern Norway

Norway is appealing to Russia to reinstate a nuclear emergency warning system that used to link the two countries.

If the worst was to happen any fallout from the Kursk would reach here in three hours

Gunnar Kjønnøy, Governor of Finnmark

Under a 1995 agreement each side promised to inform the other immediately of incidents like the sinking on 12 August of the nuclear submarine Kursk, but the Russians cancelled the agreement in 1997.

Now Norway, whose border lies barely 100 km from the Russian city of Murmansk says it is vital to get the system working again.

The governor of Finnmark in northern Norway, next door to Russia, is Gunnar Kjønnøy. Speaking in his office in the town of Vadsø he told BBC News Online:

"If the worst was to happen any fallout from the Kursk would reach here in three hours. I heard about the disaster at 9.45 on the Monday morning, two days after it happened.

"Apart from the tragic loss of life, for me the worst part of the whole thing is this lapse of time. We need warning in as short a time as possible. I don't know whether the governor of Murmansk, Yuri Evdokimov, knew about the Kursk any sooner than I did.

"I'm asking him to reinstate the warning system. He agrees with me we need it, but he has to have Moscow's approval before he can do anything. We know there are many reactors both working and redundant in this area. We are surrounded by activities that make the warning system necessary."

Chain of buoys

Mr Kjønnøy said he thought the Kursk was very unlikely to be a problem for the Norwegians.

With a thick file of government nuclear emergency instructions open on his desk he said he believed Russian assurances that the submarine's reactors had been shut down, and he expected they would be checking the temperature of the reactors.

He hoped the Russians would salvage the Kursk so there would be no fears of radioactive contamination of the Barent Sea.

"I am preparing a submission to Oslo for the equipment that would monitor not only radioactivity but water temperature, currents and salinity. The buoys would relay the data by satellite," he said.