Russian troops dig canal to bar fire from (main) atom site

[denem]

Source: Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian troops dug a 8-km (5-mile) long canal to keep fires caused by a record heatwave away from a nuclear arms site, local media said on Saturday as air pollution from the crisis rose to more than six times above normal...

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 kilometres (220 miles) east of Moscow.

The Emergencies Ministry said the situation in Sarov had "stabilised." 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.

Read more: http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE6751T120100807

---

You have to wonder just how dire the situation is if Russia can't keep the fires out around its principal nuclear production facility.

[ensho]

1. this is some serious trouble - wishing them well

nt