RADIOACTIVE WASTE AT MAYAK CHEMICAL COMBINE Radioactive waste is managed at Mayak in various ways, using reservoirs,
storage
tanks, waste burial sites, and a vitrification
plant. By early 1996, the Mayak complex had accumulated 500,000
cubic meters of solid radioactive waste and 400,000 cubic meters of liquid
radioactive waste.[1] The plant continues
to discharge 25 Bq of liquid waste a year.[2] According to a study
conducted by the Russian and Norwegian governments, since 1948 the Mayak
nuclear complex has leaked 8,900 petabecquerels (PBq) of the radioactive
isotopes strontium-90 and cesium-137 into the environment as a result of
accidents and the deliberate discharge of liquid waste.[3]
[1] Interfax, 12 May 1996. [2] Vladislav Larin, "Three Radiation
Disasters At Mayak Integrated Plant," Energiya: Ekonomika, Tekhnika,
Ekologiya, 1 March 1996, pp. 46-53; in "Documents Reveal Details Of
Urans Nuclear Disaster," FBIS-UST-97-002, 14 January 1997. [3] Rob Edwards, "Russia's Toxic Shocker,"
New
Scientist, 6 December 1997, p. 15. (updated 4/22/98 om)
RESERVOIR SYSTEM During its first eight years of operation
(1948-1956), Mayak dumped radioactive waste into the Techa River.
From 1951 to 1964, a series of reservoirs were developed along the Techa
in order to attempt to contain the radioactive contamination discharged
into it.[1] In 1951, Mayak started diverting high-level liquid waste
(diluted to produce intermediate-level waste) into Lake Karachay.[1,2]
In April 1967, a drought caused the water level of Lake Karachay to drop
and the wind spread more than 30,000 square meters of radioactive sediments
as far as 70km away.[2]
Sources: [1] Thomas B. Cochran, Robert S. Norris,
and Oleg A. Bukhkarin,
Making the Russian Bomb: From Stalin to Yeltsin
(Boulder: Westview Press, 1995), p. 100. [2] Vladislav Larin, "Three Radiation
Disasters At Mayak Integrated Plant," Energiya: Ekonomika, Tekhnika,
Ekologiya, 1 March 1996, pp. 46-53; in "Documents Reveal Details Of
Urans Nuclear Disaster," FBIS-UST-97-002, 14 January 1997. (updated 4/22/98
om, 4/23/99 LBN, 4/29/99 TR)
WASTE STORAGE TANKS Mayak began to store spent fuel and radioactive waste
in temporary storage tanks in 1953, allowing the fuel to cool down and
the radioactivity to lessen between reprocessing loops. After the spent
fuel was reprocessed, the resulting high-level radioactive waste (HLW)
was returned to the tanks, while the remaining, less-active waste was pumped
into a storage reservoir. The original practice of reprocessing spent fuel
rods resulted in nitrate acetate HLW solutions, which, if allowed to dry,
become explosive. This reaction was the cause of the 29 September
1957 explosion of a waste storage tank, known as the "Kyshtym Disaster,"
which spread 70-80MT of waste over a region between 15,000 and 23,000 square
kilometers in area. After the accident, this practice of merely returning
the waste to the storage tanks was discontinued and replaced with a process
of evaporation and fixation in compounds such as hydroxides and ferrocyanides.
HLW is classified using five categories and is stored in stainless steel
tanks located in metal-lined reinforced concrete "canyons." Reports
on the number of tanks are inconsistent, with the number of tanks ranging
from 48 to 99. Some tanks do not have cooling systems, but all tanks
are equipped with instruments and are monitored for leaks and temperature
levels.
[Thomas B. Cochran, Robert S. Norris,
and Oleg A. Bukhkarin,
Making the Russian Bomb: From Stalin to Yeltsin
(Boulder: Westview Press, 1995), pp. 99-114.] {Entered 4/23/99 LBN}
WASTE BURIAL SITES There are 231 solid radioactive waste sites at Mayak, including 206
underground and 25 above-ground with a total of approximately 223.9 million Ci
of radioactive waste. Thirteen above-ground sites and 155 under ground sites are
closed.[1] Solid low- and intermediate-level waste is buried in trenches lined
and covered with clay to prevent water from seeping into the trenches.
Generally, the water table is at least four meters below the bottom of the
trench. Solid high-level waste is stored in "trench-like" structures made
of reinforced concrete and waterproofed with bitumen, stainless steel, and
concrete.[2]
[1] "Gosatomnadzor On The State Of Nuclear Safety In The
Russian Federation In The First Half Of The 1995,"
Yadernyy Kontrol, November 1995, p. 11. [2] Thomas B. Cochran, Robert S. Norris, and Oleg A.
Bukhkarin,
Making the Russian Bomb: From Stalin to Yeltsin (Boulder: Westview Press,
1995), p.116. {Entered 4/23/99 LBN}
VITRIFICATION
PLANT Research into incorporating radionuclides into phosphate
glass as a way to safely store high-level liquid radioactive waste began
at Mayak in 1967.[1] Mayak's first vitrification facility, built in 1987,
was shut down following an accident 13 months after it began operating.[2]
A second kiln operated from 25 June 1991 until 14 January 1997, and it
exceeded its planned service life by 2.5 years. This plant was the only
operational vitrification plant in the NIS until it was shut down, and
during its operation, the facility vitrified the equivalent of 285 million
Ci of radioactive waste, resulting in a 35 percent reduction in the amount
of liquid radioactive waste stored at Mayak.[3,4,5] The radioactive waste
vitrification plant converted liquid radioactive waste into a glass-like
material and then stored it in a special facility. The highly radioactive
sodium-aluminum-phosphate glass was poured into cans and stored in highly
durable steel containers.[6] A special monitoring system continues to provide
for observation of the containers, as well as detection and localization
of leaks.[7] The shut down of the plant raised some concern because the
plant would revert to storing additional radioactive waste in tanks, and
similar practices had contributed to the explosion of radio active waste
in 1957, after a failure in the cooling systems in the storage tanks.[4]
An estimated 7,000 cubic meters of high-level liquid radioactive waste
produced during nuclear fuel reprocessing is stored in approximately 100
tanks at Mayak.[1] Construction of replacement facilities began several
years before the shut-down of the second kiln, but due to a lack of funding,
no facility had been completed by the initial commissioning dates (end
of 1997-mid 1998).[4,8] In 1999, the construction
of the third kiln resumed. The new kiln, designed to
process 500 liters of radioactive waste per hour, has a service life of six
years and was expected to become operational in late 2000.[2] However, the start
of operation of the new kiln was re-scheduled to
October 2001, after a defective part was discovered during an adjustment and trial
phase for the new kiln.[9] Another postponement, until December 2001, was
announced in September 2001. The Mayak administration claimed that a thorough trial
of the kiln with simulation solutions was necessary before it became fully
operational.[10] However, the new kiln, called EP-500 R-3, was actually put into
operation in late October 2001 despite the previously announced postponement.
According to the Mayak Director Vitaliy Sadovnikov, Mayak was able to complete
the trial of the kiln more quickly than anticipated.[11]
Sources: [1] Igor Kudrik, "Mayak still without
vitrification," Bellona Foundation Web Site,
http://www.bellona.no,
29
February 2000. {Updated 7/5/00 SS} [2] "'Mayak' pristupil k pusko-naladochnym
rabotam na novykh pechakh osteklovyvaniya," Ural-Inform online edition,
http://www.chelpress.ru, 17 June 1999. {Updated 7/5/00 SS} [3] Mark Odell, "Vitrification - World
Review," Nuclear Engineering International, June 1992, p. 52. [4] Lyudmila Shesterkina, Radio
Rossii, 5 February 1997; in "'New Threat' at Mayak Radioactive Waste
Treatment Plant," FBIS-TEN-97-002.{Updated 8/1/97 LK} [5] Aleksandr Skripov, "Kombinat Mayak
stanovitsya boleye opasnym-nechem osteklovyvat radioaktivnyye otkhody,"
Vecherniy
Chelyabinsk, 2 April 1997, p. 1. [6] Sergey Sergeyev, Novosti newscast,9
July 1997; in "Report on Storage of Radioactive Waste in Chelyabinsk,"
FBIS-SOV-97-190. {Entered 11/13/97 EV} [7] Ye. Kozina, Vesti newscast,
Russian Television Network, 21 April 1996; "New Technology for Nuclear
Waste Vitrification," FBIS-TEN-96-006, 21 April 1996. [8] "Zhdyem oproverzheniy," Ogonek,
No. 11, March 1997, p. 15. [9] "Tretya avtomaticheskaya
pech osteklovyvaniya zhidkikh vysokoradioaktivnykh otkhodov dolzhna byt
pushchena na proizvodstvennom obyedinenii 'Mayak' uzhe v oktyabre,"
Ural-Press-Inform, 25 July 2001; in Minatom Press Digest,
http://www.minatom.ru,
25 June 2001. {Updated 7/25/2001 ES} [10] "Chelyabinskaya oblast. Srok puska tretey
avtomaticheskoy pechi osteklovyvaniya zhidkikh vysokoradioaktivnykh otkhodov na
PO 'Mayak' perenositsya s oktyabrya na dekabr," Regions.Ru, 4
October 2001; in Minatom Press Digest,
http://www.minatom.ru,
5 October 2001. [11] "Generalnyy direktor PO 'Mayak' Vitaliy Sadovnikov zayavil, chto
vvod v stroy tretey pechi po osteklovyvaniyu ZhRO pozvolit prodolzhit
vypolneniye programmy utilizatsii otkhodov, nakoplennykh v rezultate sozdaniya
yadernogo oruzhiya," Nuclear.ru,
http://www.nuclear.ru,
31 October 2001.{Updated 11/26/2001 ES}
ARCHIVED MAYAK RADIOACTIVE WASTE DEVELOPMENTS:
This section is no longer being updated.
For major recent developments, see the
Nuclear Fuel Cycle Developments file. 3/4/2003: FOURTH KILN TO BE PUT
IN OPERATION IN 2004 UralInformByuro reported that a
fourth vitrification kiln would become operational at PO Mayak
in 2004 as part of cooperation efforts between the
U.S. Department of Energy
and Minatom. Mayak plans to
build two more vitrification kilns. ["Ekonomika. Stroitelstvo
chetvertoy pechi po osteklovyvaniyu radiatsionnykh otkhodov na
PO 'Mayak' budet zakoncheno v 2004," UralInformByuro, 4 March 2003; in Integrum Techno,
http://www.integrum.com/.] {Entered
4/3/2003 DA}
7/4/2002: VITRIFICATION KILN PUT
BACK TO WORK According to PO Mayak spokesman Yevgeniy Ryzhkov,
the EP-500 R-3 vitrification unit was re-launched after Mayak specialists
repaired the kiln. The unit was shut down due to malfunction in April 2002. ["Posle ustraneniya vyyavlennykh
v protsesse ekspluatatsii nepoladok vnov pushchena
v rabotu tretya avtomaticheskaya pech
EP-500 R-3 osteklovyvaniya zhidkikh vysokoradioaktivnykh otkhodov na chelyabinskom
PO 'Mayak'," Nuclear.ru
Web Site, http://www.nuclear.ru/,
4 July 2002.] {Entered 8/15/2002 DA}
4/3/2002 TEMPORARY SHUTDOWN OF
VITRIFICATION UNIT DUE TO MALFUNCTION According to Mayak plant officials,
following a malfunction, the EP-500 R-3 vitrification unit has been shut down for
an indefinite period. Specialists arrived at the plant to work on needed
recalibration for the kiln shortly after the shutdown, and plan to restart the
unit after repairs. The EP-500 R-3 is the third of three vitrification units at
Mayak. The kiln, which cost approximately $18 million, began operation in October 2001 and has converted more than 20 million curies of highly radioactive
waste.
["3 aprelya 2002 Na
proizvodstvennom obedinenii 'Mayak' v Ozerske Chelyabinskoy oblasti
priostanovlena promyshlennaya ekspluatatsiya tretey avtomaticheskoy pechi...," Nuclear.Ru,
http://www.nuclear.ru, 15 April 2002] {Entered 4/30/02 TH}
2/14/2002 DEFECT FOUND IN VITRIFICATION KILN According to a news report by Yekaterinburg's Channel 4 TV, after discovering a defect in the vitrification kiln at Mayak,
plant engineers had to slow down the unit to half its original capacity. Mayak
officials described the temporary reduction as "planned," although the report
indicates that according to other sources the reduction came unexpectedly and the
reason for the defect is still unknown. Mayak officials hope to return the
unit to full capacity within a few weeks.
["ChP na Mayake," Neftegaz.Ru
Web Site, http://www.neftegaz.ru, 14 February 2002.] {Entered 4/16/02 TH}
7/16/98: MAYAK'S RADIOACTIVE WASTE DUMP POSES
A SERIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL THREAT The highly contaminated Lake Karachay, Mayak's radioactive
waste dump during the 1950s, poses a serious threat to the region's groundwater.
The chairman of Gosatomnadzor,
Yuriy Vishnevskiy, has warned that a "lens" of liquid radioactive waste
that has collected in the ground under the lake is shifting toward the
Techa River and might contaminate West Siberia and the Arctic Ocean.[1]
Mayak experts are monitoring the movement of the lens, since it is impossible
to remove it from under the lake. The waste products in the lens include
strontium-90 and cesium-137.[2] The lake itself also poses a contamination
risk, which will remain until the lake is fully buried with special rock
and concrete slabs.[1]
Sources: [1] Novosti Newscast, 16 July 1998;
in "Nuclear Waste Dump in Urals Threatens Water Supply," FBIS-TEN-98-197. [2] Vesti Newscast, 15 July 1998;
in "Russian Experts: Radioactive Waste Dump in Chelyabinsk Safe," FBIS-SOV-98-196.
{Entered 12/16/99 SK}
7/2/97: NEW RADIATION SECURITY COMMITTEE ESTABLISHED IN CHELYABINSK Representatives of the local Chelyabinsk administration announced the formation
of a new committee for radiation and environmental safety and rehabilitation
of contaminated areas. The new committee is the successor to the committee
for emergency situations and civil defense. The chairman of the new committee,
Viktor Kozlov, stated that Chelyabinsk Oblast has more nuclear facilities
than any other region in the world, and has suffered because them. The
state has yet to satisfactorily compensate residents for radioactive contamination
from the 1957 nuclear accident at Mayak. The two rehabilitation programs
sponsored by the state have been inadequately funded, and this year there
were no funds for their implementation. In addition,
Chelyabinsk Oblast does not have the funds to organize summer programs
for children from contaminated areas.[1] The main functions of the
committee include providing for the realization of the state policy on
the use of nuclear energy; providing for the implementation of a federal
program for social rehabilitation of the population and cleanup of contaminated
territories in South Urals; and organizing and coordinating programs to
evaluate and predict the environmental situation; ensuring environmental
security; organizing the social, economical, medical, psychological, and
environmental rehabilitation of affected territories.[2]
Sources: [1] Yevgeniy Tkachenko, ITAR-TASS,
2 July 1997; in "Radiation Security Committee Created in Chelyabinsk,"
FBIS-TAC-97-183 {Entered 8/1/97 LK} [2] Mikhail Nikolayev, "Novyy komitet
bezopasnosti. Ekologicheskoy i radiatsionnoy," Yuzhnouralskaya panorama,
16 July 1997. p.5. {Entered 11/7/97 EV}
6/3/97: RESEARCHERS MEET IN NORWAY TO DISCUSS MAYAK POLLUTION Russian and Norwegian researchers met in Tromso, Norway today to reveal
the findings of their joint studies on Mayak pollution from 1948 to the
present. As a result of the activities of the facility, the Asanov marshes
and man-made lakes surrounding Mayak are highly contaminated with radioactive
waste. In addition, the 1957 explosion of a radioactive waste tank at Mayak
has rendered some areas uninhabitable. While the facility's pollution emissions
have declined, old pollution and radioactive materials continue to pose
a threat to the area and its residents. Waste dumps at Mayak have accumulated
2,000 metric tons of nuclear materials. In conducting the study, Russian
and Norwegian researchers cooperated with the Environmental Protection
Ministry and the State Radiation Agency to examine specific and urgent
environmental problems. The researchers determined that contaminated groundwater
and the polluted ponds and marshlands pose the gravest immediate danger.
[Peter Beck, "Russia's Polluting Nuclear Facility: Threat
in the North," Aftenposten, 4 June 1997, p. 12; in "White Paper
Assesses Majak Plant Pollution," FBIS-WEU-97-182.]{Entered 8/1/97 LK}
11/95: INADEQUATE RADIOACTIVE WASTE HANDLING AT MAYAK REPORTED The results of Gosatomnadzor's series of inspections revealed the inadequacy
of radioactive waste handling at the Mayak facility. Methods for handling
liquid and solid radioactive (low and medium level of radioactivity) waste
do not meet current safety standards. The sanitary state of many storage
facilities and burials has not been officially approved. None of the storage
pools underwent a sanitary examination.
["Gosatomnadzor On The State Of Nuclear Safety In The Russian
Federation In The First Half Of The 1995," Yadernyy Kontrol, November
1995, p. 11.]
Page last updated 17 July 2003 The development section in this file is no longer being updated. For major
recent developments, see the
Nuclear Fuel Cycle Developments file.
Comments or questions? Contact Elena Sokova at MIIS CNS: Elena.SokovaATmiis.edu
For major recent developments, see the
