4/24/2002: OLD DECOMMISSIONED
NUCLEAR SUBMARINES TO BE TRANSFERRED FROM GREMIKHA TO ARA GUBA
On 24 April 2002, Trud reported that the Northern Fleet would
transfer in the near future 17 old decommissioned nuclear submarines [four Kit-class
[NATO name 'November'] SSNs, 10 Kefal I-class [NATO name 'Victor I'] SSNs, and three Kefal
II-class [NATO name 'Victor II'] SSNs] from Gremikha
Naval Base to Ara Bay Naval Base in
Vidyayevo for further dismantlement. The submarines will have to be
transported inside floating docks. The operation will have to take place in
calm weather to ensure the safety of the endeavor.
9/14/2001: OPENING OF INTERIM SPENT FUEL STORAGE SITE
IN MURMANSK OBLAST POSTPONED TILL DECEMBER 2001
On 14 September 2001, Nina Yanovskaya, director of
the northwestern office of Nuklid, said at a press conference in St.
Petersburg
that a new interim spent nuclear submarine fuel storage site
in Murmansk Oblast would become operational on 20 December 2001. According
to Yanovskaya, the original opening date, January 2001, had to be moved
because of financing delays on the part of the United States. The project, which costs
$600,000, is being financed jointly by Norway ($270,000), Russia ($200,000),
and the United States ($130,000).
6/11/2001: 600 MILLION RUBLES FOR NORTHERN FLEET NUCLEAR SUBMARINE DISMANTLEMENT
On 11 June 2001, ITAR-TASS reported that according
to the Murmansk
Oblast administration, 600 million rubles (over $20 million as of 11
June 2001) would be allocated from the
federal budget in 2001 to dismantle Northern Fleet nuclear submarines.
12/1/2000: UNITED KINGDOM CONFIRMS ITS FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR NUCLEAR SAFETY
IN MURMANSK OBLAST
For more information, please see the 12/1/2000
entry in the Foreign
Assistance Developments file.
10/10/2000: MURMANSK OBLAST TO RECEIVE OVER $7.2 MILLION
FROM UK IN 2001
For more information, please see the 10/10/2000
entry in the Foreign
Assistance Developments file.
6/1/2000: BNFL TO CLEAN UP NORTHERN FLEET NUCLEAR WASTE
AND SPENT FUEL
For more information, please see the 6/1/2000
entry in the Foreign
Assistance Developments file.
12/99: VICTOR-II SUB DEFUELED AT NERPA
SHIPYARD BY CIVILIAN SUPPORT SHIP
For more information, please see the 12/1999
entry in the Northern Fleet:
Facilities: Atomflot file.
11/99: BNFL ASSESSES SITUATION IN RUSSIAN NORTHWEST
For more information, please see the 11/99
entry in the Foreign
Assistance Developments file.
6/22/99: AKSENENKO VISITS NORTHERN FLEET, STRESSES
NEED TO DISMANTLE SUBS
For details, please see the 22
June 1999 entry in the General Naval
Decomissioning Developments File.
1/99: SSBN DISMANTLEMENT CONTINUES AT ZVEZDOCHKA
As of January 1999, the Zvezdochka
State Machine-Building Enterprise had completely dismantled one SSBN
and was in the process of dismantling two more with the help of US technical
and financial assistance.[1,2] The US Department of Defense awarded
Zvezdochka the $4.25 million contract for the first submarine, which had
been defueled, in March 1997. The US intends to help fund the dismantlement
a total of 15 Northern Fleet SSBNs at the
Nerpa
Shipyard and at Zvezdochka under the Strategic
Offensive Arms Elimination project of the Cooperative
Threat Reduction Program.[1] Spent fuel storage and long-term reactor
compartment storage, however, remain problems in the efforts to dismantle
Russian nuclear submarines.[1,2]
8/31/98: DEPUTY ATOMIC ENERGY MINISTER VISITS
MURMANSK
Russian Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy Nikolay
Yegorov visited the Murmansk Region, including the city of Polyarnyy and
the Nerpa Shipyard in Snezhnogorsk. Yegorov also met with the command
of the Northern Fleet and representatives of shipyards that dismantle nuclear-powered
submarines. The purpose of Yegorov's visit was to determine the feasibility
of implementing the federal government's May
1998 decree regarding the transfer of responsibility for submarine dismantlement
from the Defense Ministry to the Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom).
7/30/98: DISMANTLEMENT EXPERTS GATHER IN MOSCOW
Experts gathered for a two-day meeting in Moscow
to examine nuclear submarine dismantlement in Russia's Northern Fleet.
The meeting marked the first gathering of the Russian-Norwegian commission,
charged with investigating issues related to nuclear submarine dismantlement
and increasing nuclear and environmental safety in the region. Russian
Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy Nikolay Yegorev and Norwegian Deputy Minister
of Foreign Affairs Oslaug Haga [name as transliterated] co-chair the commission,
which was set up by an intergovernmental cooperation agreement on environmental
protection. According to Minatom, as of July 1998, 157 submarines
had been decommissioned, 95 of which are located in the Northern Fleet.
Experts noted that 65 submarines should have their nuclear fuel removed
immediately. (For more information on Russian-Norwegian cooperation,
please see the Naval
Reactors Foreign Assistance files. For more information on nuclear
submarine decommissioning and dismantlement, please see the Overview
for this section.)
3/25/97: RUSSIAN SECURITY COUNCIL CALLS FOR MEASURES
TO RECYCLE NUCLEAR SUBMARINES
A meeting of the Russian Security Council Interdepartmental
Commission on Environmental Safety recognized the urgency of the situation
in North West Russia. The Kola Peninsula is currently the site of more
than 7,000 cubic meters of liquid radioactive waste. The Council determined
that the more than 100 spent nuclear fuel cores held in navy and merchant
fleet storage facilities should be recycled. While over 90 Northern Fleet
nuclear submarines have been decommissioned, nuclear fuel has so far been
removed from only 26 of the submarines. The Council called on the government
to increase funding of programs to recycle nuclear submarines.
9/28/95: DEFENSE MINISTRY OFFICIAL CLAIMS OLD
SUBS POSE NO THREAT
It was reported that Captain First Class Viktor Kruglov,
Deputy Head of the Defense Ministry Inspectorate of nuclear facility safety,
said that the over 120 decommissioned nuclear submarines are not an environmental
threat, stating that the submarines are constantly monitored. Kruglov said
that the containers used to transport spent fuel from the submarines' reactors
to processing facilities are safe, and that the sixth shipment of spent
fuel departed from Severodvinsk by train on 28 September 1995.
2/95: SUB REACTORS WILL BE STORED IN SECRET TUNNELS
BEFORE TRANSFER TO MAYAK
Russia reportedly plans to store about 200 decommissioned
submarine reactors in secret tunnels along the Ara Bay on the Kola Peninsula.
The reactors will be removed from the submarines at the Nerpa shipyard
and at Severodvinsk. The fuel will be temporarily stored at the shipyards
and other locations on the Kola Peninsula until it can be shipped to the
Mayak facility in the Urals.
Last updated 1 August 2002
Comments or questions? Contact Cristina Chuen at MIIS CNS: cristina.chuen@miis.edu
This material is produced independently for NTI
by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the
Monterey Institute of International Studies and
does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has
not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers,
employees, agents. Copyright © 2002 by MIIS.
HOME | CONTACT US | SITE MAP
To return to the main
Northern Fleet entry, see the