To return to the main Pacific Fleet entry, see the Pacific Fleet file.

The facilities in southern Primorskiy Kray constitute the hub of naval fuel cycle activities for the Russian Pacific Fleet. The fleet's only START I-designated dismantlement facility is located here (the Zvezda Far Eastern Shipyard in Bolshoy Kamen), and refueling, defueling, and waste storage activities take place at facilities on the Shkotovo Peninsula (Chazhma Ship Repair Facility and Site 32).  A significant, active-duty submarine base is located in southern Primorskiy Kray (at Pavlovsk Naval Base) and a smaller one is farther north (Rakushka Naval Base at Vladimir Bay).[1]  As of May 2000, Rakushka, Pavlovsk Bay, and Razboynik Bay housed a total of 15 decommissioned nuclear submarines with fuel on board, as well as several reactor compartments.[9] Given their proximity to the North Korean and Chinese borders and their possession of significant amounts of fissile material (in the form of fresh highly enriched uranium submarine fuel, low-irradiated fuel on decommissioned but not defueled submarines, and spent fuel), long-range missile technology, and other military technology, the dilapidated state of many of the naval facilities of the Primorskiy Kray region gives rise to significant proliferation concerns.

The Zvezda Far Eastern Shipyard was the first facility in the Pacific Fleet to receive assistance from the United States as part of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program.  The shipyard received equipment to assist in the dismantlement of SSBNs, infrastructure improvements, an on-shore defueling facility, and, as of December 1999, contracts for the dismantlement of six SSBNs.[5] In October 2000, a floating liquid nuclear waste treatment plant, called Landysh, began operation at the Zvezda Far Eastern Shipyard.  The Landysh was constructed as part of an aid program administered by the Japanese government.

A DOE site visit was made in March 1998 to the Chazhma Ship Repair Facility.[4] In September 1998, DOE began to implement a plan to upgrade MPC&A at Chazhma's land-based fresh fuel storage facility.  The enhancements initially included several rapid upgrades and eventually incorporated long-term measures as well.[6] These long-term measures included a permanent storage facility scheduled for completion in spring 2000.[7] Upgrades to two buildings at Site 34 were reported completed in September 2000.[10] The DOE also assessed the PM-74 service ship, which carries fresh fuel from Chazhma to Kamchatka Shipyard, in Vilyuchinsk, Kamchatka. MPC&A upgrades of PM-74 were completed in August 2000.[10] The US Department of Energy has also undertaken an assistance program for MPC&A for spent fuel at Site 32.  It is the first facility to work cooperatively with DOE on spent fuel MPC&A.[8] The project was completed in January 2000.[7]
Sources:
[1] Study by V.A. Danilian and V.L. Vysotsky, cited in Joshua Handler, "The Russian Naval Nuclear Complex," in Busmann, Meier, and Nassauer, eds., The Nuclear Legacy of the Former Soviet Union: Implications for Security and Ecology, BITS Research Report 97.1, November 1997, p. 33.
[2] James Clay Moltz, "Trip Report: Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, Russia," 15-22 October 1999, RUS991015.
[3] Nika Kolesnichenko and Viktor Korytko, "Grozit li Primoryu yadernaya opasnost? Atomnyye reaktory s chasovym mekhanizmom," Vladivostok, No. 173, 16 September 1997, pp. 1, 11.
[4] CNS phone interview with DOE officials assisting in the MPC&A program, March 1998.{Entered 4/17/98 jcm} {Updated 11/30/99 TR}
[5] Correspondence with DTRA personnel, December 1999, RUS991200.
[6] Rear Admiral Nikolay Yurasov et al., "Upgrades to the Russian Navy's Fuel Transfer Ships and Consolidated Storage Locations," Partnership for Nuclear Security: United States/Former Soviet Union Program of Cooperation on Nuclear Material Protection, Control, and Accounting, September 1998.
[7] Correspondence with MPC&A task force personnel, January 2000, RUS000100.
[8] US Department of Energy MPC&A Task Force Personnel Presentation, Monterey, CA, 6 August 1999. {Updated 3/21/2000 CC}
[9] NISNP Discussions with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientist, May 2000 .
[10 U.S. General Accounting Office, Nuclear Nonproliferation:  Security of Russia's Nuclear Material Improving; Further Enhancements Needed, GAO-01-312 (Washington, DC:  February 2001), GAO Web Site, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d01312.pdf.{Updated 8/13/2001 CC}

 

Page last updated 13 August 2001
For more recent developments, see the Pacific Fleet Developments or Pacific Fleet Radioactive Waste Developments files and development sections in the Bolshoy Kamen, Pavlovsk, Shkotovo, or Landysh facility files.

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.

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