To return to the main
naval radioactive waste entry, see the
Spent Fuel and Radioactive
Waste
file.
This file includes material pertaining to general naval radioactive waste
developments. For information on developments pertaining to the Northern
or
Pacific
fleets see their respective developments files.
9/23/2002: LEPSE AGREEMENT SIGNED
On 23 September 2002, the final framework agreement was signed to release funds
and to start working on the service ship
Lepse. For more information, please see the
9/23/2002 entry in the
Russia: Naval Foreign Assistance Developments
file.
7/12/2002: MINATOM RETHINKS
NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE ON NOVAYA ZEMLYA
On 12 July 2002, Minister of Atomic
Energy Aleksandr Rumyantsev suggested that
Novaya Zemlya was not the ideal location for a
nuclear waste storage facility. Rumyantsev cited the possibility that in the
coming centuries swamps could appear on Novaya Zemlya due to global warming.
According to Rumyantsev, the ground on Novaya Zemlya consists primarily of
limestone, while granite is the preferred rock to bury waste in. He also said
that storage on Novaya Zemlya would be three to four times more expensive than
at other locations, and that Finland and Sweden have offered to arrange trips for
Russian specialists so that they can learn more about how storage facilities
are built in those countries. Together with Norway, Sweden and Finland had earlier
planned to
fund a project to build a low-level radioactive waste storage facility on Novaya Zemlya, estimated to cost $300 million.
3/15/2002: FOUR RAILROAD CARS
TO TRANSPORT SPENT FUEL FROM MURMANSK TO MAYAK BROUGHT INTO SERVICE
Four new railroad cars for
transporting spent fuel assemblies from nuclear submarines and
nuclear-powered
icebreakers has been brought into service. The cars were built with financial
assistance from Norway, and will be used to move spent fuel from the Kola
Peninsula to
Mayak.
While the addition of four new cars should double the volume of spent fuel
moved, up to 50 special cars would be necessary to complete the
task in a timely fashion. This is because one car can only carry slightly more than
the spent fuel from a single nuclear submarine and because over the last eight
years, prior to the building of the second special train, the lone train
visited the region fewer than 30 times. The design of the cars features steel
walls 30cm thick that can prevent fuel leakage even in the event of a train
crash. For previous articles on this issue, see the
7/20/2000 item in the
Naval Foreign Assistance Developments section. [1,2,3,4]
2/8/2002: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF PROPOSED STORAGE
FACILITY ON NOVAYA ZEMLYA TO BE COMPLETED IN MARCH 2002
On 8 February 2002, the Severodvinsk city administration
hosted a session of the State Expert Ecological Commission, which is
conducting a study on the environmental impact of the proposed nuclear waste storage facility on
Novaya Zemlya. The authors
of the project said that the facility would store waste only from the Russian
northwest and would not accept radioactive waste from other regions of Russia or
other countries. The commission is expected to complete the environmental impact
assessment in March 2002. Work on determining project feasibility and
formulating its technical specifications will start when the results of the
state and public environmental assessments become available. Given adequate
financing, the facility could be constructed in four
years.
6/2001: MNEPR NEGOTIATIONS SUSPENDED
For more information see the 6/2001
entry in the Naval Foreign Assistance
Developments section.
5/22/2001: SOLID RADWASTE AND SPENT FUEL STORAGE FACILITY
PLANNED FOR NOVAYA ZEMLYA
Plans to build a large solid radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel storage
facility on Novaya
Zemlya, Arkhangelsk Oblast, are moving ahead. As of 22 May 2001, five 300m
test shafts had been drilled to test radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel
burying technologies.[1] The
facility will be used to store waste from Arkhangelsk and Murmansk
Oblasts. It will be constructed on a 10-hectare site 17km from Bashmachnaya
Bay, on the southern coast of Novaya Zemlya.
The waste will be stored underground in 90m cement-lined shafts. Novaya Zemlya was chosen
because
of its permafrost conditions: groundwater can be found only at a depth
of 600m. According to Nikolay Lobanov, scientific head of the project, the
shafts can withstand a 150MT nuclear explosion and a 7.0 earthquake.[2] The
project was ordered by
Atomredmetzoloto; the design was drafted by VNIPI Promtekhnologii; the main
subcontractors are VNIPIET
and Gidrospetsgeologiya. The facility should be completed in 36 months.
Its projected capacity is 50,000m3. One estimate for the facility's
construction puts the cost at 1.548 billion rubles (over $53 million as of 22 May 2001).[1]
A higher estimate, provided at an international seminar on nuclear submarine
dismantlement problems held in Arkhangelsk in July 2001, put the likely cost at $80
million. As of July, a working draft for the construction of a facility
to house low- and medium-level radioactive wastes, including cesium and
cobalt, was nearly complete.[3] An international consortium,
consisting of Deutsche
Gesellschaft zum Bau und Betrieb von Endlagern fuer Abfallstoffe mbH
(Germany), Gesellschaft fuer
Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit mbH (Germany), Posiva
Oy (Finland), AEA
Technology (United Kingdom), Institutt
for energi teknikk (Norway), and Svensk
Kaernbraenslehantering AB (Sweden), is assessing the project's safety.[1]
5/16/2001: IZHORSKIYE ZAVODY LOSES AMEC CONTAINER
CONTRACT TO SEVMASH
According to Nina Yanovskaya, director of the
northwestern office of Nuklid (a Minatom
subsidiary), in
May 2001 Sevmash won a tender for
the manufacture of 25 spent fuel containers at a total cost of $3.5 million.
This follows the construction of 48 containers by Izhorskiye
Zavody. Container construction is being funded by the AMEC
program.[1] The main reason behind the decision to change contractors was that
Sevmash agreed to transfer $7,000-$7,500 per container to a special insurance fund at the Ministry of Finance.
If the containers cause an accident, money from the fund will be given
to the region where the accident occurs to help manage the
emergency.[2] Izhorskiye Zavody and Sevmash will participate in another
tender, to be announced in July 2001, to manufacture two more batches of
containers.[1]
3/23/2001: PROBLEM OF KOLA SOLID RADIOACTIVE WASTE
ADDRESSED
On 23 March 2001, Nezavisimoye voyennoye
obozreniye reported that a solid radioactive waste (SRW) treatment plant is being designed for
Murmansk Oblast. The facility
will treat at least 2,000 metric tons(t) of SRW annually. The new facility is expected
to treat all SRW in the
region in six to eight years. In addition, a SRW storage facility with a
10,000t capacity
will be located on the territory of one of the ship repair plants in Polyarnyy.
[CNS believes that it will be Shkval
Shipyard No. 10.] The cost of the project is estimated to be $80 million.
As of March 2001, there was approximately 14,000 m3 of solid radioactive waste
stored on the Kola Peninsula.
12/5/2000: SPENT NAVAL FUEL TRANSPORT FROM RUSSIAN NORTHWEST ANGERS CHELYABINSK
ENVIRONMENTALISTS
On 5 December 2000, Interfax reported that the previous week a special train
loaded with spent nuclear fuel
left Severodvinsk for the Mayak
plant in Chelyabinsk Oblast.[1] Bellona reported that officials and environmental activists in
Chelyabinsk
Oblast strongly oppose this practice because all
storage facilities at Mayak
are filled to capacity and new spent fuel has to be stored in TUK-108
containers in the open. Both the railroad cars and the containers were
provided through the financial assistance of Norway and other foreign
governments.
Chelyabinsk environmentalist Natalya Mironova of the Movement
for Nuclear Safety questioned the safety of the
containers and suggested that the Norwegian government is only concerned with
removal of nuclear waste as far from its borders as possible. Further, she
averred that this
kind of Norwegian help undermines overall nuclear safety in Russia.
Chelyabinsk Oblast Deputy Governor Gennadiy Podtesov says that
local authorities had not been consulted on whether the region
is ready to accept additional nuclear waste.[2]
9/14/2000: CONTRACTOR FOR AUXILIARY CONTAINERS
FOUND
On 14 September 2000, the Gorodets
Shipyard (Nizhniy Novgorod Oblast) announced that it had signed a $5 million contract with
the Ministry of
Atomic Energy for experimental production of containers designed to bury
radioactive instruments and clothes used in the process of handling spent
fuel. The enterprise will initially produce 30 such containers. It will also
manufacture supplementary equipment for Izhorskiye Zavody's
construction of containers for transportation and storage of radioactive waste as part of the Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation
(AMEC)
Program. This second contract is estimated at 250,000 rubles (almost $9,000
as of 14
September 2000).
8/25/2000: IZHORSKIYE ZAVODY BUILDS 12 SPENT NUCLEAR
FUEL CONTAINERS
During the week of 14 August 2000, Russian, US, and Norwegian
officials gathered at Izhorskiye Zavody in St. Petersburg for the presentation of a
nuclear
spent fuel transportation and storage container built as part of the
Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation (AMEC) project. The 40MT
container costs $140,000 and is made of reinforced concrete.
According to Izhorskiye Zavody representatives, it is five times cheaper
to produce than a metal container. The International
Atomic Energy Agency has certified the container. Deputy Minister
of
Atomic Energy Valeriy Lebedev said
that an 80MT container is currently being developed. As of 25 August
2000, Izhorskiye Zavody had already built 12 containers and planned to
construct 36 more by the end of the year. [For more information on the spent
fuel container project, see the 6/20/2000 entry,
below.]
8/8/2000: NEW FEDERAL ENTERPRISE ESTABLISHED TO
HANDLE PACIFIC FLEET DECOMMISSIONING, RADIOACTIVE WASTE, AND SPENT FUEL
ISSUES
For more information, please see the 8/8/2000
entry in the Pacific Fleet
Radioactive Waste Developments file.
7/2000: PROJECT TO ENCASE THREE DAMAGED SUBMARINES
UNDER CONSIDERATION
For more information, please see the 7/2000
entry in the Pacific Fleet
Radioactive Waste Developments file.
6/27/2000: MURMANSK OBLAST MAY HOST SOLID RADIOACTIVE WASTE AND
TEMPORARY SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL STORAGE
Murmansk Oblast Conversion Committee Chairman Aleksandr Ruzankin
has refuted information reported by the Norwegian environmental organization Bellona
on plans to create a federal spent nuclear fuel storage
facility in Murmansk Oblast. According to Ruzankin, Murmansk authorities are
considering the creation of a solid radioactive
waste storage facility on the Kola Peninsula or Novaya
Zemlya. Spent nuclear
fuel may be temporarily housed in special containers on storage pads at
a ship repair facility in Polyarnyy, Nerpa
Shipyard in Snezhnogorsk, at Zapadnaya Litsa, and at Atomflot
in Murmansk.
Ultimately the spent fuel will be sent to Mayak in Chelyabinsk
Oblast. A new specialized train for shipment of the
containers is supposed to speed up the process of removing spent nuclear fuel from the
region. The construction of a new container- loading facility at Atomflot,
which should reduce train loading time from two weeks to two days, is also
planned.
6/20/2000: FOREIGN AID WITHDRAWN
FROM
NUCLEAR SPENT FUEL CONTAINER PROJECT
Smena reported on 20 June 2000 that the United
States, Great Britain, Norway, and other countries financing a project
to construct containers at Izhorskiye Zavody for storage and transportation
of spent nuclear submarine fuel withdrew funding following a cancellation
of Izhorskiye Zavody's production license by the Russian
Federal Inspectorate for Nuclear and Radiation Safety (GAN).[1,2]
GAN officials said that they have not been allowed to inspect the containers.[2]
(For more information on GAN's refusal to issue a license, see the 4/5/2000
entry below.) Valeriy Ageyev, Director of the Security
and Emergency Situations Department of the Russian Ministry
of Atomic Energy (Minatom), responded by saying that GAN has no right
to inspect the container project, because GAN does not have jurisdiction
over military projects. GAN officials argued that since the containers
will be used not only inside military installations, but also in non-military
facilities,
GAN has the right to inspect them.[3] According to Deputy Minister
of Atomic Energy Valeriy Lebedev, the Russian government, fearing the complete
dissolution of the project, gave Minatom and GAN officials a deadline of
11 July 2000 to resolve the situation.[1] However, on 20 June 2000
Government Decree No. 471 was issued, giving Minatom and the Defense Ministry
the sole right to inspect all activities involving the use of radioactive
materials in defense projects. The activities listed in the decree include
the storage of spent radioactive materials and construction of radioactive
materials storage complexes. This may include the container project.[2,4]
6/8/2000: FOUR RAILROAD CARS CONSTRUCTED TO TRANSPORT
SPENT FUEL CONTAINERS
On 8 June 2000, the Tver Railcar Building Plant
completed construction of four railroad cars designed to transport containers
with spent submarine fuel from the Northern Fleet to the Mayak
Chemical Combine.[1,2] The Central Transportation Machine-Building
Design Bureau, a division of Rosaviakosmos, designed the cars.[1] The project
cost $2 million, nearly 60% of which was provided by the Russian government.[2,3]
Norway also donated funds to construct the railroad cars.[1] The equipment
is scheduled to be put into operation in July 2000, increasing the
number of cars transporting spent fuel to Mayak from five to nine.[1,3]
4/5/2000: GAN SAYS SPENT
NUCLEAR FUEL CONTAINERS UNSAFE, REFUSES TO ISSUE LICENSE
The Bellona Foundation reported on 5 April 2000 that
the Russian Federal Inspectorate
for Nuclear and Radiation Safety (GAN) refused to issue a license for
the production of containers at Izhorskiye Zavody
due to numerous design flaws and deficiencies in the containers.[1,2]
GAN Deputy Chairman Aleksandr Dmitriyev expressed doubts that the containers
under serial production were constructed with the same care as the prototype,
which was presented in November 1999 to Russian, US, and Norwegian officials.
He doubted that the new containers could pass safety tests. GAN officials
said that US officials had invited them to attend a meeting of the Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation
(AMEC)
group, which sponsors the container project. However, the Russian Ministry of Atomic
Energy (Minatom) and the Defense
Ministry had not allowed them to attend, on the grounds that GAN is
a civilian regulatory body and has no jurisdiction over military projects.
The absence of the GAN license could lead to the withdrawal of international
funding.[1] [For more information on the spent fuel container project,
see the 11/23/1999 entry, below.]
4/2000: FRENCH AND JAPANESE COMPANIES TO ASSIST
IN WASTE DISPOSAL AT ZVEZDA
For more information, please see the 4/2000
entry in the Bolshoy
Kamen section of the database.
3/16/2000: NEW FEDERAL ENTERPRISE ESTABLISHED
TO HANDLE NORTHERN FLEET DECOMMISSIONING, RADIOACTIVE WASTE, AND SPENT
FUEL ISSUES
For more information, please see the 3/16/2000
entry in the Northern Fleet
Radioactive Waste Developments file.
11/23/99: IZHORSKIYE
ZAVODY PRESENTS PROTOTYPE FOR SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL CONTAINERS
Izhorskiye Zavody has begun construction of TUK MBK-VMF
containers (reinforced concrete transport and storage containers for the navy).
They will be used for storage and transportation of spent nuclear fuel
unloaded from Russian nuclear submarines.[1,2] On 23 November 1999 Izhorskiye
Zavody presented a half-size prototype of the container to government officials
from Russia, the United States, and Norway; the three countries sponsored
the project under the auspices of the Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation
(AMEC) project.[1] The TUK project activities are managed by Nuklid, Minatom's
radioactive waste coordinating center.[3] According
to Russian Armed Forces Director of Environmental Safety Boris Alekseyev,
Russia is financing two-thirds of the project, while the remaining funds
have come from the United States. Norway originally promised $685,000
for the TUK project, but has not yet provided any funds due to bureaucratic
difficulties.[1] The container underwent successful testing on 18 August
1998 at the Mednoye Ozero military base near St. Petersburg.[3] The
container is modeled on the Russian TUK-18 cask.[4] It weighs 40MT
and can hold up to 5MT of spent nuclear fuel for up to 50 years; the estimated
cost of one container is $150,000.[1,3] Deputy Minister of Atomic
Energy Valeriy Lebedev said that Izhorskiye Zavody plans to construct
12 containers in 1999 and 88 in 2000. Lebedev added that the dismantlement
of each nuclear submarine requires between four and 12 containers.[1]
9/8/99: NEWS REPORT ALLEGES
THAT BLACK SEA FLEET BURIED RADIOACTIVE WASTE IN SEVASTOPOL
On 8 September 1999, Crimean Radio broadcast a report
by a Sevastopol human rights group alleging that a secret unit of the Russian
Black Sea Fleet dismantled a large number of nuclear warheads and buried
the resulting radioactive waste in Sevastopol.[1,2] Captain Igor
Dygalo, head of the Russian Navy Press Service, declined to comment on
the report, stating that his office has no information about any nuclear
warheads [sic] buried in Sevastopol.[1] On 12 September 1999, Russian
Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov commented that the allegations
are "sheer nonsense."[2]
7/22/99: US AND RUSSIA
SIGN AGREEMENT ON FINANCING NAVAL SPENT FUEL REPROCESSING
The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry and the US Department
of Defense have signed a supplemental agreement under the Cooperative
Threat Reduction (CTR) program on naval spent fuel reprocessing at
the
Mayak Chemical Combine.[1,2]
According to the agreement, the US Department of Defense will partially
finance the cost of transporting and reprocessing the spent fuel, as well
as vitrifying and disposing of liquid nuclear waste. Highly enriched
uranium obtained from reprocessing will be used as fuel for civilian nuclear
reactors. The assistance is reportedly valued at tens of millions
of dollars.[1]
6/99: US FUNDS LIMITED SPENT NAVAL FUEL REPROCESSING
AT MAYAK
Under the Cooperative Threat Reduction
(CTR) program, the US Department of Defense has decided to provide
funding for reprocessing naval spent fuel at the Mayak
Chemical Combine. The lack of storage facilities for naval spent
fuel led to the decision to begin short-term reprocessing of fuel coming
from the first few submarines under contract for dismantlement as part
of the CTR program. The move confirms a prior
report by the Bellona Foundation and is geared to advance the stalled
dismantlement process, despite the fact that it appears to contradict US
government policy against reprocessing.[1,2] A cask development project
to handle spent fuel from the submarines slated for later dismantlement
is under way.[1]
2/98: INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR SUGGESTS METHODS
FOR REACTOR DISPOSAL
The results of an international seminar held in Moscow
and organized by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the NATO Scientific
Committee included a recommendation to adopt the US method for storing
reactor compartments. In the United States, reactor compartments
are to be stored for 200 years in the desert. Although Russia does
not have any deserts, an appropriate storage area may be found on the coast
in a region that is free of seismic activity. Such a region has already
been identified in the North, but has yet to be discovered in the Far East.[1]
According to a draft report prepared by specialists of the Russian Academy
of Sciences, the Russian government, and the Russian Security Council,
one difficulty that Russia faces with regard to reactor disposal is the
1994 law On Ecology, which prohibits storage of nuclear materials
where they may come into contact with water. A possible solution
to the problem is to store the reactors in concrete trenches for approximately
100 years before their eventual burial, although the Navy lacks the funds
to construct such trenches.[2] More than 100 leading scientists,
workers, and specialists from Russia, Canada, the United States, and Central
Europe participated in the seminar, where they also agreed that Russia
should adopt a single plan for dismantling nuclear submarines. The
seminar participants proposed that the leading experts in the area of submarine
dismantlement work together to come to an agreement on a single approach.[1]
2/98: RADWASTE RESPONSIBILITY TO SHIFT AWAY FROM
NAVY
Michael Motsak, commander of the Zapadnaya
Litsa nuclear submarine base, said that the Navy should not be responsible
for dealing with spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. Motsak
suggested to Murmansk Oblast officials that a state enterprise should be
created to deal with these tasks. Yuriy Yevdokimov, the governor
of Murmansk Oblast, said that the creation of such an enterprise, which
could also coordinate international projects targeted at making nuclear
safety improvements in northwest Russia, is a possibility, but that funding
for the project would have to come from the federal budget. Yevdokimov
stated that oblast authorities should oversee the proposed enterprise.
1/21/98: RUSSIA LOOKS FOR HELP WITH NUCLEAR WASTE
CLEAN UP
More than 100 scrapped nuclear submarines are sitting
in docks in the North and Far East awaiting reactor removal and creating
nuclear waste. Russia does not have the funds to clean up this waste.
According to Vladislav Petrov of the Ministry of Atomic Energy, the Russian
government is aware that the problem exists, but is unable to take the
appropriate steps due to a lack of finances. Russian officials and
the Barents Euro-Arctic Council of Nordic countries have appealed to the
international community to help clean up nuclear waste in the Russian northwest
and improve safety standards at Russian nuclear power reactors. Norway
and other countries near northwestern Russia, home of the Northern Fleet,
have already committed millions of dollars to help Russia, but Russian
officials claim the problem will only continue to worsen unless they are
able to secure more aid. Petrov estimated that Russian nuclear waste
will double by the year 2005. (Please see the section on Foreign
Assistance for more information on foreign assistance for problems
associated with naval nuclear reactors.)
5/6/97: SCIENTISTS PROPOSE
UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS TO BURY SPENT NAVAL FUEL AND RADIOACTIVE
WASTE
According to a report in Izvestiya on 6 May
1997, Minister of Atomic Energy Viktor Mikhailov, Minister of Defense General
Pavel Grachev, and Chief Military Inspector General Konstantin Kobets wrote
in a 4 July 1994 confidential letter to Russian President Boris Yeltsin
that the accumulation of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear-powered submarines
and naval surface vessels poses the main radioactive waste handling threat
to Russia. As a solution, the Central
Physical-Technical Institute of the Ministry of Defense and the All-Russian
Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (VNIIEF) in Sarov
(Arzamas-16) proposed using an underground nuclear explosion technique
to vitrify and bury the radioactive waste in tunnels at the Central
Atomic Test Site at Novaya Zemlya. Before they set off the explosion,
specialists must prepare the existing tunnels at Novaya Zemlya and then
place the waste (spent fuel rods, naval reactors, waste from other nuclear
enterprises, and solid radioactive waste) in the tunnels among various
materials capable of reducing radiation and improving the quality of the
vitreous state. Scientists estimated that one nuclear explosion equivalent
to 100kg of TNT at a depth of 600m would vitrify 100 metric tons of spent
fuel, and just three explosions would alleviate the Northern Fleet's waste
problems. The estimated cost of this proposal runs $36 million over
two years. In contrast, traditional methods for storing waste would cost
at least $500 million.
On 24 October 1994, President Yeltsin formed a task
force consisting of then-Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, Minister of
Foreign Affairs Andrey Kozyrev, and Minister of Environmental Protection
and Natural Resources Viktor Danilov-Danilyan to study and prepare a proposal
for implementing the project. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs opposed
the project itself and the idea of publicizing it, stating that it would
undermine Russia's commitment to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
However, the Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom) categorized the explosions
as "clean" and non-weapons-related. The President drafted the decree,
On
Liquidating High-Level Naval Nuclear Waste Utilizing Nuclear Explosive
Technology, and the Central Physical-Technical Institute prepared a
proposal for its implementation, estimating the cost at $150 to $350 million.
This estimate included the costs of an international expert analysis, shipment
of the waste to Novaya Zemlya, and social programs. The waste burial
project designers hoped to earn up to $5 billion by burying other countries'
waste, too.
2/96: NAVY IS NOT RECEIVING NECESSARY OPERATING FUNDS
In 1995, the Russian Navy received less than 35 percent of the funds needed
for its operations, and it is now estimated that it will receive even fewer
funds in 1996. If current funding levels remain constant, the transfer
of naval reactor fuel to recycling facilities will take 150 years.
9/18/95: RUSSIA'S SOLID WASTE STORAGE FACILITIES NEAR CAPACITY
According to Admiral Oleg Yerofeyev, commander of the Northern fleet, Russia's
solid nuclear waste storage facilities are at 95% capacity. According to
an internal report by Gosatomnadzor, there are currently 30,000 fuel cells
(535 tons total) in sub-standard storage in the Northern and Pacific fleets.
2/93: COMMISSION GIVES FINDINGS TO PRESIDENT YELTSIN
The Governmental Commission on Issues Connected with the Dumping of Radioactive
Waste in the Sea, created by a Presidential Decree, presented its findings
to President Yeltsin. The 108-page report "Facts and Problems Related to
the Dumping of Radioactive Waste in the Seas Surrounding the Territory
of the Russian Federation," provides a detailed description of the sites,
the volume, and the total radioactivity of the nuclear materials disposed
of by the Soviet Navy in the Arctic and the Pacific Oceans.
1/93: FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES HAMPER PLANS FOR WASTE FACILITY
Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement to build a floating reprocessing
facility in Herson for liquid and solid radioactive wastes from nuclear
submarines. However, construction of the facility has been suspended due
to financial difficulties.
1992: GOSATOMNADZOR ENDS NAVAL WASTE DUMPING INTO SEAS
Until 1992, naval radioactive waste was discharged into specially designated
areas of the Baltic, Barents, White, and Kara seas and the Sea of Japan.
In the arctic seas, 13 such areas had been designated. This practice was
officially ended when Gosatomnadzor was given the right to inspect military
nuclear installations.
Page last updated 15 July 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.
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