The event united experts from Russia, England, Denmark, Italy, Norway, Finland, France, Sweden, the USA and Japan to discuss the nuclear legacy liquidation on the territory of the Russian Federation. The “Group of Eight” has been working on the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction program for as many as 10 years, applying joint efforts to eliminate the nuclear legacy of the late Soviet Union.
It is obvious that a big work has been done in the Murmansk region of Russia. Welcoming the experts, Marina Kovtun, the Governor, said: “International partnership in the sphere of liquidation of the nuclear legacy on the Russian North proved efficient. The implementation of unique international projects in nuclear and radiation sphere using scientific and technical innovations of different countries improved the environment of the region”.
Visible results
Anatoly Grigoriev, head of the International Program Coordination and Implementation Unit within Rosatom’s Nuclear and Radiation Safety Directorate, summed up the result of the Group’s last year work and noted he most important issues. “The dismantlement of the “Krasnodar” submarine – the last nuclear submarine in Russia’s Northwest that had been taken out of service by the Northern Fleet, was started. Half of reactor rooms , previously stored in water, were placed for onshore safe storage. Last year the operation of taking out the spent fuel from reactors of nuclear submarines laid up in Gremikha (a restricted-access territory on the eastern shore of the Kola Peninsula, 350 kilometers off the entrance to Kola Bay) was conducted”, – he said.
Project 949 A “Antey” K-148 “Krasnodar” submarine (Oscar-2 according to NATO reporting names) will be disposed at the Nerpa plant in Snezhnogorsk, Murmansk region. The accordance was reached by three parties – Russia, Italy and the USA – in 2012, all documents signed. Russia is financing all preparation and finishing works, the USA is going to give money for shipping of removed RW to “Mayak”. The main cost – EUR 5,25 million will be paid by the Italian side. The money will be spent for SNF removing from the reactor and forming one-section reactor unit at the Nerpa plant. Further the unit will be stored at the shore of the Sayda Bay site.
Dismantlement evaluation
However the dismantlement of Russian nuclear ships is not finished. There are about RUB 10 billion needed for disposal of 5 Russian nuclear icebreakers, said Anatoly Zakharchev, who heads the project office for comprehensive dismantlement of nuclear submarines within the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Directorate of Rosatom. The utilization of one icebreaker costs RUB 2 billion, he explains.
The dismantlement of the “Sibir” and “Arctica” icebreakers is included into Federal Target Program, established by the RF. The dismantlement of “Lotta” and “Lepse” nuclear maintenance bases is also included in the program along with other works. According to Zakharchev, the question of financing is still being studied. Rosatom though is not sure that “FTP financing will cover all tasks”.
There is another way: today there is an opportunity to dismantle nuclear maintenance bases and nuclear icebreakers on the basis of North-West Center for Radiactove Waste Disposal (SevRAO). According to its Director, Vazgen Abartsumian, the enterprise is looking forward to obtain a regulatory agency license as early as this November. The pilot project of SevRao will be the dismantlement of the Volodarsky floating maintenance base.
France decided to help Russia and allotted EUR 1 million for a new crane for Atomflot. The equipment with the cargo capacity of 100 tons will be put into operation in November. According to Anatoly Zakharchev, Russian-French partnership is planned to be finished on November, 15, by putting into operation the portal crane. “This will be the result of the two countries’ cooperation on the Atomflot site, the symbolic termination of it. French side allotted about EUR 1 million. All porterage at the North-West is going though Atomflot, while the old crane is already worn out, the new one is needed to work further with nuclear fuel safely, – he said.
Security technologies
The technical tour to Long-term Reactor Compartments Storage Facility in Sayda Bay was organized for the expert group as a part of their visit, so that they could see how the complex had grown. Since 2004 a wide-scale Russian-German project has been implemented here, its third phase construction (a center for RW conditioning and storage) to be finished in about a year.
Vazgen Ambartzumian emphasized that “today Sayda-Bay is a unique enterprise, may be the only one in the world, where the whole cycle of RWD is provided. And, what is important, this cycle is safe”.
In the center for SRW conditioning that is now under construction they will estimate the waste contamination level, purify it and send to special storage blocks with walls more than 500 cm thick.
Nikolay Knivel, Deputy Chief for Construction of long-term storage of reactor units at Sayda bay, told, that: “The newest technologies of spray, mechanical purification, chemical decontamination, compacting, packing into safe containers for further long-time storage will be applied. The big part of metal will be returned to the country’s economy”.
Today at the open site of the Sayda Bay there are 56 reactor units of nuclear submarines, with their total weight reaching 1600 tons. The specialists say this zone is suitable for human habitation. All rainfall or snow-melt waters from here get into special section, go throw multi-step purification and radiochemical lab control and only after that go to the sea. Shingo Mitsuiva, a member of the expert group from Japan, says: “There is the same project being implemented at the Far East and we finance the painting shop. Now it’s still under construction. All elements of radiation safety are being taken into consideration there. Here I suppose it’s the same”.
In future the center is to receive waste from Gremikha. Andreev Bay, Atomflot and Kola NPP. The German side is investing EUR 600 million in total into the construction.
As said Marina Kovtun, the Governor of the Murmansk region, “the project is being realized impressively fast. It is important that we don’t pass this problem on to future generations, we solve it now and here, with maximum efficiency and speed, just as fast as it is possible with such a dangerous thing as radioactive waste. This the most important psychological problem for the Kola Peninsula today. The decision we’ve found makes us confident in our future”.
