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Outside View: Nuke sub disposal -- Part 1
By TATYANA SINITSYNA
UPI Outside View Commentator
Published: July 15, 2008 at 11:09 AM
Ten years ago Russia started to dismantle nuclear-powered submarines withdrawn from combat duty. This hard and dangerous work is still going on, but the end is in sight. For Russia, maintaining a huge navy turned out to be wasteful and pointless, and so the decision was taken to reduce the number of combat units in the Far Eastern and northwestern parts of Russia. Today some 200 Russian nuclear submarines and three nuclear-powered surface ships already pose no threat to any opponent. Yevgeny Kudryavtsev, director of the fuel cycle, waste and decommissioning department at Rosatom -- Russian Nuclear Power Agency -- says the task of dismantling the surface ships and submarines withdrawn from service is almost accomplished. By 2010 almost all the decommissioned vessels will be dismantled. "Dismantlement" here does not imply complete dismantlement. The submarines have not disappeared. Like dead fish, most parts of the once formidable vessels remain ashore or at anchor. Experts say the total activity of the nuclear waste still aboard the vessels and at naval bases exceeds 25 million curies. The total weight of contaminated structures subject to dismantlement exceeds 150,000 tons. The reason is the Russian nuclear industry was simply unprepared to "digest" nuclear waste in such large quantities. An average of 14 to 16 submarines were withdrawn from service every year, with only three or four of them being dismantled. This soon resulted in the volume of nuclear fuel, unloaded from the submarines and piled up at four coastal engineering facilities, expanding beyond the storage capacity. The infrastructure did not meet security standards, and the risk of accident remained high, with dozens of tons of nuclear fuel and tens of thousands of cubic meters of liquid and solid nuclear waste stored at the facilities. The potential radioactivity of the materials stored there exceeded the fallout from the Chernobyl civilian nuclear reactor meltdown disaster in Ukraine in 1986. Before 1998 the Russian Defense Ministry was responsible for dismantling naval vessels. Later, nuclear engineers were involved, developing special security measures that eventually changed the situation. "Dry" temporary storage was introduced, metal-and-concrete containers were developed, storage areas expanded, and additional trains and special wagons put into operation. Russia alone was not capable of carrying out the whole dismantlement program, and the international community willingly offered money to neutralize the armada of decommissioned Russian submarines. According to the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction program -- which the Group of Eight major industrialized nations founded at their 2002 summit in Kananaskis, Canada -- $20 billion was earmarked for dismantlement of nuclear-powered vessels in 2002-2012. -- (Part 2: The scale of the challenge) -- (Tatyana Sinitsyna is a commentator for RIA Novosti. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.) -- (United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)
Outside View: Nuke sub disposal -- Part 1
By TATYANA SINITSYNA
UPI Outside View Commentator
Published: July 15, 2008 at 11:09 AM
Ten years ago Russia started to dismantle nuclear-powered submarines withdrawn from combat duty. This hard and dangerous work is still going on, but the end is in sight. For Russia, maintaining a huge navy turned out to be wasteful and pointless, and so the decision was taken to reduce the number of combat units in the Far Eastern and northwestern parts of Russia. Today some 200 Russian nuclear submarines and three nuclear-powered surface ships already pose no threat to any opponent. Yevgeny Kudryavtsev, director of the fuel cycle, waste and decommissioning department at Rosatom -- Russian Nuclear Power Agency -- says the task of dismantling the surface ships and submarines withdrawn from service is almost accomplished. By 2010 almost all the decommissioned vessels will be dismantled. "Dismantlement" here does not imply complete dismantlement. The submarines have not disappeared. Like dead fish, most parts of the once formidable vessels remain ashore or at anchor. Experts say the total activity of the nuclear waste still aboard the vessels and at naval bases exceeds 25 million curies. The total weight of contaminated structures subject to dismantlement exceeds 150,000 tons. The reason is the Russian nuclear industry was simply unprepared to "digest" nuclear waste in such large quantities. An average of 14 to 16 submarines were withdrawn from service every year, with only three or four of them being dismantled. This soon resulted in the volume of nuclear fuel, unloaded from the submarines and piled up at four coastal engineering facilities, expanding beyond the storage capacity. The infrastructure did not meet security standards, and the risk of accident remained high, with dozens of tons of nuclear fuel and tens of thousands of cubic meters of liquid and solid nuclear waste stored at the facilities. The potential radioactivity of the materials stored there exceeded the fallout from the Chernobyl civilian nuclear reactor meltdown disaster in Ukraine in 1986. Before 1998 the Russian Defense Ministry was responsible for dismantling naval vessels. Later, nuclear engineers were involved, developing special security measures that eventually changed the situation. "Dry" temporary storage was introduced, metal-and-concrete containers were developed, storage areas expanded, and additional trains and special wagons put into operation. Russia alone was not capable of carrying out the whole dismantlement program, and the international community willingly offered money to neutralize the armada of decommissioned Russian submarines. According to the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction program -- which the Group of Eight major industrialized nations founded at their 2002 summit in Kananaskis, Canada -- $20 billion was earmarked for dismantlement of nuclear-powered vessels in 2002-2012. -- (Part 2: The scale of the challenge) -- (Tatyana Sinitsyna is a commentator for RIA Novosti. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.) -- (United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)