Since 1995 Norway has spent some 150 million Euro on nuclear safety cooperation with Russia, mainly in the north. Today many other countries are also involved in this cooperation with a main focus on cleaning up the legacy from the Cold War.
The Norwegian action plan for nuclear safety in Russia has obtained a wide political support among the different parties in the parliament. Easy to understand since much of Russia’s Cold War legacy is located near the Norwegian border areas in the north. Also, potential leakages of radioactivity to the Barents Sea could have negative influence on the markets for Norwegian fishing industry. Radioactive bacalao doesn’t sell that good as the famous clean arctic cod.
Andreeva Bay - a priority for Norway
The new action plan highlights the urgent need for more active involvement in measures to secure the horrible amount of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel stored in Andreeva bay, some 50 kilometres from the Norwegian border on the Barents Sea cost.
- No place in the world are so huge amounts of spent nuclear fuel stored in such bad conditions as in the Andreeva bay, said on of Russia’s main experts on naval nuclear safety, environmentalist Aleksandr Nikitin when he visited the Norwegian border town of Kirkenes earlier this month. Nikitin works for the Bellona Foundation, but has a background as submarine officer and nuclear safety inspector in the Russian Ministry of Defence.
More than 21,000 spent nuclear fuel elements are stored in some old half-broken concrete tanks in the Andreeva bay. The uranium fuel comes from old submarines and is equal to 90 reactor cores. Much of the fuel rods cladding are broken, so the removal will be a difficult and risky operation.
Small steps - long time plan
One of Norway’s main experts on the situation in Andreeva Bay is Per-Einar Fiskebeck, Chief Engineer at the Office of the County Governor in Finnmark. For more than 10 years he has been involved in the Norwegian nuclear safety projects on the Kola Peninsula, including Andreeva Bay. He says the situation in Andreeva bay is better today than some few years ago. - Today there is at least a roof over the most critical concrete tank, he says.
In the revised governmental action plan for nuclear safety the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs writes that the works to be done in Andreeva bay must be seen as a part of a long term involvement from the Norwegian side. The goal is to remove the spent fuel from the Andreeva bay in a safe way. This also includes safe transport to another handling or storage site in Russia.
The Barents Secretariat
The Norwegian Barents Secretariat participated in the writing of the new action plan for nuclear safety together with several other ministries and governmental agencies.
In the action plan, the government writes that it now sees the end of two main areas of priorities for the Norwegian involvement. Decommissioning of retired nuclear powered submarines comes to an end. The same goes for the replacement of radioactive strontium batteries (RTGs) from lighthouses along the coastline of the Russian part of the Barents Region.
Five submarines financed by Norway
Norway has financed the decommissioning of four multi-purpose submarines and the fifth is now on its way, co-financed with United Kingdom. Also, most of the radioactive strontium batteries in the lighthouses in the north are now replaced with solar panels financed with Norwegian grants.
Evdokimov to Kirkenes
On Wednesday next week Murmansk governor Yury Evdokimov will go to Kirkenes (Norway) to discuss further nuclear safety cooperation tasks with Norway. All of the projects Evdokimov will sign agreements on in Kirkenes for 2008 is financed through the revised Norwegian action plan for nuclear safety with budget money from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
When Evdokimov signs the nuclear safety projects agreements with Norway for 2008 in Kirkenes he will actually be sitting closer to the spent nuclear fuel storage in Andreeva bay than his own office back in Murmansk. The distance from Kirkenes to Andreeva bay is shorter that from Murmansk to Andreeva bay.
It’s understandable why Norwegians are interested in a continued cooperation to solve the nuclear waste challenges.
