The Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Material of Mass Destruction is a $20 billion initiative by the G8 countries. Russia and several former Soviet republics, including Ukraine, have received the major part of the funding proven to pave the way for safer nuclear installations.
At Russia’s Kola Peninsula and in Severodvinsk outside Arkhangelsk, some 130 nuclear powered submarines are safely decommissioned. Their highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel are for the most reloaded to new containers avoiding leakages to the marine Barents ecosystems. A huge storage facility for submarine reactor compartments is built in Saida Bay. Soon, a re-packing and storage hall for radioactive waste at the same location will open. In Andreeva Bay, not far from the border to Norway, another huge hall for safer storage of solid radioactive waste is built. The work on securing the run-down tanks with 21,000 spent fuel elements is started aimed at one day facilitate for safe repacking to transport containers. All containers will then be shipped away onboard “Rosita” – a special designed vessel also financed under the G8 Dutch treat.
“The G8 Global Parthnership has had a vital and positive impact on nuclear security and environmental situation in Northwest-Russia,” says nuclear physicist Nils Bøhmer with the Bellona Foundation.
The Bellona group was the first to highlight the needs for international cooperation when presenting a dedicated report on the Russian Northern Fleet to the G7+1 nuclear summit in Moscow in 1996. Last week, Bellona and Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear nuclear corporation, arranged a seminar in Murmansk presenting the results of 20-years safety cooperation on the Kola Peninsula.
What now will happens with the package of international nuclear safety aid is highly uncertain after the G7 leaders decided to exclude Moscow from the club due to Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“There are still several remaining challenges and we must work hard to continue this projects, also when Russia no longer is a member of the G8,” says Nils Bøhmer.
Nuclear waste ship “Lepse” is one of the dangerous objects on the Kola Peninsula that still are waiting safe decommissioning. The vessel is currently floating at the naval yard Nerpa north of Murmansk. Hundreds of damaged, partly broken, spent nuclear fuel rods from the “Lenin” icebreaker are stored inside a compartment of the ship. The dry-dock where “Lepse” is waiting to enter at the Nerpa yard is currently holding the two nuclear submarines “Krasnodar” and “Leninski Komsomol.” Last Monday, rubber on hull of “Krasnodar” caught fire and reminded the population in the north about the importance of nuclear safety.
Read more BarentsObserver articles on nuclear safety.
