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Norway cashes out for securing old nuclear hulk

The 1974-built "Serebryanka" moored at Atomflot in Murmansk.

…while a €70 million brand-new, purpose built vessel aimed at the same transport job, is berthing at the same quay in Murmansk, without being used.

Location

The 40 years old “Serebryanka” is a re-built tanker transporting spent nuclear fuel from Russia’s scrapped nuclear powered submarines along the coast of the Kola Peninsula to Rosatomflot’s service base in Murmansk.

In Norway, the vessel got famous in the early 90ties for her dumping of liquid radioactive waste in the Barents Sea. 

Norway’s latest nuclear safety sponsor-project is physical protection of “Serebryanka”, at a cost of NOK 3 million (€612,000). The Norwegian share counts for half of the total costs, the agency informs.

“This initiative to improve the physical protection of “Serebryanka” will help reduce the risk of fissile and radioactive material falling into the wrong hands,” says Ingar Amundsen to BarentsObserver. He is Head of section for international nuclear safety with the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authorities.

The paradox is that while Norway pays for upgrading the old “Serebryanka”, another vessel, specially designed for the very same job of transporting spent nuclear fuel, lays at Rosatomflot’s facility in Murmansk without being used.

“Rossita” moored next to a nuclear powered icebreaker.

The “Rossita” was transferred to Murmansk in August 2011, after being built in, and paid by, Italy as a part of their contribution to the G8 Global Partnership against the spread of weapons of mass destruction and associated materials. “Rossita” had a price tag of €70 million.

When “Rossita” arrived at Atomflot in August 2011, General Director of Rosatomflot, Vyacheslav Ruksha, told reporters that the new vessel would start to remove spent nuclear fuel in the first quarter 2012, BarentsObserver then wrote. Today, two year later, not a single transport has been carried out.  

Vyacheslav Ruksha says to BarentsObserver today that Rosatomflot “….is going to go on using “Serebryanka” in Gremikha.” 

Vyacheslav Ruksha is Director of Rosatomflot.

Gremikha is a closed down naval base on the east coast of the Kola Peninsula where spent nuclear fuel containers and some liquid-metal cooled reactors cores from old Alfa-class submarines are stored. When “Rossita” was commissioned three years ago, the plan was to use the vessel for transporting spent nuclear fuel from Gremikha, Andreeva Bay, Saida Bay, Severodvinsk and other locations involved in submarine dismantlement.

It is not clear why “Rossita” is just berthing at the quay without sailing.

Norway’s cash to upgrade “Serebryanka” is, however, not a long time investment. “I am sure we need to decommission the ship together with Lotta, Imandra, Taymyr, Vaygach. I expect it to happen in 2020s,” says Vyacheslav Ruksha to BarentsObserver. 

Ingar Amundsen says the upgrade of security for “Serebryanka” is part of the objective in the Norwegian Government’s action plan for nuclear safety.

“The project is a collaboration between Sweden and Norway and a result of the close dialogue with our Nordic neighbors on nuclear problems in the north. The Russian side highlights that both “Serebryanka” and the new vessel “Rossita” are included in the plans for future transport of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel in Northwest-Russia,” Amundsen says.