Gremikha has along with the Andreeva Bay been the main site for storage of spent nuclear fuel from Northern Fleet submarines. Now, however, the base is about to get rid of most of its lethal waste. By June next year, the last part of the spent nuclear fuel stored for decades at the site will be removed, RIA Novosti reports.
A significant part of the clean-up operations at the base is made with French financing and in cooperation with the French Nuclear Energy Commissariat. A total of 29.6 million EUR has been allocated by France to the project which is developed within the frames of the Global Partnership initiative.
The project has brought results. As much as 75 percent of the spent nuclear fuel stored at the site has now been removed. The remaining part is planned removed by June next year.
As part of the Gremikha clean-up, a shipment with the reactor from an Alfa-class sub is planned towed from Gremikha to the reactor storage site in Saida Bay next year. The sub is now awaiting handling at the base, RIA Novosti reports.
Transport of nuclear objects in the area is not without risk. In August 2003, the retired sub K-159 sunk during a towing operation from Gremikha. The vessel is today still on the sea bed.
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Gremikha is the easternmost of the naval bases on the Kola Peninsula. It is the only of the Northern Fleet bases, which has no longer any submarines in active operation. The base has three storage spaces for a significant number of fuel cells from subs
The town Ostrovnoy is located next to the base and in the Soviet period has a population of up to 30 thousand. Today, the official number of people living in the town is 4600, the website of the Murmansk regional administration informs. The municipality has no road connection to the rest of the peninsula and is fully dependent on shipments by sea and helicopters.
