International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation

Intermediate storage for radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel at the Kola Peninsula

Nils Bøhmer

Paper presented at the "No NATO" Conference of Alba Kör, Budapest, Hungary, Nov. 1997

The problems of nuclear waste and disused nuclear submarines are a product of the arms race and the cold war between the Soviet Union and the US. Russia still continues to build new nuclear submarines, but there are very few provisions being made to properly store old nuclear submarines and develop sufficient storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste.

Approximately 20.000 m^3 solid radioactive waste is stored at 11 different places along the coast of the Kola Peninsula and in Severodvinsk. Liquid radioactive waste is stored at almost all of the naval bases, either in land-based tanks, or on board service ships or floating tankers. Most of these facilities are full, and a number of them are in a very poor condition. A project developed by Russia, the US and Norway is underway to extend the capacity of the treatment plant for liquid waste.

The Northern Fleet has 5 special tankers for the storage and transport of liquid radioactive waste. None of these ships are in a satisfactory condition, and 4 of them are over 25 years old. The Northern Fleet also has two larger ships for transporting spent nuclear fuel as well as 4 smaller barges for this purpose.

Onboard the civilian ship Lepse, there are stored 634 fuel elements, most of them are damaged. A project initiated by Bellona back in 1994 is now in good progress, and it will utilize robotics and remote controlled operations to remove the fuel.

The Northern Fleet's largest temporary storage facility for spent nuclear fuel is situated at Zapadnaya Litsa in Andreeva Bay, about 40 km from the Norwegian border. In the 1980s, there were large leaks of radioactivity from an old storage pool. Approximately 21 000 spent nuclear fuel assemblies are stored here, corresponding to 90 nuclear naval reactors. The fuel assemblies are stored in three concrete tanks (in a very poor condition). Fuel assemblies are also stored in rusty containers outside without any form of protection from runoff.

There is also a similar, but smaller storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in Gremikha, where the reactor cores from submarines with liquid metal cooled fuel and damaged fuel are stored. In addition there are 7 service ships in a poor condition which are used for storing spent nuclear fuel. The total number of spent naval fuel assemblies stored in the Kola-region is about 26.000.

At this time, there are over 130 Russian nuclear submarines which have been taken out of service, of which close to 90 vessels belong to the Northern Fleet. These submarines have been laid up at Severodvinsk and nine other locations on the Kola Peninsula. The greatest risk to safety is presented by the over 70 submarines which have not yet been defuelled.

The submarines have not been defulled because the transport by rail road to the reprocessing facility RT-1 in Mayak have been dramatically reduced in the later years due to economical and technical reasons.

The Mayak Chemical Combinate has during its operating time experienced several accidents and releases of radioactivity to the environment. The most famous accident was in 1957 when a storage tank for liquid radioactive waste exploded, and a large amount of radioactivity was released. During the operation of the plant there have been large regularly releases of radioactivity. Today about 26 PBq (700.000 Ci) of long lived isotopes are released to the lake Karachai each year as a result of the reprocessing. This lake already contains 4.400 PBq (120 million Ci) of long-lived isotopes. The sediments from the lake are contaminated with radioactivity and are polluting the ground water at a rate of 80 meters per year.

Since the 21. of March the operation of Mayak reprocessing plant has been suspended by the Russian State Nuclear Inspection (GAN). The reason for this is that the vitrification facilities which have passed their design life-time, are taken out of operation. It's uncertain when the reprocessing plant will start to operate again. The spent fuel transported to Mayak is for the time being temporary stored in wet storage, in a bad condition.

Besides the environmental problems with reprocessing in Mayak, there are also problems with transport of the spent fuel. For the time being there is only one set of train with TUK-18 containers, capable of transporting spent nuclear fuel to the facilities in Mayak. An estimate shows that it will take 10 to 15 years to transport the spent nuclear fuel from the close to 170 reactors which already are in storage and in obsolete submarines. In addition there will be spent fuel from submarines that will be taken out of operation in the future. The latest transport from Severodvinsk was delayed 1 month because of problems with repair of the TUK-18 containers in Mayak.

The spent nuclear fuel must also be transported with service ships from the storage places to the railway in Murmansk and Severodvinsk. There are several risk factors connected with the transport and loading operations of the spent nuclear fuel.

In addition there is some fuel which the Mayak Chemical Combine cannot accept for reprocessing. This includes fuel from liquid cooled reactors, defective and damaged fuel assemblies. Russian experts claim that about 10 % of the fuel at the Northern Fleet and shipyards cannot be reprocessed. American experts believe that up to 50 % of the fuel assemblies are damaged or defective according to US definitions. This will at least make them more difficult to handle, maybe impossible to reprocess. In addition there exist 13 reactor cores with nuclear fuel with cladding of zirconium, which cannot be reprocessed in Mayak.

Besides these problems, the Northern Fleet has to pay for delivering the spent fuel to Mayak. Starting from January 1, 1991, Mayak Chemical Combine has required full coverage of it's expenses. The price for handling one train set with fuel was in last year 1,5 million USD. The Russian Navy lacks for the time being funds to pay for the reprocessing at Mayak, and at present, this is the most important reason for the fall of the rate at which spent nuclear fuel is transported to Mayak.

In light of the mentioned problems the best solution would be to construct a new regional interim storage facilities at Kola for the spent nuclear fuel, rather than transporting it to Mayak. This storage must have the capacity to handle the fuel in existing storages and fuel still on board retired nuclear submarines. It must also provide a facility for handling of damaged fuel. A interim storage for radioactive waste should also be constructed. The life-time for the storages should be 50 year. Later on it will be possible to decide the further future of the fuel.

In addition to the interim storage there is also a need for storage and transport containers for handling of the spent nuclear fuel. These containers must be able to transport the damaged fuel which is on different locations to the interim storage for spent nuclear fuel, which must be built in the nearest future. A prototype of such a container is currently under testing in the US, under the AMEC-program.

These two interim storage facilities should be build at a location the have experience with handling of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. The location should also be close to exiting storages. Other criteria would be that its placed not to close to large population areas and that it should be open for civilian inspection. One such location is the Nerpa shipyard at the Murmansk fjord.

Nils Bøhmer, The Bellona Foundation, P.O. Box 2141 Grnerxkka, N-0505 Oslo, Norway. email: nb@sn.no