Nuclear watch in the Far North.

Nuclear watch in the Far North

Ethirajan Anbarasan in Stockholm and Rovaniemi

A Russian nuclear-powered submarine moored at Severomorsk.

About 5,000 tons of solid nuclear waste are generated annually by the Northern Fleet's nuclear vessels and at shipyards in the region

Map of Arctic
The fate of the unparalleled concentration of nuclear material on Russia's Kola peninsula is alarming neighbouring Scandinavian countries

The strike only lasted an hour, but it was enough to set alarm bells ringing in Moscow. Organized by Russia's nuclear defence workers in September this year, it caused such concern in Moscow that despite the severe financial crisis the government allotted about $16 million for the defence employees who had not been paid for months. Even the latest deal gave the workers only half of the wages owed to them by the government. "People are really hungry. How can you ask them to look after our security?" said Yury Bersenyev, a scientist from the closed nuclear city Snezhinsk, in an interview to a local daily.

Corroding equipment and dissatisfied servicemen
The Russian Union of Nuclear Industry Workers says that hungry nuclear workers and lack of funding could lead to serious trouble in the Russian nuclear sector, including defence establishments. In addition to corroding submarines, dissatisfied military personnel now add more complications for the Russian authorities. In September this year a disgruntled armed conscript killed eight of his fellow servicemen and threatened to blow up the Akula-class submarine at the Skalisty naval base in the Kola peninsula. Finally he killed himself in the torpedo compartment. Though Russian officials assured that the sailor could not have damaged the torpedoes, any explosion in the compartment was strong enough to damage the submarine's single nuclear reactor. This incident alarmed Norwegian officials, as it happened just 120 km from the border in the country's north. The unstable situation in the Russian nuclear sector has aggravated the worries of the neighbouring Scandinavian nations who will be the first to be affected in case of a nuclear disaster in Russia's north-west.
The gravest environmental hazard in the Arctic Circle stems from nuclear activity on the Russian side, especially in and around the northern Kola peninsula. Nowhere else on earth is there such a concentration of civilian and naval nuclear reactors. According to the Yablokov report⁽¹⁾, an official Russian document, there were a total of 270 nuclear reactors in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk counties in 1990. Nuclear activity in and around the Kola peninsula includes power plants, nuclear submarines, huge piles of nuclear waste and the effects of nuclear tests conducted by the former Soviet Union.
Russia's immediate neighbour Finland is the only European Union country to share a 1,200-kilometre border with Russia and faces constant environmental threats from the former superpower. Finland's Arctic Circle would be the first and worst hit region in the event of a Russian environmental disaster. With memories of Chernobyl still haunting them, the Finns are constantly monitoring air, water, soil, plants and meat to make sure nothing is amiss on the Russian side.
Despite the presence of so many old-fashioned nuclear reactors and unprotected piles of nuclear waste so close to the border, Kristina Rissanen, head of the Regional Laboratory of the Finnish Centre for Radiation and Nuclear Safety (CRNS), in Rovaniemi, tries to keep a sense of perspective. "The radiation levels across the border at present are not alarming. Moreover the Russians in recent years have started showing a more open approach, and that itself is a positive factor."
Rissanen's laboratory, eighteen metres underground, is designed to withstand a nuclear holocaust. The enthusiastic team of chemists in CRNS analyse hundreds of samples every day, from reindeer meat to industrial products. Kristina makes frequent trips to northwestern Russia on joint expeditions to find out the fate of submerged nuclear reactors and the operational reactors.
The Yablokov report noted that only 15 per cent of the dry-docked submarines had been properly decommissioned by the removal of reactor fuels and the reactor section. A state of the Arctic Environment Report ⁽²⁾ says that along with nuclear waste, the Soviet Union dumped six nuclear submarine reactors and a shielding assembly from an icebreaker reactor, containing spent fuel, between the years 1959 and 1991.

Expeditions in the Barents Sea
Rissanen, whose team often searches the Barents Sea for the nuclear reactors from sunken Russian nuclear submarines, takes a different view. "There is no doubt many of the submerged reactors could pose a serious threat to the environment of the Arctic region in the future. I am more worried about the Kola nuclear power plant than those reactors lying under the sea. The nuclear reactors in Kola are very old and similar to Chernobyl-type reactors."
The Northern Fleet and naval shipyards include nuclear-powered submarines and battle cruisers based at nine ports along the northern coast of the Kola peninsula and at two bases on the Archangelsk region's coast. There are about ninety vessels in operation and more than seventy out of operation and laid up, containing about 170 reactors in operation and 130 out of operation. About 5,000 tons of solid waste are generated annually at the Northern Fleet's nuclear vessels and at shipyards in the two regions.
Rissanen cautions that new storage facilities have to be built in the Russian Federation to ensure the safety of the nuclear waste. "During one of the expeditions we found excessive radioactive caesium in the sediments of Dvina River estuary, which is most probably transported from the large catchment area of the river. Radioactive materials were also found near Atomflot in Murmansk. However, these are not above the normal levels. It may be originating from nuclear storage sites other than those known. In certain areas in the Barents sea, where old reactors have been dropped, the radiation level is higher. But Russian officials do not allow us to go near the precise spot. As long as these are not at threatening levels it can be managed."
Western nuclear experts who have visited Russia say that the formal requirements, regulations and control in the Russian Federation today still do not meet modern standards. To complicate matters, the enterprises are subordinate to many different authorities, federal and local, which make the regulatory system complex. The amount of waste and spent fuel greatly exceeds the capacity of storage and reprocessing. Most importantly, there is no money to fully maintain, restore or replace equipment and facilities for radioactive waste and spent fuel conditioning, handling, transport and storage. According to former Russian Deputy Atomic Energy Minister Nikolay Yegorov the cleanup projects in the Northern Fleet would require some $1.5 billion. "Matters worsen every year... and could turn into a catastrophe," RIA Novosty news agency quoted Yegorov as saying in July this year.
Shannon Kile, a research assistant at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) voices concern over the fate of the nuclear missiles and fuel in the decommissioned submarines and dismantled missiles. He says "as per the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-I) the Russian Federation dismantled hundreds of nuclear delivery vehicles. Both in START-I and the ongoing START-II (to be ratified by Russian parliament) the status of the nuclear warheads fixed in those missiles is unspecified and future arms reduction agreements should take care of the warheads also."
Novaya Zemlya (New Earth) was the main Soviet nuclear test site between 1955 and 1990. In total, 132 nuclear explosions were conducted, 87 of which were atmospheric (above ground), three were underwater and 42 underground. More than 90 per cent of the total power of all the nuclear weapons tests performed by the former Soviet Union were made in Novaya Zemlya.⁽³⁾ According to scientists at the Institute of Radiation Hygiene, St. Petersburg⁽⁴⁾, the highest levels of radioactive fallout in the entire Russian arctic and subarctic area were found in the Kola peninsula. They say the sources of contamination were atmospheric nuclear weapons tests up to 1963, when the maximum fallout concentrations of radioactive caesium and strontium were found, and the accident at Chernobyl in 1986.
Despite pressure from Scandinavian and other European countries it is not realistic to expect the Russians to wholly abandon their nuclear energy projects, which are badly required for the power-starved northwest region of the country. Irrespective of advances in other forms of electricity generation, Russia will probably continue to use and develop nuclear technology because of its huge infrastructure and enormous manpower. Russia, in this regard, needs help from Western countries to find a solution to the problem.
Though Norway has taken the lead in co-operating with the Russians in working out solutions, Western experts say the intransigent nature of Russian bureaucracy blocks rapid progress in co-operation. During Norwegian King Harald V's visit to Moscow in May 1998, Russian President Boris Yeltsin said Russia would dismantle all its old nuclear submarines in the Barents Sea region if Norway provided the necessary financial assistance. An agreement signed between the two countries in May 1998 cleared the hurdles that have delayed Norwegian efforts to participate in the cleanup of the Russian Northern Fleet's leaking storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel in Andreeva Bay at the Kola peninsula. Norway has granted $60 million for the first projects and more could be found if the programme is successful.
"Though the Norwegian side is willing to help the Russian side there is no co-operation from Russian authorities. The Ministry of Defence does not want to give any access into their leaking facilities. They say they would give video clips describing the sites. You cannot make plans and give money just by looking at the video clips. We hope the situation improves in the coming months," said Igor Kudrik, a researcher at the Bellona Foundation in Oslo.

1. Alexi V. Yablokov, et al., Facts and Problems Connected with the Disposal of Radioactive Waste in the Seas Adjacent to the territory of the Russian Federation (Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, Moscow, February 1993).
2. A state of the Arctic Environment Report, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, Oslo, 1997.
3. Jan Olof Snihs, Nuclear activities and international co-operation in the Barents region of the Russian Federation, Swedish Radiation Protection Institute, Stockholm.
4. Alexi A. Doudarev et al., The radioecological situation in the reindeer herding of the Kola peninsula, Environmental Radioactivity in the Arctic, Osteras, Norway, 1995.

The UNESCO Courier

	Nuclear watch in the Far North
	Ethirajan Anbarasan in Stockholm and Rovaniemi
A Russian nuclear-powered submarine moored at Severomorsk. About 5,000 tons of solid nuclear waste are generated annually by the Northern Fleet's nuclear vessels and at shipyards in the region Map of Arctic	The fate of the unparalleled concentration of nuclear material on Russia's Kola peninsula is alarming neighbouring Scandinavian countries The strike only lasted an hour, but it was enough to set alarm bells ringing in Moscow. Organized by Russia's nuclear defence workers in September this year, it caused such concern in Moscow that despite the severe financial crisis the government allotted about $16 million for the defence employees who had not been paid for months. Even the latest deal gave the workers only half of the wages owed to them by the government. "People are really hungry. How can you ask them to look after our security?" said Yury Bersenyev, a scientist from the closed nuclear city Snezhinsk, in an interview to a local daily. Corroding equipment and dissatisfied servicemen The Russian Union of Nuclear Industry Workers says that hungry nuclear workers and lack of funding could lead to serious trouble in the Russian nuclear sector, including defence establishments. In addition to corroding submarines, dissatisfied military personnel now add more complications for the Russian authorities. In September this year a disgruntled armed conscript killed eight of his fellow servicemen and threatened to blow up the Akula-class submarine at the Skalisty naval base in the Kola peninsula. Finally he killed himself in the torpedo compartment. Though Russian officials assured that the sailor could not have damaged the torpedoes, any explosion in the compartment was strong enough to damage the submarine's single nuclear reactor. This incident alarmed Norwegian officials, as it happened just 120 km from the border in the country's north. The unstable situation in the Russian nuclear sector has aggravated the worries of the neighbouring Scandinavian nations who will be the first to be affected in case of a nuclear disaster in Russia's north-west. The gravest environmental hazard in the Arctic Circle stems from nuclear activity on the Russian side, especially in and around the northern Kola peninsula. Nowhere else on earth is there such a concentration of civilian and naval nuclear reactors. According to the Yablokov report⁽¹⁾, an official Russian document, there were a total of 270 nuclear reactors in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk counties in 1990. Nuclear activity in and around the Kola peninsula includes power plants, nuclear submarines, huge piles of nuclear waste and the effects of nuclear tests conducted by the former Soviet Union. Russia's immediate neighbour Finland is the only European Union country to share a 1,200-kilometre border with Russia and faces constant environmental threats from the former superpower. Finland's Arctic Circle would be the first and worst hit region in the event of a Russian environmental disaster. With memories of Chernobyl still haunting them, the Finns are constantly monitoring air, water, soil, plants and meat to make sure nothing is amiss on the Russian side. Despite the presence of so many old-fashioned nuclear reactors and unprotected piles of nuclear waste so close to the border, Kristina Rissanen, head of the Regional Laboratory of the Finnish Centre for Radiation and Nuclear Safety (CRNS), in Rovaniemi, tries to keep a sense of perspective. "The radiation levels across the border at present are not alarming. Moreover the Russians in recent years have started showing a more open approach, and that itself is a positive factor." Rissanen's laboratory, eighteen metres underground, is designed to withstand a nuclear holocaust. The enthusiastic team of chemists in CRNS analyse hundreds of samples every day, from reindeer meat to industrial products. Kristina makes frequent trips to northwestern Russia on joint expeditions to find out the fate of submerged nuclear reactors and the operational reactors. The Yablokov report noted that only 15 per cent of the dry-docked submarines had been properly decommissioned by the removal of reactor fuels and the reactor section. A state of the Arctic Environment Report ⁽²⁾ says that along with nuclear waste, the Soviet Union dumped six nuclear submarine reactors and a shielding assembly from an icebreaker reactor, containing spent fuel, between the years 1959 and 1991. Expeditions in the Barents Sea Rissanen, whose team often searches the Barents Sea for the nuclear reactors from sunken Russian nuclear submarines, takes a different view. "There is no doubt many of the submerged reactors could pose a serious threat to the environment of the Arctic region in the future. I am more worried about the Kola nuclear power plant than those reactors lying under the sea. The nuclear reactors in Kola are very old and similar to Chernobyl-type reactors." The Northern Fleet and naval shipyards include nuclear-powered submarines and battle cruisers based at nine ports along the northern coast of the Kola peninsula and at two bases on the Archangelsk region's coast. There are about ninety vessels in operation and more than seventy out of operation and laid up, containing about 170 reactors in operation and 130 out of operation. About 5,000 tons of solid waste are generated annually at the Northern Fleet's nuclear vessels and at shipyards in the two regions. Rissanen cautions that new storage facilities have to be built in the Russian Federation to ensure the safety of the nuclear waste. "During one of the expeditions we found excessive radioactive caesium in the sediments of Dvina River estuary, which is most probably transported from the large catchment area of the river. Radioactive materials were also found near Atomflot in Murmansk. However, these are not above the normal levels. It may be originating from nuclear storage sites other than those known. In certain areas in the Barents sea, where old reactors have been dropped, the radiation level is higher. But Russian officials do not allow us to go near the precise spot. As long as these are not at threatening levels it can be managed." Western nuclear experts who have visited Russia say that the formal requirements, regulations and control in the Russian Federation today still do not meet modern standards. To complicate matters, the enterprises are subordinate to many different authorities, federal and local, which make the regulatory system complex. The amount of waste and spent fuel greatly exceeds the capacity of storage and reprocessing. Most importantly, there is no money to fully maintain, restore or replace equipment and facilities for radioactive waste and spent fuel conditioning, handling, transport and storage. According to former Russian Deputy Atomic Energy Minister Nikolay Yegorov the cleanup projects in the Northern Fleet would require some $1.5 billion. "Matters worsen every year... and could turn into a catastrophe," RIA Novosty news agency quoted Yegorov as saying in July this year. Shannon Kile, a research assistant at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) voices concern over the fate of the nuclear missiles and fuel in the decommissioned submarines and dismantled missiles. He says "as per the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-I) the Russian Federation dismantled hundreds of nuclear delivery vehicles. Both in START-I and the ongoing START-II (to be ratified by Russian parliament) the status of the nuclear warheads fixed in those missiles is unspecified and future arms reduction agreements should take care of the warheads also." Novaya Zemlya (New Earth) was the main Soviet nuclear test site between 1955 and 1990. In total, 132 nuclear explosions were conducted, 87 of which were atmospheric (above ground), three were underwater and 42 underground. More than 90 per cent of the total power of all the nuclear weapons tests performed by the former Soviet Union were made in Novaya Zemlya.⁽³⁾ According to scientists at the Institute of Radiation Hygiene, St. Petersburg⁽⁴⁾, the highest levels of radioactive fallout in the entire Russian arctic and subarctic area were found in the Kola peninsula. They say the sources of contamination were atmospheric nuclear weapons tests up to 1963, when the maximum fallout concentrations of radioactive caesium and strontium were found, and the accident at Chernobyl in 1986. Despite pressure from Scandinavian and other European countries it is not realistic to expect the Russians to wholly abandon their nuclear energy projects, which are badly required for the power-starved northwest region of the country. Irrespective of advances in other forms of electricity generation, Russia will probably continue to use and develop nuclear technology because of its huge infrastructure and enormous manpower. Russia, in this regard, needs help from Western countries to find a solution to the problem. Though Norway has taken the lead in co-operating with the Russians in working out solutions, Western experts say the intransigent nature of Russian bureaucracy blocks rapid progress in co-operation. During Norwegian King Harald V's visit to Moscow in May 1998, Russian President Boris Yeltsin said Russia would dismantle all its old nuclear submarines in the Barents Sea region if Norway provided the necessary financial assistance. An agreement signed between the two countries in May 1998 cleared the hurdles that have delayed Norwegian efforts to participate in the cleanup of the Russian Northern Fleet's leaking storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel in Andreeva Bay at the Kola peninsula. Norway has granted $60 million for the first projects and more could be found if the programme is successful. "Though the Norwegian side is willing to help the Russian side there is no co-operation from Russian authorities. The Ministry of Defence does not want to give any access into their leaking facilities. They say they would give video clips describing the sites. You cannot make plans and give money just by looking at the video clips. We hope the situation improves in the coming months," said Igor Kudrik, a researcher at the Bellona Foundation in Oslo. 1. Alexi V. Yablokov, et al., Facts and Problems Connected with the Disposal of Radioactive Waste in the Seas Adjacent to the territory of the Russian Federation (Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, Moscow, February 1993). 2. A state of the Arctic Environment Report, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, Oslo, 1997. 3. Jan Olof Snihs, Nuclear activities and international co-operation in the Barents region of the Russian Federation, Swedish Radiation Protection Institute, Stockholm. 4. Alexi A. Doudarev et al., The radioecological situation in the reindeer herding of the Kola peninsula, Environmental Radioactivity in the Arctic, Osteras, Norway, 1995. The UNESCO Courier