According to a British report published June 10, 2005, Russia's scrapped atomic submarines pose a serious nuclear threat. The 60-nation European Bank for Reconstruction and Development funded a report from Mark Gerchikov, coordinator of British consulting firm National Nuclear Corporation. The report was written with the cooperation of Russia's nuclear energy ministry.
The USSR built 450 naval nuclear reactors, beginning in 1958. Of these, two-thirds are located in the Barents Sea region, representing 20% of the world's nuclear reactors (DID also has a post with a basic nuclear naval propulsion diagram). "Certain nuclear installations are in such a state that we cannot exclude a chain reaction" leading to a nuclear accident, Gerchikov said at the report's presentation.
The threat is more Chernobyl than Nagasaki.
Even that may be a stretch.
M. Simon: The threat is more Chernobyl than Nagasaki ... Even that may be a stretch.
How far do you have to stretch this?
- Every Northern Fleet base has tanker ships, and land-based tanks, full of liquid radioactive waste. Everything is in typical Soviet Era condition: rusting and leaking. There would be more of the stuff - lots more - but the Russians finally stopped dumping it in the Sea of Japan.
- Spent and damaged fuel assemblies seem to be all over the place, also in crappy and crumbling storage.
- A lot of those decommissioned subs still have fuel in their reactors. It takes the Russians at least three years to remove the fuel from a retired sub, but in many cases they've never tried to remove it because they had nowhere to put it.
I agree the threat is more Chernobyl than Nagasaki (maybe multiple Chernobyls). And...?
It strikes me that this is like the letter from the Nigerian who just needs financing so he can get access to his long lost fortune.
Create a big enough scare and hope people will throw more money into the bottomless pit.
PS. If the Russsians were serious they would be addressing this themselves. There should be more pressure from the anti-nuclear people to get the Russinas to fix their problem.
davod, it doesn't appear that you've followed the link or read any of the deeper background before commenting.
Actually, (a) in this case the "scare" is coming from the people who would be giving out the money, (b) some Russians have been concerned for a while, and © what do you think this report is all about in the first place, if not convincing Russia to do something about the problem?
There is genuine concern about this from nearby states, and it doesn't take a genuis to see why.
As for why the Russians do nothing - that requires either a 10-second answer, or a 10-hour one. Suffice to say that even though Russia remains a global power at some level, in many ways it is a corrupt and ineffective 3rd world state.
If you have an actual argument to make or facts to bring forth on this issue, we'd love to hear them. But so far all I see are unsupported smears and zero understanding of the issue.
Sixteen nuclear reactors from Soviet vessels that suffered major nuclear accidents have been sunk in the Kara Sea, six of them still charged with spent fuel. Of course, no chain reactions have been reported, though some of them are severely damaged.
I agree with davod, Russians (oligarcs?) are earning a lot of money with the barrel at $50, they should clean their own Socialist trash.
Joe: maybe multiple Chernobyls
Given the fact that nearly all waters near the naval bases are already heavily contaminated, and that attempts to store, handle, and reprocess waste have led to more contamination, I think that in the long run the Chernobyls have already happened.
That's not even considering the environmental and economic damage from all of the solid and liquid waste, and all the spent reactors, that the Russians have been dumping in the sea for decades.
Here is what I think ought to be done.
All the socialist countries of the world (France are you listening?) need to pitch in and clean this up.
Let those who sympatized with the USSR deal with it.
Out of Socialist Solidarity.
As to safing reactors - it is not hard. Basically pour in a lot of Borax. Cheap. Very effective.
=============================Am I ever glad Rickover set such high standards for design and operation of our Naval nukes.
And by the way, the quote was distored by the the AFP journalist to make it scary.