Asia Times: Russian nuclear waste in watery limbo



	September 14, 1999	atimes.com

Japan

Russian nuclear waste in watery limbo
By Sergei Blagov

Earlier this month, Governor Yevgeny Nazdratenko of the far eastern Russian region of Primorie promised Japan that Russia will never again dump radioactive waste in the Pacific Ocean. But experts say the cash-strapped Russian government simply does not have the money to dispose of either nuclear waste or the country's old nuclear submarines.

Once upon a time it was seen as a well-honed nuclear armada, but now the fleet of Soviet-built nuclear submarines is resting and rusting, threatening the waters with radioactive leaks. Experts argue that the combination of old nuclear subs and deposits full of nuclear waste are a recipe for disaster.

Until 1990, the Soviet Navy routinely dumped radioactive waste in Far Eastern and Arctic waters. There were 13 areas of nuclear waste dumps in Arctic seas and 10 areas off-shore in the Russian Far East, according to Russian environmentalists Alexander Emelianenkov and Andrei Zolotkov. Their data suggest that between 1964 and 1991 the former Soviet Union dumped the total of 4,900 containers of solid nuclear waste in Arctic seas, and 6,868 containers in the Pacific. Furthermore, the Russian navy simply sank 57 vessels filled with nuclear waste. Sixteen decommissioned reactors were also sent to the deep, including six with unloaded fuel.

The Russian Navy continued this practice of dumping liquid nuclear waste in the far eastern waters until Japan agreed to assist in a waste disposal project. Knowing the under-funded state of the Russian government, other nations promised to help with the clean-up.

But non-Japanese foreign aid never materialized, while a journalist's attempts to clarify the issue led him into jail. Eventually, after almost two years in detention, Grigory Pasko - a naval journalist charged with treason - was finally released, though the military court convicted him of improper military conduct. Pacific Fleet Captain Pasko, who also edited a local military newspaper and worked part time for a Japanese television channel, provided the Japanese media with information about the navy's practice of dumping waste at sea. Pasko has argued that the case against him was fabricated so he wouldn't report the alleged disappearance of the $100 million that Japan gave to Russia to stop dumping nuclear waste at sea. Pasko insisted the Federal Security Service (FSB), the principal successor to the KGB, wanted to cover up the story.

Circumstantial evidence suggests a continued government cover-up in this matter. In July, the police raided the lab and home in Vladivostok of prominent scientist Vladimir Soifer, who had been researching the dumping of radioactive waste.

Of Russia's 150 decommissioned nuclear submarines, only 16 have been properly dismantled, according to Vladimir Goman, former head of the parliamentary committee on northern Russia, who now chairs the Federal Committee on northern Russia. The rest still have fuel in their reactors and are rusting away in Arctic and far eastern harbors, posing a threat to the environment.

It would be naive to think that the designers of nuclear reactors did not know about the dangers of handling the waste, said Vyacheslav Perovsky, a retired navy captain who now works with an energy technology research center in St Petersburg. He believes that the masterminds of the Soviet nuclear naval programs intentionally ignored the problem of disposing waste and old reactors. Probably, they decided - from the beginning - to sink old subs in the ocean, he said.

The problems with submarine disposal are manifold. Experts say such submarines may leak radioactive materials. Many decommissioned submarines were in poor condition to begin with, and haven't had proper maintenance for a decade or more. Some are rusted through and are half-submerged, and many others may leak if an attempt is made to move them.

Despite these very real dangers, most submarines are likely to remain in this watery limbo for decades, as cash-strapped Russia is capable of dismantling only five vessels a year, while their number rapidly increases. According to Goman, the proper disposing and reprocessing of all the submarines and waste accumulated in Russia is likely to cost up to $100 billion.

(Asia Times)

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