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New deal to clean up nuclear
waste
By Sergei Blagov
MOSCOW
- Russia has reached an agreement with its Nordic
neighbors to clean up nuclear waste threatening the
Arctic region.
Prime ministers from the Nordic
countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden)
and Russia agreed to clean up the Kola Peninsula on the
border between Russia and Norway at a meeting of the
Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) in Kirkenes in Norway
on January 10 and 11. The council is named after the
Barents Sea to the north of Norway, Finland and Russia.
The meeting led to what was considered a major
breakthrough when Russian Prime Minister Mikhail
Kasyanov announced tax exemptions on equipment and
technology for reprocessing radioactive waste.
A
program had been worked out earlier by the European
Union and Norway to carry out nuclear and radiation
safety projects in Russia. But Russian reluctance to
grant tax and import tariff exemptions held up the
project.
Kasyanov was quoted by RIA news agency
as saying that the agreement will be signed soon, and
ratified by the Russian parliament later this year. The
new deal provides for cooperation in nuclear safety and
safe disposal of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive
waste.
There are about 100 decommissioned
nuclear submarines and reactors at bases of Russia's
Northern Fleet on the Kola Peninsula, according to the
Norwegian environmental group Bellona. The Kola
Peninsula became of particular strategic interest during
the Cold War for its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and
because its coast is free of ice in the winter. Many
large naval bases and shipyards were established to
service the Northern fleet, which grew into the world's
largest.
The report by Bellona "The Russian
Northern Fleet: Sources of Radioactive Contamination'
says that there are at least 21,067 cubic meters of
radioactive waste and at least 7,523 cubic meters of
liquid radioactive waste at these shipyards. A total of
88 Northern Fleet nuclear submarines have been laid up,
at least 52 of them with their nuclear fuel still on
board.
Solid radioactive waste is stored at 11
different places along the coast of the Kola Peninsula
and in Severodvinsk in the northern Murmansk region. The
storage facilities are full, and solid radioactive waste
is stored additionally in the open with little
protection.
Liquid radioactive waste is stored
at almost all of the naval bases, either in land-based
tanks, or on board service ships or tankers. Most of
these storage tanks too are full, and many of them are
in poor condition, the Bellona report says.
The
Northern Fleet's largest temporary storage facility for
spent nuclear fuel is at Zapadnaya Litsa in Murmansk.
About 21,000 radioactive tubes are stored here in
concrete tanks, corresponding to waste from 90 nuclear
reactors.
Large leaks were reported from an old
storage pool here through the 1980s. The area is close
to the Norwegian border, and it is not surprising that
Norwegian authorities are backing projects to clean it
up. Governor of Murmansk Yury Evdokimov has asked for
Norwegian financing to construct storage facilities for
reactor components in Sayda Bay and Andreeva Bay.
The Murmansk authorities want to reprocess all
the nuclear waste in the region by 2007. A facility to
reprocess solid radioactive waste has been planned in
Polyarny with capacity to clean up 2,000 cubic meters of
liquid waste a year.
Russian authorities have
allocated US$50 million for storage of radioactive waste
in the region. Another $100 million needed for this
project is not yet available.
The Barents
cooperation was formally established in January 1993
when representatives from Finland, Norway, Russia,
Sweden, Denmark and Iceland, together with a
representative of the European Commission, the executive
arm of the EU, signed the first Kirkenes Declaration.
The declaration led to the launch of the Barents
Euro-Arctic Council comprising representatives of
national authorities, and the Regional Council
representing the counties in the region. Cooperation
schemes following this declaration are reported to have
worked well.
The Barents group is determined
also to clean up their act in other areas. The Nordic
countries, Russia and the EU have agreed to improve
border crossings and to combat human trafficking.
(Inter Press Service)
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