Radioactivity Jumps Near Submarine Junkyards

by Andrei Ivanov and Judith Perera

According to the Norwegian environmental activist group, the Bellona Foundation, the figures, contained in a report now in its hands, show dramatically increased levels of radioactivity in the Kola region.

The Russian state security forces have worked to keep the figures secret for years. Norway has been concerned about contamination in this region for some time, but has been denied access to take measurements for the past three years.

Now, Bellona has gained access to measurements made recently by the Murmansk Marine-biological Institute, which collected samples of sediment for analysis by the Khlopin Radium Institute and the Kusnetsov Laboratory in St Petersburg.

A total of over 100 samples were collected from an area between the Murmanskfjord in the east and the Petsjengafjord in the west.

They were measured for levels of caesium-137, cobalt-60 and plutonium-239/240 -- all isotopes present in nuclear wastes and spent fuel.

Bellona's Thomas Nilsen believes the measurements are a cause of real concern. He believes they expose a rapid deterioration of the nuclear waste storage units at the Russian naval bases in Murmansk.

Bellona believes the contamination is caused by increased leakage from three ageing storage tanks for spent nuclear fuel, situated only 200 meters from the sea. The measurements decrease further out from the shore. "It may increase further when the spring snows melt," warns Nilsen.

"The situation was serious last autumn but no maintenance was done on the tanks last year." Cobalt levels were generally low in this area apart from samples taken from one layer about six to seven centimeters down.

"We believe this is due to leakage from Building No.5 which between 1982 an 1987 was a wet storage facility for spent fuel," explains Nilsen.

The highest levels of plutonium contamination in Andreyeva Bay were found three to four centimeters down and ranged from 8.7-5.4 Bq/kg. Plutonium is not a naturally occurring isotope so normal background levels would be zero.

Nilsen says that in addition to the worsened radioactive contamination in Andreyeva Bay, there were high levels of caesium and cobalt in the sediments outside the naval shipyard of Shkval in Polyarny.

"The increased levels of cobalt-60 are alarming," he says. They have shot up from below 10 Bq/kg in 1995 to over 80 Bq/kg in 1997.

Normal background levels of cobalt-60 are undetectable. "Obviously something has happened in this time, but we don't know what," says Nilsen.

Polyarny is situated at the west side of the outer part of the Murmanskfjord and the Shkval shipyard is home to seven obsolete nuclear submarines awaiting decommissioning. It also performs routine maintenance on operating vessels.

One of the obsolete subs is the Echo-II, which suffered a meltdown in one of its reactors in 1989.

The nuclear waste situation in Kola has long been an embarrassment to the Russian authorities, which do not have the funds to mount a proper clean-up.

Responsibility has always rested with the Navy and the Russian defense ministry but recently there have been moves to change this. Russia's new (at present acting) nuclear energy minister, Yevgeny Adamov, said on Apr. 21 that his ministry (MinAtom) planned to take over the responsibility from the Navy.

He said MinAtom's first objective would be to remove the nuclear fuel from the obsolete submarines moored in the various bases. The fuel would then be packed into containers and placed on shore for temporary storage before being shipped down to the Mayak plant in the Urals for reprocessing.

The governor of the Murmansk region, Yuri Yevdokimov, has formally asked the Kremlin to take both Andreyeva Bay, the only operational storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the Northern Fleet, and the Nerpa shipyard, away from military authority and put under the control of MinAtom.

Yevdokimov has also asked the government to set up a locally based financial-industrial subsidiary of MinAtom, to handle all the issues related to nuclear safety in the Murmansk region. Later plans suggest the expansion of the group's activities to neighboring Arkhangelsk.

But there is little doubt that Russia will have to depend to some extent on international help to solve the immense problem of Kola's contamination. Norway has made it clear that it is willing to help, but so far Russia has been reluctant to give the Norwegians the full access they would need to do this.

However, Norway would like to ensure that the funds are appropriately spent, so the question of giving access to Norwegian experts has become vital.

Yevdokimov has welcomed the possible cooperation, but so far all requests for access by foreign experts have been turned down.

It is hoped that if Andreyeva Bay is turned over to MinAtom this will change, as the Ministry has generally been more than amenable to such cooperation in other areas.

Meanwhile these new revelations by Bellona show that the situation is clearly deteriorating quite rapidly, making the need for some kind of action urgent. And the coming thaw, due shortly, may make things worse. As Nilsen says: "We are very concerned about the spring."