Decommissioned Submarines in the Russian Northwest: Assessing and Eliminating Risks (NATO Science Partnership Subseries: 2 Book 32)

Until the late 1970s, most commercial power plant operators outside the United States adopted a spent fuel management policy of immediate reprocessing and recycling of recovered products. In response to rising reprocessing prices, decreasing values of re­ covered products, concerns over proliferation risks, and a belief in the favorable eco­ nomics of direct disposal, many utilities have since opted to store spent fuel on an in­ terim basis pending the availability of direct disposal facilities or a change in the eco­ nomic and/or political climate for reprocessing and recycling uranium and plutonium. Spent fuel has traditionally been stored in water-filled pools located in the reactor building or fuel handling buildings, on reactor sites, or as part of large centralized fa­ cilities (e.g. Sellafield, La Hague, CLAB). Because the economics of pool storage are dependent on the size of the facility, the construction of additional separate pools on reactor sites has only been pursued in a few countries, such as Finland and Bulgaria. Front Matter....Pages i-vii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Current Radioactive Contamination Issues in the Arctic North and Operation and Infrastructure of the Russian Nuclear Fleet....Pages 3-11 Worldwide Decommissioning of Nuclear Submarines....Pages 13-23 Front Matter....Pages 25-25 The Development of a Comprehensive Understanding of the Handling and Transport of Submarines’ Spent Fuel Out of Northwestern Russia....Pages 27-40 The Lepse Project....Pages 41-47 Interim Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel in the Arctic Far North....Pages 49-55 Multi-Purpose Casks for Power Station Fuel....Pages 57-68 Front Matter....Pages 69-69 Application of IVO International Ltd.’s “Mobile Nuclide Removal System” (NURES) for Liquid Radioactive Waste Treatment at the Paldiski Naval Training Center, Estonia and at the Repair and Technology Enterprise RTP “Atomflot,” Murmansk, Russia....Pages 71-89 The Development of a Modular Plant for Processing Liquid Radioactive Wastes from the Nuclear Fleet....Pages 91-94 Low and Medium Radioactive Solid Waste....Pages 95-112 Catalytic Extraction Process (CEP) Applications to Mixed and Radioactive Wastes and Weapons Components....Pages 113-125 Front Matter....Pages 127-127 Assessment of Radioactive Contamination in the Arctic....Pages 129-131 Spent Nuclear Fuel Issues on the Kola Peninsula....Pages 133-140 Time-Risk Methodologies for Examining Remediation Technologies for Waste Contamination Sites....Pages 141-158 Front Matter....Pages 159-159 Integration of Technical Projects with Larger Political and Economic Contexts....Pages 161-174 Back Matter....Pages 175-179 The risks dealt with are set in the context of current radioactive contamination issues in the Arctic, the operation and infrastructure of the Russian Nuclear fleet, and the world-wide decommissioning of nuclear submarines. The risks involve those of spent nuclear fuel, and low and intermediate level liquid and solid wastes. Risk assessment and monitoring techniques are also dealt with