Decommissioning and Dismantling of the Floating Maintenance Base 'Lepse' - 13316
- Nuvia Limited (United Kingdom)
The Lepse was built in Russia in 1934 and commissioned as a dry cargo ship. In 1961 she was re-equipped for use as a nuclear service ship (NSS), specifically a floating maintenance base (FMB), to support the operation of the civilian nuclear fleet (ice-breakers) of the USSR. In 1988 Lepse was taken out of service and in 1990 she was re-classified as a 'berth connected ship', located at a berth near the port of Murmansk under the ownership of Federal State Unitary Enterprise (FSUE) Atomflot. Lepse has special storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel assemblies (SFA) that have been used to store several hundred SFAs for nearly 40 years. High and intermediate-level liquid radioactive waste (LRW) is also present in the spent nuclear fuel assembly storage channels, in special tanks and also in the SFA cooling circuit. Many of the SFAs stored in Lepse are classified as damaged and cannot be removed using standard procedures. The removal of the SFA and LRW from the Lepse storage facilities is a hazardous task and requires specially designed tools, equipment and an infrastructure in which these can be deployed safely. Lepse is a significant environmental hazard in the North West of Russia. Storing spent nuclear fuel and high-level liquid radioactive waste on board Lepse in the current conditions is not acceptable with respect to Russian Federation health, safety and environmental standards and with international best practice. The approved concept design for the removal of the SFA and LRW and dismantling of Lepse requires that the ship be transported to Nerpa shipyard where specialist infrastructure will be constructed and equipment installed. One of the main complexities of the Project lies within the number of interested stakeholders involved in the Project. The Lepse project has been high focus on the international stage for many years with previous international efforts failing to make significant progress towards the objective of decommissioning Lepse. The Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP) approved an internationally funded project to identify and prioritise nuclear and environmental hazards in NW Russia. Within this project the Lepse was recognised as being one of the highest nuclear hazards in NW Russia. Removal of SNF, SRW and LRW from Lepse requires innovative design and development of bespoke equipment. The main drivers of the NDEP Donors are first to safely transport Lepse in 2012 from her current berth close to the local population in Murmansk to the nominated dismantling shipyard, and secondly to raise Lepse from the water in 2013 onto the slip-way at the dismantling shipyard. A description is provided of the approach and progress towards preparing the Lepse for the removal of SFAs and other radioactive waste, to decontaminate and then dismantle the vessel under international donor funding. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, 1628 E. Southern Avenue, Suite 9-332, Tempe, AZ 85282 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22225048
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-13-WM-13316; TRN: US14V0502046003
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM2013: Waste Management Conference: International collaboration and continuous improvement, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 24-28 Feb 2013; Other Information: Country of input: France; 1 ref.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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