Environmental Security Benefits Arising from Russian/Norwegian/U.S. Cooperation in the High Arctic
- US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Washington, DC (United States)
- Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Past practices associated with the civilian and military use of nuclear power in NW Russia present large environmental security risks of international concern. These risks arise from a variety of practices associated with weapons production, testing, power production and waste management. The threats presented by these activities are multimedia in nature, span political boundaries and cannot be simply or inexpensively remediated. Today, cooperative efforts are being undertaken to improve environmental security by remediating existing and potential emission sources. Initial efforts focused on the upgrade and expansion of the Murmansk Low-level Liquid Waste Treatment Facility, Murmansk, Russia. This facility handles wastes generated during the decommissioning of Russian Nuclear Navy submarines and from the operation of the Russian commercial nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet. This upgraded facility is now being constructed and is expected to be completed by March 1998. Completion of this facility will result in the cessation of any future dumping of liquid radioactive wastes into the Barents and Kara Seas. Another large environmental security risk is the LEPSE. The LEPSE is a ship docked in Murmansk, Russia, that contains ~650 spent fuel elements as well as other solid and liquid wastes from Russian nuclear vessels. International efforts are now being mounted to remove the spent and damaged fuel from this ship, including the safe removal and storage/disposal of the fuel elements. This paper will summarize the environmental security problems presented by these different sources and the likely environmental security benefits associated with their remediation.
- Research Organization:
- US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Washington, DC (United States); Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Washington, DC (United States); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH00016
- OSTI ID:
- 475648
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-64288; CONF-970335-47; ON: DE97006103; TRN: 97:010438
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste Management '97, Tucson, AZ (United States), 2-7 Mar 1997; Other Information: PBD: 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
USA
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
NORWAY
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
LIQUID WASTES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
NUCLEAR SHIPS
SPENT FUEL ELEMENTS
CRITICALITY
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF)
Murmansk Low-Level Liquid Radioactive Waste Treatment (LLRW) Facility
Decontamination Factor (DF)
Fuel Rod Cladding
Storage Cask Seals Failure