News
Publish date: August 10, 1999
Written by: Igor Kudrik
News
A naval tanker for liquid radioactive waste suffered an accident in the Russian Far East, Russian daily Izvestiya reported last week. Pacific Fleet officials denied the reports but local journalists in Vladivostok confirmed the information.
According to the Far East daily Vladivostok, a Belyanka class naval tanker the Pinega suffered an accident. Liquid radioactive waste leaked out of the 800 cubic meters storage tank and flooded the ship’s compartments. The accident reportedly occurred on August 5. The amount of the leaked waste is not specified in the reports. The tanker was stationed in the vicinity of Zvezda shipyard, the city of Bol’shoy Kamen, in Ussuriyskiy Bay.
This Monday, Pacific Fleet and Zvezda shipyard officials denied any radioactive water leaking out into the sea but would not elaborate on the possible accident onboard the Pinega.
The Russian Navy has two Belyanka class tankers in operation: the Pinega in the Pacific Fleet and the Amur in the Northern Fleet commissioned in 1987 and 1984 respectively. Each ship has a storage capacity of 800 cubic meters of liquid waste. The ships are outfitted with special filtering installations to treat the waste, but the installations have been out of order the past years.
An accident aboard numerous Volgoneft oil tankers in the Kerch in mid December clearly show what can happen to aged ships when they are operated in bad weather—and when economic and military objectives are prioritized over the lives of crews and environmental safety.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
A visit last week by Vladimir Putin and a Kremlin entourage to Astana, Kazakhstan sought in part to put Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, on good footing with local officials.