Bellona nuclear digest. March 2024
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
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Publish date: August 30, 2003
Written by: Alexander Nikitin
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Bellona Position Paper
The K-159 nuclear powered submarine has two VMA-type reactors, each with a thermal capacity of 70 megawatts. The reactor cores of these reactors contain approximately 800 kilograms of spent nuclear fuel with the radioactivity of 750 curies per kilogram.
In 1989, the K-159 was retired by the Russian Northern Fleet. During the dismantlement process the following technical operations aimed at maintaining the necessary level of nuclear and radiation safety were performed with the reactor compartment of the submarine, including the two reactors:
These procedures provide for nuclear and radiation safety while in the normal operations mode. However, no procedures have ever been developed or performed to this end for the situations of emergencieslike the kind that took place today with the K-159.
With this in mind, Bellona has the following concerns:
Besides these concerns, Bellona is worried about the current state of the reactors, as well as the pipeline and the valves of the main circuit. How bad is the corrosional damage of these elements so far? Will these sealed elements—reactors and their components—stand the pressure of the water at the depth where the K-159 submarine sank?
So long as these questions remain unanswered it will be impossible to assert that the K-159’s reactors are indeed safe and do not present a considerable radioactive risk for the basin of the Barents Sea.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
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