A group consisting of representative from British Nuclear Fuel, Norwegian Foreign Ministry, Norwegian Environmental Ministry and Norwegian Radiation Protection Agency visited Murmansk in late May to discuss the possibilities to solve the issue of Andreeva Bay on the Kola Peninsula, reported Murmansk daily Polyarnaya Pravda.

The group considered a project submitted by Engineering Centre of Environmental Safety based in Zaozersk, a closed military city located some 10 kilometres from Andreeva Bay. The project’s goal is to turn the ground waters away from the accidental storage facility in the bay, thus priventing radioactive contamination of Zapadnaya Litsa Fjord.

There are no reports that international experts will be allowed into Andreeva Bay itself. The price tag for the project is some 1,5 million USD. The first stage of the works is reportedly to be launched in July this year.

In Andreeva Bay there is the largest and the only operational storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the Northern Fleet. According to available estimates, more 21 000 fuel assembles are stored here. A part of the fuel is placed in the unshielded site outside the facility, open for the sever condition of the Arctic winter.