News
Publish date: February 7, 2003
News
From 1993, the Northern Fleet officially declared a halt to the dumping of liquid radioactive waste into the seas. However, it remains an open question as to how to dispose of the liquid waste that continues to be generated given that all of the storage facilities for liquid waste are filled up.
Liquid radioactive waste is transferred to special tankers and nuclear support ships, as well as PE-50/PEK-50 type floating tanks. There are also onshore storage facilities at the bases and in the shipyards. Since 1994, the Northern Fleet has been delivering liquid waste to be processed at the treatment facility located in Atomflot nuclear powered icebreakers base. The facility has an annual capacity of 1,200 m3. This facility is due to be upgraded to treat up to 5,000 m3 of liquid waste annually, assuming that the ongoing international project to achieve this is completed. A facility for low active liquid waste was completed at Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk in 2000.
Throughout the past year, our mission at the Bellona Environmental Transparency Center has focused on two key, but intertwined issues—nuclear and radiation safety as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on, and the worldwide influence of Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, which itself is actively involved in the war and has participated in the occupation of a Ukrainian nuclear power plant.
At the beginning of the year, reports in the German and Russian press suggested an approximate 70% increase in uranium imports from Russia to Germany in 2024. But does this reflect broader European trends? It does not. Overall, imports of uranium and nuclear fuel from Russia to Western countries actually dropped sharply in 2024. Unlike the situation in Germany, this is already an established trend.
A Lingen, Germany plant could begin producing nuclear fuel in cooperation with a subsidiary of Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear corporation, which is directly involved in the war in Ukraine and occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
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.