News
Publish date: February 7, 2003
News
In addition to several large workshops, the yard operates two large dry docks. Until the end of the 1980s, the yard employed 5,500 workers, but today the number of employees is much smaller.
Sevmorput has been repairing first-generation nuclear submarines since the end of the 1960s and until 1991, the refuelling of nuclear submarines was also undertaken here. Today, the shipyard also carries out repairs of second-generation submarines. In 1991, county officials prohibited refuelling activities at this yard on the grounds of radiation safety concerns and the fact that the yard is located only a few hundred metres from more populous areas of the city. Defuelling activities were later resumed on the condition that a so-called dry defuelling method was used, whereby the cooling water is pumped out from the reactor. In the future, the civilian nuclear service ship Imandra is likely to perform the defuelling operations at the shipyard.
There are presently two first generation Project 675 — Echo-II class and Project 658 — Hotel class submarines in the yard. The Project 658 — Hotel class submarine was defuelled in 1995.
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.