News

Spent nuclear fuel from liquid metal cooled reactor unloaded in Gremikha

Publish date: September 19, 2005

Spent nuclear fuel from the from Project 705 — Alfa class submarine’s metal liquid cooled reactor was unloaded at the former navy base in Gremikha on the Kola Peninsula.

The operation required to heat the reactor therefore a powerful boiler-house was installed. The personnel engaged in the operation had to take a course and take exams arranged by the Russian Federal Nuclear Agency and the Defense Ministry officials.


The deputy director of Rosatom Sergey Antipov said to Minatom.ru that out of 11 nuclear submarines with metal liquid cooled reactor built in Russia one submarine with fuel expects dismantling, one reactor compartment should be unloaded and one sealed reactor needs treatment according to a special technology. The unloading operation took 2 months this summer in comparison with 8 months in 1991. Next summer apparently two metal liquid cooled reactors should be unloaded as well.


Gremikha (Iokanga) naval base is the second onshore storage site at the Kola Peninsula for spent nuclear fuel and radwaste from submarines. The base is the easternmost Northern Fleet base at the Kola Peninsula, located some 350 kilometers east of the mouth of the Murmansk fjord. The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development set Gremikha as priority project in the program of environmental rehabilitation. reported Interfax.