The last batch of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear submarines was removed from the Russian Navy's onshore technical base in BUT Ostrovnaya (Gremikha village) in the Murmansk Region. Thus, environmental risks for the region have been significantly reduced, Rosatom State Corporation told RIA Novosti .
"The last – eleventh – set of spent dredging parts (VHF) of a liquid metal coolant reactor was disassembled and sent for recycling," the state corporation clarified.
The submarine of the 705 project
Military Review
The process of disassembling and removing all VHF took more than a decade. A special technology created at the Mayak software enterprise (BUT Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region) makes it possible to completely recycle disassembled cassettes with spent uranium-beryllium fuel from reactors of nuclear submarines on a liquid metal coolant, Rosatom noted.
The eleventh VHF set was part of the prototype stand of the OK-550KM reactor plant for nuclear submarines, which was delivered to Gremikha earlier in 2017 in compliance with all safety standards.
"Rosatom specialists have solved the most difficult problem of eliminating spent uranium-beryllium fuel, one of the most difficult types of spent nuclear fuel to process, having an enrichment above 90% and posing a serious threat to humans and the fragile nature of the North–West of Russia," said the Director for State Policy in the field of radioactive waste, spent nuclear fuel and decommissioning Vasily Tinin retired from the operation of nuclear and radiation-hazardous facilities of Rosatom.
According to him, for the first time in the world, the technology of disassembling uranium-beryllium active zones into component parts, their transportation and processing has been demonstrated.
"The successful completion of the SNF removal project from Gremikha means that today there will be only one spent nuclear fuel storage facility in the Russian part of the Barents Sea – in Andreev Bay, from where more than half of the SNF has already been removed, and the work is planned to be completed by the end of this decade," Vasily Tinin concluded.
The base of nuclear submarines in Gremikha was created in 1958. This is the only base in the USSR, and then in the Russian Federation, where the infrastructure was built to ensure the operation and recharge of nuclear reactors of nuclear submarines with liquid metal coolant. Such installations had significantly smaller dimensions, and the submarines with which they were equipped were more compact and maneuverable. In 2000, at the time of the transfer of the facility from the Russian Ministry of Defense to the Ministry of Atomic Energy, the infrastructure of the base in Gremikha did not meet modern security requirements and almost completely lost the ability to function for its intended purpose.
Rosatom is eliminating the dangerous nuclear legacy of the Navy within the framework of the state program "Development of the nuclear energy industry". In particular, the state corporation continues to clean up the waters of the Arctic and the Far East. To date, 202 decommissioned nuclear submarines have been disposed of in the country.
In the Murmansk Region, the export of spent nuclear fuel is proceeding as planned: from 2002 to 2023, the total volume of accumulated spent nuclear fuel has more than halved. All accumulated spent nuclear fuel has already been completely removed from the Far East. Radiation hazardous waste has also been removed from the former Naval coastal technical base in Krasheninnikov Bay, and work has begun on its decommissioning.
