TL: RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL, FORMER SOVIET UNION SO: Phil Richardson, Greenpeace International (GP) DT: July 13, 1992 Keywords: greenpeace reports nuclear power radioactive waste disposal ussr russia gp / ---------- Group 9 "Former Soviet Union" ----------------------------- Latest update 13th July 1992 Information below refers in general to the former Soviet Union and reflects the previous scarcity of hard facts. Information is becoming more available following the breakup of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991 and it is hoped that during 1992 information will be split into individual members of the new Federation of Independant States with nuclear facilities. Policy **August 17th 1990** (1) Although the Soviet Union now uses the same methods of storing nuclear waste as the United States -- for example, fusing it into blocks of glass or boxing it up in stainless steel containers -- there is nothing they can do to recapture the waste that has been pouring unchecked into rivers and across fields since the late 1940s. A report issued by council staff scientists earlier this month estimates that in the 1950s the Techa River and Karachay Lake in the Soviet Union were thoroughly contaminated by the nearby Chelyabinsk nuclear complex, about 900 miles (1,440 km) east of Moscow. The amount of radioactive material dumped into the Karachay was two and a half times the amount released in the Chernobyl nuclear accident of 1986, the report said. Apparently, since 1949, liquid nuclear waste was simply dumped into the local Techa river. This area (southeastern Urals, about 200 kms. south of Sverdlosk) could be considered the most nuclear polluted region in the world (see below under L/ILW). In 1957, after years of further dumping in the nearby Lake Karachay, the waste that could no longer be put into the cemented-over lake was stored in underground tanks. These tanks were not properly serviced and an explosion occurred. To quote Zhores Medvedev, `18 million curies fell to then ground in the immediate vicinity. But the remaining two million curies formed a plume about one kilometre high which distributed radionuclides over an area of 15,000 sq. kms. inhabited by 270,000 people.'(2) The old Soviet Union was apparently `prepared to consider' setting up an international centre for R&D into high-level waste disposal on its territory, according to the head of the USSR nuclear programme, Alexander Protsenko, Chairman of the USSR State Committee for the Utilization of Atomic Energy (GKAE). He said in an interview in 1989, that he had recommended to IAEA Director General Hans Blix that the agency should study the possibility of establishing an international center for research on waste treatment and disposal (3). So far, no formal proposal for such a centre has been made. The possibility was floated earlier in 1989 at the IAEA in Vienna, at the same time the then USSR made a more concrete proposal to host an international centre for research into after-effects of nuclear accidents in the contaminated area surrounding the Chernobyl site. Protsenko confirmed that the USSR was ready to accept high-level waste from other countries for disposal at such a center should it be set up. **October 1st 1990** (4) The Soviet Union has denied storing nuclear waste near its Arctic border with Norway, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said on Monday. Norway last week asked the Soviet Union about a Norwegian radio report that nuclear waste from the reactors of submarines and nuclear plants was buried near the town of Titovka, 80 km (60 miles) from the Norwegian border. Waste from a nuclear power plant further east on the Kola peninsula was stored at the plant. **January 11th 1991 ** (5) Norway has said there was no sign that the Soviet Union had dumped nuclear waste in the Barents Sea as alleged by a Norwegian environmental group, but that it could not exclude the possibility. The Environment Ministry said maps showing alleged nuclear dumping sites turned out to be minefields laid during World War Two. But it added: `It cannot be ruled out that...the Soviet Union has dumped radioactive material in the Barents Sea.' The Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature said that the maps, obtained from a Soviet source, showed dumping sites. The ministry said the maps did not show such sites. **November 1991** Numerous reports in the last few weeks have described how reactor equipment from the icebreaker Lenin and 7,000 containers of waste were dumped in the Kara Sea off Murmansk. Following pressure from GP International at the LDC this month, officials have promised that details will be forthcoming. Dumping is confirmed as having taken place as recently as the summer of 1991. An expedition is to be sent to the area in December to investigate (12). It was also reported in the Norwegian press (12) that HLW from the Lenin is currently stored on board a ship in Murmansk harbour. **3rd February 1992** As many as 126 PNE's (Peaceful Nuclear Explosions) were detonated in the Soviet Union in the 60's, 70's and 80's, according to previously top secret maps, now displayed openly in the new Russian environment ministry **15th May 1992** The President of Kazakhstan has announced that a new nuclear agency is to be set up, based around facilities at the former test site at Semipalatinsk and elsewhere. Research will be conducted in the areas of environmental and radiological effects of nuclear activities, together with studies on the "utilisation" (sic) of nuclear wastes (15). L/ILW The characterisation of 9 sites for LLW was reportedly underway by 1988 (6). It is currently stored near existing reactor complexes. **November 1990** (7) According to a newspaper article in Leningrad, there is a commercial waste disposal site at Sosnovoborskoe, near Leningrad. It only has limited capacity, however, and is unable to accept much of the contaminated soil being generated by the cleanup campaign in the area. A slow leak from the dump has been reported, contaminating local soil, with runoff ending up in the Gulf of Finland. [This would suggest a shallow earth-mound type of facility]. **January 1991** According to Drozhko et al (8), liquid medium level wastes from the Chelyabinsk reprocessing plant in the Urals were `temporarily' collected in Lake Karachay, which is supposedly isolated from the hydrographic system. 120 x 10 6 Ci of activity were dumped here. Prior to this waste discharge the lake had an area of 0.26 cu m and volume of 143,500 cum of water. It is claimed that soil has been used to cover the lake, and that work on `the liquidation of the lake will be completed by 1995'. **January 10th 1992** Reports on the UK's Channel 4 News programme over the last 2 weeks have confirmed the stories about Chelyabinsk and Lake Karachay. A reporter and film crew has visited the previously closed city of Mayak, site of plutonium production for the military. All the rumours about contamination of the lake and the nearby River Techa are true, with 500 curies/ sq Km still measurable, compared to an estimated 4,000 shortly after the 1957 waste tank explosion. It is consevatively estimated that somewhere in the region of 4o billion will be required for cleanup operations. The news report showed operations were continuing in an effort to fill in the lake using earth dumped by lorry. An official claimed that the the waste dumping into the Techa River was carried out in the hope that it would eventually drain into, and be diluted by, the Arctic Ocean. A later news report also suggests that representatives of western reprocessing companies, particularly BNFL from Sellafield, have visited Mayak and will return shortly, with a view to setting up a joint enterprise utilising the facilities there. According to Sobolev et al (9) shallow clay formations are regarded as the most suitable for LLW disposal, similar no doubt to that described above. Tests have supposedly been carried out also at the Moscow Scientific Industrial Corporation's "Radon" shallow disposal site, constructed in glacial moraine. These involved vitrified L/ILW. In October 1991, a Greenpeace (Nuclear Free Seas Camapaign) visit to Vladivostock and the surrounding areas, uncovered details of several previously unknown accidents and disposal facilities associated with the submarine refuelling and servicing facilities in the area (11). It was discovered that a disposal facility for L/ILW has been in operation at the tip of the Shkotovo peninsular since the mid- 1960's. Plans apparently exist to expand this site by 1995. Following a devastating explosion in the reactor of a submarine undergoing refuelling at the Chazma Bay facility in 1985, 5,500 m3 of low-level waste was placed into 5 shallow trenches and covered in cement and asphalt. This is to be moved from its temporary burial site in the near future, to the disposal site on the Shkotovo peninsular. Other disposal sites are thought to exist in the area and were described by naval officers as 'a mess', but details appear unclear at the present time. HLW The wastes from the spent-fuel reprocessing plant at Chelyabinsk, in the Urals were initially discharged into an open reservoir, according to Drozhko et al (8) at the Paris Symposium. It was claimed that this activity ceased in 1952. However, as described previously, overflow from the tanks was also diverted into Lake Karachay, following the explosion in 1957. Since then they have been stored in stainless steel cooled tanks set in concrete. In 1957, it was the failure of the cooling system of a tank containing high-activity wastes that resulted in the now infamous explosion. Following this, research began into vitrification of HLW in USSR. According to Drozhko (8), the facility is currently being reconstructed. When this is completed, it is proposed to carry out combined vitrification of High level and Medium level liquid wastes at Chelyabinsk. It is this which interests BNFL. **10th April 1992** Officials have released details regarding the vitrification plant, located at Chelyabinsk, in the formerly closed city of Mayak. The process involves mixing waste with crushed glass, which is then processed in a special oven. No details were given of the composition etc of the glass. It is claimed that waste with activity up to 50 million curies has been treated so far. Negotiations are said to be underway with several European countries regarding cooperation in further research and development, including Germany and other CIS states (16). It is planned to dispose of HLW vitrified in this plant in deep repositories, sites for which are currently under investigation. The search is now on for `sites with proper geological formations' for HLW repository, said Alexander Protsenko, Chairman of the USSR State Committee for the Utilization of Atomic Energy (GKAE), and `one is in Chelyabinsk.' Protsenko added that geological surveys are continuing at candidate HLW sites and that a decision on a first repository project could `perhaps' be made in 1990 (3). According to a press report in the Independent (10) in June 1989, strong local opposition exists against a proposal to develop a deep repository beneath the River Yenisei, near the city of Krasnoyarsk in central Siberia. The scheme involves the conversion and extension of the previously secret defence plant close to the city. It is proposed to drive a tunnel from the plant to a repository some 700ft deep in a clay horizon below the eastern shore of the river. The report claims that although Gorbachev announced in April 1989 that production of military plutonium was to cease, and that only Soviet spent fuel had previously been stored in Krasnoyarsk, the planned facility would have taken waste from all of Comecon. **January 1992** Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the opening up of previously secret facilities such as Mayak, at Chelyabinsk, western reprocesing companies are showing great interest in collaborative ventures with the new Russian government. Senior managers from BNFL are currently engaged in negotiations. **January 21st 1992** According to an article in the Ukrainian newspaper, "Golos Ukraini" (13), the Russian reprocessing plant at Krasnoyarsk-26 has announced that it will no longer accept Ukrainian spent-fuel. In the past, up to 400 tonnes had been sent there per year. **February 7th 1992 The President of "Ukratomenergoprom", (set up in December 1991 by the Ukrainian Council of Ministers), which now controls all Ukrainian nuclear stations, is in Krasnoyarsk to negotiate about spent fuel management. Mikhail Umanets was previously manager of the Chernobyl power plant (14). **30th April 1992** It has now been agreed that spent fuel from the Ukraine will, as before, be sent to Krasnoyarsk for reprocessing (14). Military Wastes The Greenpeace (Nuclear Free Seas Campaign) visit to Vladivostock and the surrounding areas, in October 1991 (see above in L/ILW), uncovered details of several previously unknown accidents and disposal facilities associated with the submarine refuelling and servicing facility at Chazma Bay (11). HLW from the facility is stored at the disposal site known as Installation 927-III, located at the tip of the Shkotovo region peninsular, as is the highly contaminated material from the site of the devastating explosion in 1985, involving the reactor of a nuclear powered submarine. Considerable volumes of military related waste have also been dumped in the Barents Sea and off Novaya Zemlya, in northern Russia. Details of these are given elsewhere in specific Greenpeace reports and are not repeated here at present. Sources: 1. Thomas Cochran, National Resources Defense Council (US), via Greenbase 17/10/90 2. Bill Pfeiffer, Sacred Earth Network (US), via Greennet 27/10/90 3. Nuclear News 1989 4. Reuters via Greenbase 1/10/90 5. Reuters via Greenbase 11/01/91 6. Nucleonics Week 19/05/88 7. Komsolmolskaya Pravda via Radwaste Report (US) September 1990 8. Drozhko EG et al. Paper at the Paris Symposium on Safety Assessment of Radioactive Waste Repositories, October 1990 9. Sobolev IA et al. Paper at the Paris Symposium on Safety Assessment of Radioactive Waste Repositories, October 1990 10. The Independent 29/06/89 11. Greenpeace, Nuclear Free Seas Campaign 1991: Preliminary Report on a visit to Vladivostok and areas around the Chazma Bay and Bolshoi Kamen submarine repair and refuelling facilities 9- 19th October 1991. 12. Ocean Dumping of Radioactive Wastes in the USSR; Paper submitted by GP International to 4th IGPRAD meeting of the LDC, 18-22nd November 1991. 13. Golos Ukraini 21/01/92 14. Greenpeace Kiev 15. ITAR-TASS via Greenbase 15/05/92 ----------