TL: A DEADLY LEGACY The Navies secret SO: script of video, Greenpeace International (GP) DT: May 5, 1993 Keywords: tv transcripts greenpeace gp nuclear weapons military russia ussr ocean dumping reactors radiation problems / DURATION: APPX 15 MIN FORMAT: BETA SP ON SCREEN: "Recently the world community has focused its attention on the problems of radioactive waste dumping in the seas surrounding the territory of the Russian Federation. Unfortunately, there has been much speculation based on unfounded rumours and incorrect information." VO: The military has always been synonymous with secrecy. No more so than during the height of the cold war - A time when bluff and deception was as strategic as military might itself. But not all the secrecy surrounding the Soviet navy has been in the national interest. A recent report, commissioned by President Boris Yeltsin, into the problems of dumping of radioactive waste into the seas around the Russian federation has uncovered a catalogue of incidents that demonstrate the navy's for international law, national law and the environment. Rumours of malpractice concerning the way the Russian navy, and the Soviet navy before it, has dealt with the nuclear waste from its atomic fleet first came to light during Michael Gorbachov's term of office. But the operations were so clandestine that even the Ex- president now claims that he was unaware of the navies deceit. Many of the claims centred around the secret island of Novaya Zemlya - home to the Russian atomic weapons testing programme. When in the fall on 1992 this Greenpeace expedition set off to verify the reports the veil of secrecy once again descended to protect the authorities. The Greenpeace ship was arrested. After being held incommunicado for nine days it was expelled from Russian waters. But international curiosity had been aroused. Russia had to act to clear its name. The task fell to Alexei Yablokov, Yeltsin's environmental adviser, to head a commission of senior officials from the naval, nuclear and environmental ministries to look into the allegations. SOT: ALEXEI YABLOKOV "Hundreds of people are to blame for what has happened. But in one word, the culprit is the system which allowed it to happen". SOT: PETROV "The navy did not take the decision independently. It was taken at rather high levels. At that time it was the usual practice for all nuclear countries, to say that only the ex- Soviet Union carried out such practice would not appear objective". VO: Ocean dumping of radioactive waste is regulated internationally. The London Dumping Convention, signed by Russia, banned the disposal of high level radio-active waste into the marine environment - although it did allow the dumping of low and intermediate level waste under special permit. Waste was routnely dumped in the Atlantic Ocean by; Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Sweden. And in the Pacific Ocean by; New Zealand, the USA and Japan Soviet/Russian figures were not available. In 1983, after much public protest, the LDC adopted a moratorium on the ocean dumping of all types of radioactive waste. VO: Although the USSR council of ministers had taken some measures to fulfil their commitments the navy considered its activities to be immune from the requirements and introduced regulations which allowed the disposal of radioactive waste at sea. The report reveals that despite the official claims that they "did not dump, do not dump nor have plans to dump radioactive waste" Russia and the Soviet Union has - and still does, dispose high, medium and low level waste. 18 reactors 6 complete with nuclear fuel lie in the shallow bays around Novaya Zemlya and in the Sea of Japan. Other sites are situated in the Barent Sea and the Pacific Ocean, off Kamchatka. The report further states that: FREEZE AND CAPTION: The Report Concludes-: "..it must be stressed that the dumping placed the Russian Federation in violation of the London Convention and also brought about a violation of the Law of the Russian Federation: ocean dumping of all types of radio active waste. SOT: ALEXEI YABLOKOV "Who took the decision? Who's idea was it to intrust the navy with the problem of radioactive waste? It is not the province of the navy. It belongs to the ministry of atomic energy. [cut] The navy is also to blame. Why did it accept? Why did it take the responsibility?" VO:The ending of the cold war, disarmament treaties, ageing vessels and a shortage of hard cash has led to what the commission has called a critical situation in the Russian navy. And nuclear vessels are being retired rather than kept in service. But the problem then arises what to do with the highly radioactive spent fuel. There are some 300 former Soviet nuclear submarine reactors to be decommissioned by the year 2000. But there remains on-site storage for the fuel from just 3. FREEZE AND CAPTION: The report concludes-: "..it is evident that even now there is a critical situation excluding further safe operation of nuclear undersea fleet.." SOT: PETROV: "Indeed, there is some difficulty with the storage of spent nuclear fuel. This is of course, a deterrent for the operation of ships with atomic installations. "Both the navy and the government are not standing idly by they are trying to find a way out of the situation which, I stress did not emerge suddenly but is a result of the underestimation of the infrastructure in the development of the fleet". VO: These storage facilities do not conform to international requirements. This is Tomsk-7, the top-secret Siberian location where plutonium is separated from the spent nuclear fuel. It is also the site of Russia's most recent nuclear disaster. In April of 1993 an explosion showered the surrounding countryside with radioactivity. Military units were deployed to decontaminate the area, but the population were kept largely uninformed of the hazards. But with storage at a premium most decommissioned nuclear submarines are being left afloat with their radioactive fuel still on-board. Here in Murmansk, home of the Northern fleet, the harbour is littered with the hulks of discarded vessels. But its not only the navy who has to grapple with the problem of radioactive waste. Murmansk is also the home of 'Atomflot' the facility operating a fleet of seven atomic icebreakers. Here on board the IMANDRA the spent radioactive fuel from the icebreakers reactors is stored for up to one year, in order for it to cool down, before being transferred to one of these storage ships. According to the report they already hold 4500 spent fuel assemblies, and their storage reserve has been practically exhausted. An alarming example of past attitudes is the disposal of the reactors from the icebreaker 'LENIN', after she suffered a meltdown in the late 1960's The three reactors were simply dumped in a fiord on the eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya. SOT: YABLOKOV " ..I think the reactors were some how contained. Some were placed into barges some were cemented. According to the original calculations they would last up to 500 years. I do not believe these calculations because they were made for an ideal situation not for the sea". VO: More people have been killed or injured by their own nuclear navy than are likely to be from a nuclear enemy. Primorie - Chasma bay. On August 10th, 1985, During the routine refuelling of a nuclear submarine there was a spontaneous explosion in the reactor. As a result 10 people died, 49 were injured and 290 overexposed to radiation. Seven years later high levels of radioactivity can still be measured. VO: Since the mid 1950's when the nuclear fleets began operating, the United States has lost two nuclear submarines. In 1963 Thresher to sank in 200 nautical miles East of Boston. 5 years later the Scorpion sank SW of the Azores. That same year a Soviet diesel submarine carrying nuclear weapons sank off Hawaii. Soviet nuclear submarines were lost in the Bay of Biscay, off the coast of Bermuda and the latest in 1989 off the coast of Norway. This is the wreck of the Soviet nuclear submarine KOMSOMOLETS - 1680 meters under the sea, the grave of 42 crew members killed trying to save their ship. On the 7th of April 1989, 300 nautical miles off the coast of Norway the KOMSOMOLETS suffered a fire and, despite the valiant efforts of its crew, sank. The report reveals that on board were approximately 42 kilo- Curies of strontium-90 and 55 kilo-Curies of cesium-137. The Radioactivity is known to be leaking into the sea with potentially disastrous effects on the marine ecosystem. SOT: JOHN LARGE: Nuclear Engineer "There are two sources of radioactivity here. There is the nuclear reactor, where the release is obvious, the fuel breaks down, the radioactivity comes out". "The other form of radioactivity here is the nuclear weapons, Now here we are not concerned with a nuclear explosion occurring at these depths but the relatively fragile thin shells of the nuclear weapons breaking down". "This means that the plutonium - the very heart of the nuclear weapon - the plutonium leaches into the marine environment and is set into that path of coming back to the biosphere". VO: To many like John Large the only acceptable solution is to remove the radiation source from the marine environment as soon as possible. SOT: [off] John Large Nuclear Engineer "The problem here is that the structure of the submarine breaks down - so it would make it very much more difficult to raise it intact - here is a risk that while you are trying to raise the submarine it breaks up and releases the radioactivity with a great whoosh out into the marine environment. That would be a disaster - a catastrophe". VO: To clean the oceans of the radioactive debris will cost billions of dollars. Who will pay the bill? SOT: JOHN SPRANG/JOSH HANDLER GREENPEACE "For many years now Greenpeace has been arguing and putting pressure on governments and international institutes to release information about the number of nuclear weapons spread on the ocean floor, or the number of nuclear submarines or other nuclear vessels that have sunk over the last decade. However, the responsibility to supply information to the international community and to clean up the sites lies with the nations that have choose to operate nuclear fleets". VO: But the real question must remain whether other nations will learn from the Russian experience and rid the oceans of nuclear propulsion forever. SOT: YABLOKOV: "The concept of ecological risk is well know all over the world. Adapt to this concept. Conduct a study. Help the whole world. If it is really unacceptable. Let us shout from the roof tops, form public opinion then let us not build these ships any more. ENDS: