Russian Nuclear Waste In Danger Of Exploding

Is this an avoidable disaster just waiting to happen ??

Research now indicates that the enormous tanks holding discarded submarine fuel rods in the Andreeva Bay may explode at any time, creating a nuclear nightmare for Northern Europe.

Norway and other Western authorities have argued for years that the stockpile of highly radioactive nuclear waste on the Kola peninsula poses an environmental hazard to the local population and for Norway.
www.aftenposten.no...

Andreeva Bay
Andreyeva Guba
69°27'10"N 32°22'00"E

Andreeva Bay is the primary spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste storage facility for the Northern Fleet. This facility contains about 21,000 spent nuclear fuel assemblies and about 12,000 cubic meters of solid and liquid radioactive wastes. There are three wet storage tanks in the Andreeva Bay facility, containing large volumes of spent nuclear fuel. These tanks are deteriorating due to poor maintenance and the harsh Arctic climate. Much of the legacy fuel at this facility has been stored in unlicensed transportation casks out in the open with no protection from the elements. Many of these casks are also deteriorating. Similar storage facilities exist in the Russian Pacific Fleet on the Shukotovo Peninsula near Vladivostok.
www.globalsecurity.org...

This is already becoming a problem in the local area, but it could escalate at a moments notice if nothing is done to clean up this mess.

The storage tanks are deteriorating due to poor maintenance and the harsh Arctic climate with severe freezing and thawing cycles. The deterioration could result in leakage to the marine environment. This has resulted in elevated levels of Cesium-137 in Andreeva bay and Litsa Fjord. Studies have shown that this contamination has not moved into the Barents Sea.

Here's a little map to show how close this facility is to Norway:



A very frightening scenario that isn't getting a lot of attention.

I'm thinking "alarm". I don't understand the technical reasoning behind the concern of explosion... but I'm not a physicist. If the story is valid (I suspect it is) then this is "not good" size large. That's a lot of half-life sitting there rotting and stewing.

Even if it doesn't "blow up" it is likely to be a containment nightmare while working on the problem... it could take decades just to secure the site in any kind of a Chernobyl-type sarcofagus... real cleanup. Doesn't seem possible... what brainac-commrade thought up that storage site and then ignored it.

There's plenty more similar material stored all over the world... that ought to be a good business for the next 30,000 years or so. If we don't kill ourselves off as a species before then...

Thank you for posting this, cheers,

Vic

[edit on 1-6-2007 by V Kaminski]

I seem to recall listening to Major Ed Dames on C2C talk about remote viewing another nuclear disaster in Russia sometime in the near future. He didn't mention exactly where or when though, just that it would be the next major disaster. Interesting to see this pop up now, but I guess I hope he is wrong.

The security of Russian nuclear facilities really worry me when I read things like this:

On 29 July 1993 about 1.8 kg of enriched uranium (approximately 36% enrichment level) was stolen from the Andreeva Guba Fuel Storage Area. The material was recovered in August 1993.
www.globalsecurity.org...

With the current state of that country, and the amount of corruption, it's only a matter of time before some of this material ends up in the hands of a terrorist.
If it already hasn't happened.....


I saw a documentary on CBC about how some of their chemical weapons were stored in sheds with very little security, and only a chain link fence and a padlock to keep people out. The single guard at the site hadn't been paid in months.


I really don't think they care that much, and the world is just waiting for another disaster to originate from that country.:shk:

thats really nasty stuff. it surprises me as to how much people will just brush such issues aside.
who knows how much of the stuff has leaked already into who knows where? and what about the people working there? i'm sure that various cancers are at a rise among the guards and transporters.

i really hope they get their act together and clean it up soon.

as for the explosion danger, well i know little about such things but i dont think, or cant think, how such waste can explode without the right conditions (such as very large and specifically placed explosives, with the material confined in a tight tank for instance).
but what do i know
what is the real danger though is the leakage of the stuff into the ocean, or the atmosphere for that matter. Chernobyl spewed enough radioactive material to reach the USA, if something were to happen here (a bomb perhaps) that would blast some stuff around then all i can say is that people in the area will be having two headed babies for a while

Vic's and funny_pom's replies have mentioned that they are unsure how waste tanks like these set up on the Kola Peninsula could possibly explode.
From what I understand it has to do with keeping the waste cool, and the loss of water in the pools could lead to such a situation.

Here's a snippet of an accident report at similar facility where such a thing happened in 1957:

1957 Kystym Explosion

After radiation was detected in the Arctic waters off Russia
in 1951, a storage facility was planned for the MCC grounds. By
1953 it was ready for use. The facility consisted of a series of
underground tanks. The tanks were made of steel with inner walls
of concrete. Each of these tanks held 20 smaller tanks 8 meters
below the ground. Waste material was stored here for a year in
order to cool and reduce the level of radioactivity. The material
was than retreated and the plutonium and uranium extracted. The
resulting low and medium level waste material is believed to have
been dumped into Lake Karachay. (Cochran 1995, 5)
In 1957 the cooling system in one of the tanks failed. The
cooling fluid that remained in the system evaporated, and the
temperature in one of the tanks started to rise. By 4:20 local
time on 29 September the temperature had risen to 350 degrees
Celsius. The resulting explosion had a force of 75 tons of TNT.
The 2.5 meter thick concrete lid was thrown 30 meters away. 20
Million Ci of radiation was released into the atmosphere. Most of
it came back down within the vicinity of the complex. However, 2
million Ci formed into a radioactive cloud 5 miles wide which
traveled approximately 600 miles through the Chelyabinsk Province.
The radiation came down on an area approximately 23,000 km2 with
inhabitants numbering over 270,000.

www.american.edu...

So it can happen.....

[edit on 1/6/2007 by anxietydisorder]

Ahh, well i was thinking more of a nuclear fission explosion...kinda seems stupid now...

that makes a whole lot of sense though, and apart from the leakage this could definitely cause an even bigger environmental disaster.
this is just what did actually happen in Chernobyl, massive heat build up and then explosion.

well lets just hope that they get their act together soon

Originally posted by funny_pom
Ahh, well i was thinking more of a nuclear fission explosion...kinda seems stupid now...

No question is ever stupid funny_pom. It's the first step to knowledge and understanding.
Even if the question has been asked before it may be knowledge you don't have yet.

I've read your posts and your inquisitive mind will serve you well in life.



EDIT: Sadly, I don't think Russia is in any hurry to get their act together.
They just don't have the will or money to handle their past mistakes, and I'm afraid the rest of us will have to pay for that in the future.

[edit on 1/6/2007 by anxietydisorder]

Judging from that picture you provided, anxietydisorder, I reckon the risk of something going very wrong is quite high. If each of those round things is a fuel rod, then all they need to start a chain-reaction is the addition of plain water. A chain reaction is pretty much one atom spitting out 3 neutrons when it is hit by 1 neutron. But neutrons by themselves move too fast to hit other atoms and trigger further neutron release, so they have to be slowed down by something. Water and graphite are two commonly used moderators.

Although weapons grade nuclear material must be enriched up to about +95 percent, the fuel in reactors only needs 2.3% of U-235. When nuclear fuel rods are removed at the end of their operational life, the percentage of useful material insdie them has dropped so much that they are useless, but Russia is a bit of a problem.
After the Soviet Union collapsed military spending went down the drain, and so they cut heaps of submarines from the Northern Fleet. When they decommissioned the subs they removed the fuel rods, but these fuel rods were still far from the end of their operational life. So of course, you can guess where I'm heading.
There's a lot of properly enriched nuclear material in Russia that is inadequately stored.

And just remember, if you ever happen to have to stop a run-away nuclear chain reaction, DON'T THROW WATER ON IT!!

I see that "New Scientist" has picked up this story with a bit more information on how a runaway reaction could take place.

"We are sitting on a powder keg with a burning fuse," claims Alexander Nikitin, from the St Petersburg office of the Norwegian environmental group, Bellona. "And we can only guess about the length of the fuse."

Andreeva Bay, on the Kola Peninsula in northwest Russia, is home to 21,000 spent uranium fuel assemblies from nuclear submarines and ice-breakers. But the three huge concrete tanks in which the radioactive waste is stored have begun to corrode and let in seawater.
Critical mass

A study by scientists from three Russian research institutes suggests that salt water could accelerate disintegration of the fuel, splitting it into tiny particles. If the particles reach concentrations of 5-10% in water, it could be dangerous, they say.

"Calculations show that the creation of a homogeneous mixture of these particles with water could lead to an uncontrolled chain reaction," they warn. This kind of accidental critical mass, leading to bursts of radiation and heat, is a well-recognised risk in the nuclear industry, but is not the same as a nuclear explosion.

The Russian study has been translated and highlighted by Bellona, which has long monitored safety at Andreeva Bay, less than 50 kilometres from Norway. In the worst case, the group says, such a reaction could ignite a hydrogen explosion, which could shower Europe with radioactivity.

www.newscientisttech.com...

This seems to be a growing concern for a lot of people.