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