Submarine graveyard in Russia. Submarine disposal

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Disposing of submarines that are equipped with nuclear equipment is not an easy process. Nuclear boats have always excited the minds of people from the first days of the publication of data on their creation. When these powerful devices are decommissioned, they go to the submarine graveyard.

Description

Combat ships, when their service life is over, become a dangerous phenomenon due to radioactive radiation. The thing is that nuclear fuel is located on board, which is extremely difficult to extract. This is the reason for the need to create a cemetery of modern submarines in Russia. There are already a considerable number of them.

The navy needs to work extremely hard to scrap the submarines that are a legacy of the war. There are places where such procedures are carried out, on the Pacific coast, beyond the Arctic Circle, near Vladivostok. There are several submarine cemeteries in Russia at the moment. Of course, exact data on how many there are is not published.

Every last berth for fearsome vessels of international influence haswith its unique features. Each of them is unlike any other. The most dangerous of them are located near the Kara Sea in Siberia. These submarine cemeteries are, in fact, nuclear waste dumps. Reactors that were removed from warships are stored there, and spent fuel lies at a depth of three hundred meters. Until the 1990s, it was here that the spent submarines of the USSR were brought. They were simply drowned in the sea surface.

Remains

There is a separate submarine cemetery on the Kola Peninsula. It is a surreal landscape - everywhere you can see the channels of torpedo tubes sticking out of the ground, rusty cabins, the remains of hulls.

According to the European ecological association "Bellona", the USSR turned the Kara Sea into a huge "aquarium of radioactive waste" with submarines. Now at its bottom there are more than 17,000 containers of waste, 16 nuclear reactors. This submarine graveyard contains five nuclear submarines. Flooded them completely.

All of this poses a certain amount of risk when oil and gas companies start looking at the site. If they start drilling a well, they could accidentally damage the reactor. If this happens, the submarine graveyard will cause radioactive contamination of the fishing industry in the region.

Official

There are military vehicles and official cemeteries. They are easy to find on the Internet in satellite photographs. The largest cemetery with nuclear waste is located in the United States in Hanford. The shipyards near Vladivostok are clearly visible, where they stick outtube containers twelve meters long.

In the rocky areas near Murmansk is the base of submarines of the Northern Fleet Gadzhiyevo. Operating submarines are located here, but spent fuel from decommissioned submarines is also stored here. On Guba Pale, at the base of submarines of the Northern Fleet Gadzhiyevo, ships are stored that are intended for disposal. But among all the objects, according to the data of the Russian Navy, only one object is related to radioactivity. This is a tanker built to transport radioactive waste to the Barents Sea. Despite this fact, often foreign environmental associations shoot stories about the danger of Gadzhiyevo in the Murmansk region.

The base was established in 1956, when a port of registry for submarines was opened here. After 7 years, submarines began to move here. In 1995, a nuclear accident almost happened in Gadzhiyevo in the Murmansk region. It was due to the fact that during the difficult period for Russia in the 1990s, there were conflicts between energy companies and the Ministry of Defense. The intervention of the Government of the Russian Federation prevented the conflict.

During the Cold War, there was a submarine base in Balaklava. It was a quiet place near Sevastopol, quite suitable for a secret facility. There was a submarine base in Balaklava with a factory that was built in such a way that in case of war it could withstand a nuclear bomb, 5 times stronger than that dropped on Hiroshima.

All construction took place in an atmosphere of secrecy, even the removal of rubble was masked by quarry work,which were fought nearby.

Already towards the end of the 1990s, the object lost its significance, now a museum is open here. However, a number of documents relating to the history of the complex are still classified.

Known as an object related to submarines and Nezametnaya Bay. At the moment, only shapeless debris is visible on it, which can be seen at low tides. It is located in the Arctic on the Kola Peninsula. Access to the bay is still closed, but there are cross-country trails from Gadzhiyevo and Snezhnogorsk.

From the late 1970s, the bay began to be used as a cemetery for combat submarines. Since all factories were loaded with many tasks related to the ships used, there was no question of cutting up obsolete vehicles. The submarines were disposed of simply - they were either shot as a target during the exercises, or transported to quiet bays.

As the veterans said, back in the 1980s, some ships that were there remained afloat. But then it was decided to disassemble them into metal. In the late 1990s, private individuals were involved in dismantling these formidable ships.

Fuel extraction

All that remains of dozens of nuclear submarines are containers called three-compartment blocks. These are reactor blocks created when submarines are decommissioned. Creating them is difficult. First of all, the warship is taken to a special dock, where liquid is drained from the reactor compartments. Then each spent fuel assembly is taken out of the reactor, placed in a container and sent to factories,processing used fuel. In the Russian Federation, there is one in the Chelyabinsk region.

Despite the fact that after these events there is no enriched uranium left anywhere, the metal itself has acquired radioactivity over decades of work. For this reason, the submarine is taken to the dry dock, and the reactor compartment with nearby ones is removed. Then metal plugs are welded onto these parts. That is, three-compartment blocks are soldered elements of a submarine. Each non-radioactive part is recycled separately.

At the moment, the Russian Federation uses the same technology as Western countries. The thing is that the world community was afraid that in Russia the requirements for the disposal of nuclear waste were not so strict, which created the risk that they could fall into the hands of terrorists.

Since 2002, by decision of the G8 member countries, a program was launched aimed at transferring Western technologies for the disposal of nuclear waste to the Russian Federation. This led to the improvement of this process in the country, it became safer. An above-ground storage facility has been erected in the country.

Hazardous waste afloat

Such a decision was justified also because many three-compartment blocks remained afloat in Russia. Until now, there are those in Pavlovsk, which remains dangerous. It is not always possible to dispose of in the above way. A number of Soviet submarines had a special design - the reactors were cooled with lead and bismuth alloys, but not with water. When the reactor is stopped, the coolerfreezes, and the reactor compartment becomes a monolith.

Two such combat vehicles have not yet been scrapped, they were only taken far to the Kola Peninsula, where they still stand far from people.

120 submarines belonging to the Northern Fleet and 75 to the Pacific Fleet were disposed of using the latest technology of three-compartment blocks. In the United States, 125 Cold War submarines were disposed of in this way.

Only in the UK, submarines were built differently, and the process of their disposal is significantly different. At the moment, this issue is acute in the UK. The thing is that the country plans to write off 12 submarines that are located on the southern coasts, as well as 7 more off the coast of Scotland. But the government has not yet decided which company will store the spent fuel reactors together. The decision has clearly been delayed, and nearby residents are concerned as the number of submarines due for decommissioning is increasing steadily in that area.

Growth of the submarine fleet

However, Western methods of submarine disposal are criticized by environmental associations. For example, in the United States, spent nuclear fuel from submarines is sent to Idaho, where it is stored in an underground aquifer. Spent fuel is not placed in the ground, but the rest of the waste from submarines is buried in the ground, and such procedures will be repeated regularly for decades to come. This worries many locals. Such a dangerous neighborhood threatens both the quality of fresh water andpotato crops, for which the area is famous.

But the reality is that even with the strictest security measures, radioactive waste can end up in the environment, and sometimes this happens in the most unpredictable way. For example, cases have been documented where hazardous waste has been leaked due to tumbleweeds. They ended up in radioactive waste cooling tanks, absorbed dangerous water, and then they were blown away by the wind far across the country.

Modern trend

But the fact that the safety of hazardous waste disposal is difficult to ensure does not bother military specialists. The US Navy prefers to equip submarines with nuclear power plants and does not plan to switch to other sources of energy. The same is happening in the Russian Navy. By 2020, it is planned to build 8 more nuclear submarines. Although the budget in Russia for this area is very limited, the Russian Federation is stubbornly building up the power of the nuclear submarine fleet. The same process is observed in China. For this reason, submarine cemeteries will only gain momentum, not disappear. And the current storage sites for spent fuel and metals will not be empty soon.

As a result of the program for the dismantling of nuclear submarines, burial grounds for nuclear submarines arose. They can be found on the north Pacific coast of the United States, beyond the Arctic Circle, and also near the base of the Russian Pacific Fleet in Vladivostok. Submarine cemeteries are different from each other. The dirtiest and most unsafe of them, located on the coast of the Kara Sea in northern Siberia,in fact, they are nuclear waste dumps - reactors dismantled from submarines and elements of spent fuel dot the seabed at a depth of three hundred meters. Apparently, until the early 1990s, Soviet sailors got rid of nuclear and diesel-electric submarines in this place, simply sinking them into the sea.

Most dangerous places

There is an opinion that in the Arctic Ocean there is a rather high probability of a nuclear catastrophe. The fact is that in 1981 a nuclear submarine was secretly sunk there, and its reactor can easily get out of control when sea water enters it.

Also, the combat ship K-27, which lies at the bottom of the Kara Sea, was flooded. There was an accident during which 9 Soviet sailors received a lethal dose of radiation. According to IBRAE, since 1981, 851 million becquerels of radiation have been leaking from there every year.

There remains the possibility that a nuclear reaction could occur on board this ship. The surface of a submarine may have large-scale breaches. The radioactive materials that are in the core can easily be released, which will lead to a real catastrophe. A similar situation arose with K-159, a submarine that was sunk in 2003 in the Barents Sea. Even long-scuttled submarines require vigilant federal attention, as they continue to pose a danger to adjacent areas.

Currently

Back in 2009, Rosatom advocated the development of a program fordisposal of nuclear submarines until 2020. It included combat ships that were waiting for their turn for disposal. The total number of such submarines was 191. Most of these ships had already been decommissioned in the 1990s. On a number of them, reduced crews were on duty for a long time. This was done in order to prolong the non-sinking of submarines.

A whole queue has formed for recycling. This happened due to the fact that the storage of nuclear fuel was overflowing.

The transportation of spent nuclear fuel also needs to be improved, as the country has more than 30 active zones per year. Factories cannot cope with the loads associated with the transport of waste. The Russian Federation often reprocesses spent fuel because the uranium it contains is suitable for later use in nuclear reactors.

This is one of the main distinguishing features of working with nuclear fuel in Russia. Fuel has been processed for a long time, and the infrastructure is underdeveloped. For this reason, plants do not have time to purify spent nuclear fuel in a timely manner in full. However, active work is being carried out in this area, as there is a tendency in the world to build up the combat power of nuclear submarines.

Conclusion

Despite all the danger posed by nuclear reactors, the number of nuclear submarines that need to be scrapped will steadily increase. The number of submarine cemeteries will also increase, not only inRussian Federation, but also around the world. And the old cemeteries of formidable war machines will not be empty for a long time yet.