"Chernobyl in slow motion" seen in Barents Sea

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Thursday, August 17 7:24 PM SGT

"Chernobyl in slow motion" seen in Barents Sea OSLO, Aug 17 (AFP) - Part of the Barents Sea, where last-ditch rescue attempts are being made to save the crew of the Russian submarine Kursk, is so full of nuclear waste that it risks becoming a "Chernobyl in slow motion," according to the Norwegian environmental protection group Bellona.

The Kursk, believed to have been damaged by an explosion Saturday, is one of several dozen nuclear-powered submarines -- many of them now abandoned -- based on the Kola peninsula where the Russian Northern Fleet is headquartered.

According to the Bellona Foundation, more than 18 percent of the world's total stock of nuclear reactors is located near fleet's main area of operations and most of them are in a poor state of maintenance.

The Russian Northern Fleet operates 67 nuclear submarines with a total of 115 reactors between them, plus two nuclear-powered battle cruisers which each have two reactors.

In addition it has 52 submarines with a total of 101 reactors which have been retired from service but still contain their nuclear fuel, Bellona said.

There are a total of 240 nuclear reactors in the Kola peninsula/Severodvinsk region on the White Sea, the greatest concentration of reactors in the world.

Of these, 236 are naval reactors on board submarines and ships, and four are land-based reactors at the Kola nuclear power station.

In a report published in 1996, Bellona said the Northern Fleet -- founded in 1899 -- has a total of 270 nuclear reactors in service or in storage. Many of these are located at or near Russia's seven naval bases on the Kola peninsula, which borders the Barents Sea.

Waste from an additional 90 reactor cores are stored under what Bellona describes as unsafe conditions at Zapadnaya Litsa. Eighteen reactor cores are stored under similar conditions on storage ships and barges.

Overall, according to Bellona, more than 30,000 cubic metres of solid nuclear waste and 7,000 cubic metres of liquid nuclear waste are stockpiled in the region.

The report was co-written by a former Russian naval captain, Alexander Nikitin, who was subsequently charged with espionage by the Russian military authorities but acquitted.

Bellona warned that without international cooperation and financing to deal with the nuclear danger in the region, a situation could arise that it described as a "Chernobyl in slow motion" -- a reference to the 1986 nuclear disaster in Ukraine.

The two nuclear reactors aboard the Kursk have been shut down and "made safe," according to Russian naval authorities.

However a leading Russian ecologist said Wednesday that the reactors still posed a threat.

Alexei Yablokov, former head of the advisory Security Council's enviromental commission, said the breakdown in the submarine's power supplies meant that the reactors could not be cooled down, and that "there could be problems, even an explosion."

http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/article.html?s=asia/headlines/000817/world/afp/_Chernobyl_in_slow_motion__seen_in_Barents_Sea.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), August 17, 2000


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