Dismantling of nuclear submarine begins in Russia

Hindustan Times ^ | June 08 2003 | AFP

[knighthawk]

Engineers began dismantling a nuclear submarine scrapped from Russia's Pacific fleet on Sunday as part of a Japanese-funded project, a senior Japanese foreign ministry official said.

With the recycling of the Viktor-3 class submarine at the Zvezda ("star" in Russian) plant near Vladivostok, "the implementation of the Russian-Japanese project 'Star of Hope' has begun," Sindo Esitaka told reporters in this Pacific port city.

While Japan has been funding a nuclear submarine recycling programme for 10 years, too little has been done so far, Esitaka added.

Over the past decade, "Japan has devoted 20 billion yen ($169 million, 144 million euros) to this program. Four billion yen have been used to set up a nuclear recycling plant, but the remaining 16 billion have not been used to this day," he said.

"Not a single nuclear submarine has been recycled and only very recently has there been any progress," Esitaka said.

Japan has earmarked 800 million yen for the "Star of Hope" project over the next 18 months.

Esitaka expressed concern at the number of nuclear submarines taken out of service in Russia's far east and at the potential environmental hazard they constitute.

"There are 41 decommissioned nuclear submarines in the Russian far east, 36 of which present an extreme risk of nuclear contamination," he said.

The Zvezda plant is the only recycling facility for nuclear submarines in the region.

[knighthawk]

ping

[dixiechick2000]

BTTT!

[SSN558]

Recycleing is a costly non profit activity for decommisioning nuclear subs. In the U.S. the entire section of the hull containing the reactor, turbine, demineralizer, etc. is sectioned away from the rest of the boat. It is then capped off with plate and stored above ground.