Posted on 06/21/2004 10:21:34 AM PDT by knighthawk
Russia plans to dismantle all of its decommissioned nuclear submarines by 2010 with the help of international aid, an official with the federal nuclear energy agency said on Monday.
"We hope to regulate the problem of dismantling the nuclear submarines by 2010 with the help of our international partners," a spokesman for the agency said.
Russia has about 100 decommissioned nuclear subs waiting to be dismantled and 70 of these still have nuclear reactors aboard, the spokesman said.
The agency estimates it will need nearly four billion dollars to dismantle the subs, which pose an environmental threat to the water bodies around the vast country.
Some 192 Soviet-era and Russian submarines are thought to have been decommissioned since the 1980s, of which 89 have been dismantled.
Most of the foreign financing pledged for the program has come from the United States, with Canada, Japan and Norway also contributing funds.
Ping
What's the total number of active Russian sub now?
What no EU pledges? They are the Greenies.
I can see the used car salesman, "We've got to move these nuclear reactors, and we're makin' deals. They're HOT, HOT, HOT!"
Can I have one? If I promise to dismantle it myself?
Very misleading headline. Big difference between 'nuclear submarines' and 'decomissioned nuclear submarines'
Decomissioning has to do with military and defense. The Europeans don't 'do' that.
Admirals Rust and Neglect are already dismantling most of the Russian underwater and surface fleet. Cutting out and entombing the reactors shouldn't cost as much as cited in the article.
And, even after his death, we continue to owe a world of gratitude to Ronald Reagan. I remember the "Die Ins" the Left staged when he was commissioning the first Ohio-class SSBN submarines.
It's the commissioned ones that are a threat.
It's not so much the environmental worry, as it is the idea of the reactors falling into the wrong hands..Perfect for making dirty bombs..4 billion is cheap....9/11 cost over $100 bill in direct costs, not counting what it did to the economy and the markets...and a dirty bomb event lasts "nearly forever"...a small dirty device set of i midtown NYC would make Manhattan a ghost town..not that that's such a bad idea, BTW, just NOT that methodology.
There is an excellent article online that shows how badly these subs need to be dismantled. Some have to have air pumped into them 24/7 just to keep them afloat.
The question is not whether we should pay to take these subs off the Russkies' hands, it's whether the Russkies will allow it.
Seems like they are considering bribe money to prevent the materials' sale. What is the resale market of used nuclear sub metal on the scrap market? (is it even allowed?) Should metal merchants buy geiger counters?
Dismanteling probably means allowed to rust into dust on the spot.
We learned the hard way with Ukraine's missile "dismantling" that money is fungible and Slavic documentation is not to be trusted.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.