Construction of long term interim storage facility for nuclear reactor compartments of submarines: German support for utilisation of nuclear submarines in Russia

Abstract At the world economic summit in Kananaskis, Canada, in June 2002, the G8 heads of state decided on a global partnership against the distribution of nuclear weapons and materials of mass destruction. Based on this framework, the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) established a project in October 2003 concerning the storage of decommissioned Russian nuclear submarines. The basis was a German–Russian agreement. On the German side, the project management of this 300 million euro project was assigned to Energiewerke Nord GmbH (EWN) and technical controlling to BAM Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und –prüfung under respective BMWi contracts. On the Russian side, the Kurchatov Institute has the project management of the long term interim storage facility in Sayda Bay, while the Nerpa shipyard, which is about 25 km away from the storage facility, is dismantling the submarines and preparing the reactor compartments for long term interim storage. The aims of the project — design and construction of a long term interim storage facility (i.e. for a period of about 70 years) for 150 reactor compartments and 28 other big radioactive components of vessels at Sayda Bay near Murmansk — are foremost in this presentation. The interim storage facility is a precondition for effectively decommissioning and dismantling almost all of the nuclear powered submarines in the Russian Northern Fleet. In July 2006, the first stage of the reactor compartment storage facility was commissioned, and the first seven reactor compartments have already been delivered from Nerpa shipyard. Further transports of reactor compartments to the storage facility were carried out in September 2007. Details about the construction work progress at the storage site and the preparation of reactor compartments up to the beginning of operation in summer 2006, as well as some information about technical recommendations, will also be briefly illustrated. Within the scope of this paper, experience and lessons learned from constructing and commissioning the storage facility and logistical challenges, including preparation and transportation of reactor compartments from the shipyard to the storage area wharf, will also be discussed. In particular, the hydraulic keel blocks, developed and supplied by German subcontractors, which are used for the transport of reactor compartments at the shipyard, the dock and the storage facility are described. In the second part of the present contribution, the construction process on site will be outlined.