Intro: "Enormous quantities of decommissioned Russian nuclear reactors and radioactive waste were dumped into the Kara Sea in the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia over a course of decades, according to documents given to Norwegian officials by Russian authorities and published in Norwegian media."

The K-27 nuclear submarine, which was sunk by the Soviet Navy in 1981 for disposal, poses a possible risk of exploding beneath the sea. The submarine was not among radioactive hazards cataloged by Russian Authorities. (photo: The Russian Northern Fleet: Sources of Radioactive Contamination)

Enormous Quantities of Russian Radioactive Waste Dumped in Arctic Seas

By Charles Digges, Bellona

04 September 12

Enormous quantities of decommissioned Russian nuclear reactors and radioactive waste were dumped into the Kara Sea in the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia over a course of decades, according to documents given to Norwegian officials by Russian authorities and published in Norwegian media.

ellona had received in 2011 a draft of a similar report prepared for Russia’s Gossoviet, the State Council, for presentation at a meeting presided over by then-president Dmitry Medvedev on Russian environmental security.

The Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom confirmed the figures in February of this year during a seminar it jointly held with Bellona in Moscow.

Bellona is alarmed by the extent of the dumped Soviet waste, which is far greater than was previously known – not only to Bellona, but also to the Russian authorities themselves.

The catalogue of waste dumped at sea by the Soviets, according to documents seen by Bellona, and which were today released by the Norwegian daily Aftenposten, includes some 17,000 containers of radioactive waste, 19 ships containing radioactive waste, 14 nuclear reactors, including five that still contain spent nuclear fuel; 735 other pieces of radiactively contaminated heavy machinery, and the K-27 nuclear submarine with its two reactors loaded with nuclear fuel.

Bellona’s Two Decades on The Case

“Bellona has worked with this issue since 1992 when we first revealed the dangerous nuclear waste laying at the bottom of the Kara Sea,” said Bellona President Frederic Hauge.

He acknowledged, however, that a precise accounting from the Russian side could hardly be expected given Russia’s own ignorance of the extent of the dumped radioactive waste.

Hauge demanded that Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre take the issue up with his counterparts in the Russian foreign ministry as soon as possible.

“The Norwegian government talks a lot about oil and gas with the Russian government,” said Hauge. “But this report shows that decommissioned nuclear reactors and radioactive waste must be much higher on the agenda when the two countries meet on an official level.

Gradual Revelations

Per Strand of the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority told Aftenposten that the information on the radioactive waste had come from the Russian authorities gradually.

“No one can guarantee that this outline we have received is complete,” he said.

He added that Russia has set up a special commission to undertake the task of mapping the waste, the paper reported.

A Norwegian-Russian Expert Group will this week start an expedition in areas of the Kara Sea, which the report released by Russia says was used as a radioactive dump until the early 1990s.

The expedition will represent the first time Norway has participated in plumming the depths of Russian waters for radiactive waste since 1994, said Aftenposten.

Making Way For Oil Exploration

Bellona’s Igor Kurdrik, an expert on Russian naval nuclear waste, said that, “We know that the Russians have an interest in oil exploration in this area. They therefore want to know were the radioactive waste is so they can clean it up before they beging oil recovery operations.”

He cautiously praised the openness of the Russian report given to Norway and that Norway would be taking part in the waste charting expedition.

Bellona thinks that Russia has passed its report to Norway as a veiled cry for help, as the exent of the problem is far too great for Moscow to handle on its own.

The Most Crucial Find Missing

Kudrik said that one of the most critical pieces of information missing from the report released to the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority was the presence of the K-27 nuclear submarine, which was scuttled in 50 kilometers of water with its two reactors filled with spent nuclear fuel in in Stepovogo Bay in the Kara Sea in 1981.

Information that the reactors about the K-27 could reachieve criticality and explode was released at the Bellona-Rosatom seminar in February.

“This danger had previously been unknown, and is very important information. When they search and map these reactors, they must be the first priority,” said Kudrik.

Researchers will now evaluate whether it is possible to raise the submarine, and attempt to determine if it is leaking radioactivity into the sea.

Bård Vegar Solhjell, Norway’s Minster of the Environment sought in Aftenposten to play down dangers associated with the enormous Soviet-era nuclear dumping ground.

“I am concerned that people should not be unnecessarily disturbed by this – we do not yet know if anything is seriously wrong,” he said.

He added that he was not aware of any risk of explosion aboard the sunken K-27.

Other Sources of Contamination

Similar joint expeditions between Russia and Norway to map radioactive waste were undertaken in the waters east of Novaya Zemlya in 1992, 1993, and 1994. The expeditions aimed to establish the dangers posed by the dumped radioactive waste.

Novaya Zemlya was a nuclear weapons testing site during the Cold War. Russia has conducted a number of other expeditons to chart undersea sources of radiactive pollution since 1994, but without Norwegian assistance, said Aftenposten.

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+41 # Mamazon 2012-09-04 08:18

Well folks, human stupidity has killed the oceans. Between the Russians indiscriminatel y dumping tons of waste including a nuke sub and reactors into the sea and the ongoing Fukushima nightmare -- we have planted the seeds of radioactivity that will destroy the oceans and ultimately every life on Earth... Good job military/corpor ate fascists. You took the wonder that is life and delivered us all to hell.

0 # robcarter.vn 2012-09-05 00:52

Julius Robert Oppenheimer remarked that it brought to mind words from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

Still Wikipoedia details 13 countries dumping it inn the sea.
From 1946 through 1993, thirteen countries (fourteen, if the USSR and Russia are considered separately) used ocean disposal or ocean dumping as a method to dispose of nuclear/radioac tive waste. The waste materials included both liquids and solids housed in various containers, as well as reactor vessels, with and without spent or damaged nuclear fuel.[1] Since 1993, ocean disposal has been banned by agreement through a number of international treaties.
So let us handle this anger with care and worry how to correct risk, npt rave about who did it or what. Thats the task we assigned to a UN and scientific body for obvious reasons.

+25 # Glen 2012-09-04 08:57

Nukes and chemicals. The U.S. is as guilty as any country in polluting the seas. The warnings were there decades ago, and the knowledge of what was being dumped on islands and in the oceans was well known. No amount of protest could convince the guilty the seas are not endless and very fragile.

+2 # JJS 2012-09-05 02:48

Yes Glen, the US is just as guilty and the leader. The bomb testing in the Pacific atolls and the nuclear subs dumping their wastes somewhere in the Pacific ocean, (who knows where?). At least the Russians kept track of the dumping to some extent.

0 # Glen 2012-09-05 14:47

I've talked with folks who were on guard here in the U.S. along the coasts, watching for submarines and such, who knew of the dumping. Those metal drums have been deteriorating and leading for many years. Yeah, the Russians, AT LEAST, the very least, kept track. Although, there are folks who are now checking up on islands around the U.S. and monitoring the amount of nuclear materials. No matter, it is there. Forever.

+18 # LeeBlack 2012-09-04 10:13

This demonstrates the lie we are given of "clean nuclear energy".
Until there is some way to ecologically deal with radioactive waste there should be no new nuclear power stations, new nuclear submarines and existing stations should be shut down.

+19 # Vardoz 2012-09-04 10:39

If we kill our oceans we will die and a vast number of living creatures that we share the world with will die too. So now we have the biggest nuclear disaster in history, Fukushima, dumping trillions of gallons of radioactive wasted into the Pacific that will and is traveling around the world and will poison our food chain and kill for generations, the UK is also dumping radioactive waste in the ocean, our ozone layer that protects all living things from UV rays is down 50% and getting worse because of Global Climate change which also destroys our Ozone layer. Burning coal and all the other Co2 causing industries like making cement, mining uranium, cutting down the rain forests and raising beef. Connect the dots and ask yourself what are our species chance for survival? The fate of our earth is in the hands of ignorant, greedy, irresponsible polluters. It is a tragedy beyond words. We are destroying the only place we have to live, our beautiful Earth that gives us everything we have. We are an insane, self destructive species.

0 # JJS 2012-09-05 02:44

Quoting Vardoz:

If we kill our oceans ....

I thin you meant to say "AS" we kill our oceans.....

+13 # dkonstruction 2012-09-04 11:31

It is long past time to reclaim the notion of "the commons" and to declare basic resources such as land (public land at this point), air and water as being part of the "commons" that should never be privatized and must be protected and only be developed for "the common good" (which at this point means it must be "green" and economically sustainable). And, crimes against "the commons" -- like dumping radioactive materials into the ocean -- should be viewed as environmental "crimes against humanity" (we could also make the case that they are also economic crimes against humanity since those who did not cause the problem will be expected to pay to clean it up) and the guilty should be brought before the international criminal court.

-1 # freeportguy 2012-09-04 13:38

Honestly, do you expect any different from Putin and his ruling Russians?

+1 # Minnesota 2012-09-04 13:57

Bellona says the submarine was scuttled in 50 meters of water, not 50 km as the article reports. That probably makes it more dangerous, but perhaps easier to retrieve.

-1 # ktony 2012-09-05 05:36

@Minnesota:
Thanks for clarifying the depth. 50 kilometers is about 162500 feet, or approaching 31 miles. My eyes bugged out when I saw the number given.

-1 # David Starr 2012-09-06 09:01

It's ironic that a few years ago liberal Stephen Cohen did favor the continued existence of the Soviet Union, if anything, to maintain and to monitor its nuclear arsenal. Overall, and in hindsight, it looks like he was right. Besides the environmental destruction from nuclear waste as noted above, Russians, and probably the neighboring nationalities, have had their living standards greatly plummet, except for the "new capitalists." the Russian Mafia, or "Rafia," has run amok, although Russian authorities and security have at least tried to contain it. (In some cases, anyway.) To sound repetitive of past posts, I essentially blame the legacy of Stalinism for many past and present conditions in the USSR/Russia, etc. It's tragic since in the 1920s a party member named Ryutkin discreetly told his colleagues that when he eventually met Stalin he quickly got to dislike him. He added that Stalin should have been assassinated; this being the only means to get rid of him. The "sacrifice" would of course been worth it, considering how many people were declared "enemies of the people," communist and otherwise. Stalin's assassination would have meant the elimination of a real enemy of the people. Tragic it went the other way.

0 # Glen 2012-09-08 10:34

Yes, hindsight bites. However, regardless of how things SHOULD have been handled, the U.S. had an agenda, so even if the results of toppling the Soviets were considered, it would not have mattered to those pushing for it. Nothing is logical with the most governments, in spite of being presented at such.

0 # David Starr 2012-09-08 12:48

I'll say that one should learn from history, not dwell in it. I especially refer to the subjects of Stalin and Stalinism.

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