Guba Ara (Still Bay) Naval Base

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Ara Bay (Ара-Губа) runs approximately 10 kilometers in length and one kilometer in width. Although Ara Bay served all three generations of nuclear submarines in the 1980's, it is now one of the most poorly equipped bases of the Northern Fleet. It actively serves some Akula class attack submarines. Ara Bay houses decommissioned submarines.

In addition to an alleged solid and liquid radioactive waste storage facility, Ara Bay houses a three-cubic meter storage tank for collecting liquid radioactive waste from the nuclear submarines it serves. Naval officials are considering using three incomplete tunnels, each 400 meters in length and 30 meters in diameter, for temporary reactor compartment storage until a permanent radioactive waste depository is constructed in northwest Russia. The tunnels, originally intended to hide submarines, could house up to 100 reactor compartments for 80 to 100 years, but a lack of funding is hindering progress on the project.

Ara Bay experienced 2,000 curies of radioactive contamination over a one kilometer area when a K-192 nuclear submarine with reactor damage from a 1989 accident remained docked there. In 1994, in order to keep the submarine from sinking, it was transferred to Polyarninskiy Shipyard.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akula-class_submarine