Site 32 & Site 86

 nuclear waste storage, fenced area

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SITE 32 AND SITE 86

LOCATION:
Southern coast of the Shkotovo Peninsula, southeast of Vladivostok, Primorskiy Kray
SUBORDINATION: Ministry of Defense

ACTIVITIES:
Also known as Cape Sysoyeva and Cape Maydel, the Site 32 radioactive waste site is the only land-based permanent nuclear submarine radioactive waste storage facility in the Far East. It consists of five burial trenches for low-level solid radioactive wastes. The trenches are full and covered so that the content of the trenches is unknown. Highly radioactive waste, such as ion-resin exchanger slurries, from nuclear-powered submarines is also stored at this site.[1-6]

Spent reactor fuel is also routinely stored here prior to shipment to the Mayak Chemical Combine reprocessing plant in Chelyabinsk. The land-based storage facility holds 8,400 spent fuel assemblies. In 1995, the Shkotovo facility was at 93 percent capacity.[1-6] The US Department of Energy assistance program for spent fuel MPC&A at Site 32 has completed upgrades at two Site 32 buildings. The facility is the first to work cooperatively with DOE on spent fuel MPC&A.[7,12] The project was completed in January 2000.[8] In addition, three PM-124 class (PM-80, PM-125, PM-133) service ships, based in Pavlovsk Bay, operate at Shkotovo. These ships hold 1,680 spent fuel assemblies, including 118 damaged fuel assemblies on the PM-80. The PM-133, also known as TNT-16, was contaminated during rescue efforts that followed the 10 August 1985 incident during which the reactor of K-314, an Echo II (Project 675) SSN, caught fire and vented radiation in Chazhma Bay.[9,10,13] Two Pavlovsk-based technical support ships also operate at the facility, the TNT-5 and TNT-27.[4,5,13]

In 1995, approximately 700 persons were stationed at Site 32, as part of Military Unit 40752.

Site 86 is adjacent to Site 32.[11] DOE has been working on MPC&A upgrades at two buildings on this site. As of February 2001, upgrades had been completed at one of the two buildings.[12]

Sources:

[1] Joshua Handler, Trip Report: Greenpeace Visit to Moscow and Russian Far East, February 1993, pp. 3-4.
[2] "Guide to Russian Navy Pacific Fleet Nuclear-Powered Submarine Bases and Facilities," 12 January 1994.
[3] Oleg Bukharin and Joshua Handler, "Russian Nuclear-Powered Submarine Decommissioning," Science & Global Security, vol. 5, 1995, p. 258.
[4] "Nuclear Wastes in the Arctic: An Analysis of Arctic and Other Regional Impacts From Soviet Nuclear Contamination," OTA-ENV-623 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, September 1995), pp. 121, 140.
[5] Joshua Handler, "Russia's Pacific Fleet: Problems With Nuclear Waste," Jane's Intelligence Review, March 1995, p. 137.
[6] Joshua Handler, Greenpeace Trip Report, pp. 7, 14.
[7] US Department of Energy MPC&A Task Force Personnel Presentation, Monterey, CA, 6 August 1999.
[8] NISNP Correspondence with MPC&A task force personnel, January 2000, RUS000100.
[9] E. A. Goriglejan, Design Support to Minimize the Risk of the Environmental Impact of Damaged Nuclear Steam Generating Plants of Russian Nuclear Submarines During Their Long-Term Storage in Sarcophaguses. Advanced Research Workshop on Analysis of Risks Associated with Nuclear Submarine Decommissioning, Dismantling, and Disposal (Moscow: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997).
[10] Y. V.Sivintsev, V. L. Visotsky, et al., "Radioecological Consequences of a Radiation Accident in a Nuclear-Powered Submarine in Chazhma Cove." Russian Journal of Atomic Energy, Vol. 76, No. 2 (1994), pp.157-160.{Entered 11/30/99 TR; updated 1/14/2000 CC; updated 9/14/2000 CC}
[11] E-mail correspondence with DOE official, 23 April 2001.
[12] US General Accounting Office, Nuclear Nonproliferation: Security of Russia's Nuclear Material Improving; Further Enhancements Needed, GAO-01-312 (Washington, DC: February 2001), GAO Web Site, www.gao.gov/new.items/d01312.pdf.{Updated 5/24/2001 CC}
[13] V.A. Danilyan, V.L.Vysotskiy, A.A. Maksimov, and Yu. V. Sivintsev, "Vliyaniye utilizatsii atomnykh podvodnykh lodok na radioekologicheskuyu obstonovku v Dalnevostochnom regione," Atomnaya energiya, Vol. 89, No. 6 (December 2000), pp. 454-474.{Updated 6/15/2001 CC}

www.nti.org/db/nisprofs/russia/naval/nucflt/pacflt/shko...