Chazhma Ship Repair Facility

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CHAZHMA SHIP REPAIR FACILITY

LOCATION:
Near Dunay, on the eastern coast of the Shkotovo Peninsula, southeastern shore of Chazhma Bay (the western extension of Razboynik Bay, which lies on the western edge of Strelok Bay), 45km southeast of Vladivostok, Primorskiy Kray. The photo shows the rusting hulk of many floating former submarine nuclear reactor vessels, rotting away in the Bay opposite to the Yard.

SUBORDINATION: Ministry of Defense
[US Department of Energy MPC&A Task Force Personnel Presentation, Monterey, CA, 6 August 1999.] {Entered 11/30/99 TR}

FUEL:
Fresh fuel for nuclear submarines is stored here on land and in the PM-74 service ship.[1,2] Between 1990 and 1993, Chazhma received regular deliveries of fresh nuclear fuel. As of 1993, there was enough fresh fuel for 24 submarines (48 nuclear reactors) at this site. Much of the fuel was damaged or usable only in retired first-generation Soviet submarines.[3]

More broadly the Shkotovo Peninsula area encompasses a number of nuclear submarine facilities, including Chazhma Ship Repair Facility, Sites 32 and 86, and Razboynik Bay, and is also home to the towns of Tikhookeanskiy (Shkotovo-17 or Fokino), Dunay (Shkotovo-22), and Temp. The region functions as a primary service, refueling, and waste storage site for the Pacific Fleet's nuclear submarines.

Besides servicing SSNs operating in the southern portion of the Pacific Fleet, the Shkotovo Peninsula's facilities are the primary source of nuclear fuel for SSNs and SSBNs operating out of Petropavlovsk's Rybachiy submarine base on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Shkotovo facilities connect to the Trans-Siberian Railroad, allowing it to receive fresh fuel from the Machine Building Plant (MSZ) in Elektrostal and return spent fuel assemblies for storage or reprocessing at the Mayak Chemical Combine (in Chelyabinsk).

Sources:

[1] US Department of Energy MPC&A Task Force Personnel Presentation, Monterey, CA, 6 August 1999.
[2] Rear Admiral Nikolay Yurasov et al., "Upgrades to the Russian Navy's Fuel Transfer Ships and Consolidated Storage Locations," Partnership for Nuclear Security: United States/Former Soviet Union Program of Cooperation on Nuclear Material Protection, Control, and Accounting, September 1998.
[3] Oleg Bukharin and William Potter, "Potatoes Were Guarded Better," The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May-June 1995, p. 47. {Revised 11/30/99 TR}

MPC&A:

In March 1998, a US Department of Energy (DOE) team visited and conducted an initial site characterization assessment of the service ship PM-74, which carries fresh fuel from Chazhma (also known as Site 34) to Kamchatka Shipyard (Site 49K), where Rybachiy-based nuclear submarines are refueled. The PM-74 also carries spent fuel back from Kamchatka.[1] The assessment served as the basis for a plan to upgrade the ship's MPC&A system, which was completed in August 2000.[1,2,3] In September 1998, DOE began to upgrade MPC&A at a land-based fresh fuel storage facility at Chazhma. The enhancements initially included several rapid upgrades and eventually incorporated long-term measures as well.[1] These long-term measures included a permanent storage facility scheduled for completion in spring 2000.[2] Upgrades to two buildings at Site 34 were reported completed in September 2000.[3] (For more information on DOE MPC&A assistance to the Russian Navy, please see the DOE reports and agreements on these activities in the Russia: Full Text Documents section.)

Sources:
[1] Rear Admiral Nikolay Yurasov et al., "Upgrades to the Russian Navy's Fuel Transfer Ships and Consolidated Storage Locations," Partnership for Nuclear Security: United States/Former Soviet Union Program of Cooperation on Nuclear Material Protection, Control, and Accounting, September 1998.
[2] NISNP Correspondence with MPC&A task force personnel, January 2000, RUS000100. {Entered 11/30/99 TR; updated 1/14/2000 CC}
[3] U.S. 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.

As of December 2000 there was one submarine with fuel on board in Chazhma Bay, and five fueled and 17 defueled submarines in the larger Razboynik Bay.[8] In August 1998, the Far East Association of Business Journalism published plans to convert the Chazhma Ship Repair Facility into a complex to process gas and oil from the Sakhalin shelf. Although this facility has ceased to repair submarines, the docks, spur tracks, and infrastructure remain. A site survey is in progress.[3] As of March 2000, the Ministry of Defense had signed documents that allot land for the construction of an oil refinery and gas terminal in Chazhma and Razboynik bays, and a technical and economic feasibility study was under way. The Primorsk Oil and Gas Complex (PNGK) project has been included in the "Program for the Development of the Primorsk Fuel and Energy Complex, 2000-2015," and will reportedly be included in the federal energy program.[4] However, as of August 2000 no progress had been made toward beginning the project, and Dunay Mayor Yevgeniy Khudenkikh said that project realization was questionable.[9]