been scrapped and some on order cancelled, due to weapons reduc- tion programs.* Russia and the U.S. had more than 100 each in service. The U.K. and France had less than 20 each in service, and China, six. The total today is understood to be about 120, including new ones commissioned.


Ticking time bomb? In what Bellona.org heralds as a


victory for nuclear safety, the Lepse nuclear waste ship, was finally towed for scrapping on September 14, 2012 The ship sat for more that two decades in its Murmansk port, bursting at the seams with years’ worth of accrued spent nuclear fuel in its holds, posing one of the greatest dangers of radioactive contamination in the Russian Arctic. The Lepse also participated in


dumping radioactive waste in the Kara and Barents Seas, which has left a Cold War legacy of nuclear and radiological hazards strewn across the sea floor, the extent of which is only beginning to be understood.


It just keeps coming Author and crisis reporting


specialist Eve Conant wrote in Scientific American in September 2012 “Russia’s dream to dominate the Arctic will soon get a boost with a nuclear-powered icebreaker designed to navigate both shallow rivers and the freezing depths of the Northern Sea. Planned to be completed by the end of 2017, Rosatomflot, Russia’s atomic fleet, inked a deal to begin construction of a massive new vessel 170 metres long and 34 metres wide. That is 14 metres longer and four metres wider than any of Russia’s other nuclear vessels. Powered by two “RITM-200”


compact pressurized water reactors generating enough power to blast through ice more than four metres thick and tow tankers of up to 70,000 tons displacement through Arctic ice fields. Rosatomflot says the vessel would have liquid bal- lasts allowing it to alter its draught (the depth of the loaded vessel in the water) to between 8.5 and 10.8 metres, allowing it to access both


Siberian rivers that reach deep into Russia, as well as the Northern Sea. This nuclear monster can travel for seven years without refuelling. Rus- sia claims to be years ahead with its nuclear-powered icebreakers. Bellona reports The Severod-


vinsk, the flagship for the new Yasen class of large-scale Russian submarines, has failed sea trials in the White Sea, revealing reactor power problems, noisy operation, untested missile equipment, faulty components and huge cost overruns that will cause further problems and setbacks for the ves- sel’s scheduled serial production. Construction began in 1993, and a dozen or so delays later Russian sources claimed the boat should be ready for sea trials this year. Hang on to your borscht.


Chernobyl at sea? Russia building floating nuclear power plants John C.K. Daly of http://oilprice.


com reported on July 16 that Baltiysky Zavod is Russia’s biggest shipbuilding complex. According


Below: Huge cost over-runs and performance issues have caused numerous embarrassing delays for the Severodvinsk. Opposite: Total of 9 icebreakers in the Arctic-class and Taimyr-class plus 1 nuclear lighter carrier ship Sevmorflot with ice-breaking bow.


Photo: Russian Presidential Press Service 35


September 2013


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