Environmental radiation monitoring at the areas of the spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste storage in the Russian Northwest

Abstract

A big technical base of the Northern Fleet was created in the Russian Northwest in the 1960s at Andreeva Bay in the Kola Peninsula in the Barents Sea. It maintained nuclear submarines performing receipt and storage of radioactive waste (RW) and spent nuclear fuel (SNF). No further waste was received after 1985 and this technical base has since been re-categorized as a site of temporary storage (STS). In order to obtain comprehensive information with respect to current radiation circumstances at STS with regulatory purposes, radiationhygienic monitoring of the STS facility has been carried out. Environmental radiation monitoring demonstrated significant excess of 137 Cs and 90 Sr contents at local parts of the coastal strip of the STS health protection zone in seawater, seaweeds, bottom sediments and soil. The environmental radiation monitoring findings served as a basis for the associated databank arrangement. Кеуwords: northern fleet, Andreeva Bay, storage of radioactive waste, spent nuclear fuel, environmental radiation monitoring, databank.