THE DTI FSU NUCLEAR LEGACY PROGRAMME: SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL MANAGEMENT AT ANDREEVA BAY

Abstract

Andreeva Bay is located in the Zapadnaya sea inlet at the extreme North-West of the Kola Peninsula (Russian Federation), about 40km from the Norwegian border and 80 km from Murmansk to the south-east. Spent nuclear fuel (SNF), arising from the operations of the former Soviet Union’s Northern Fleet, was initially stored in two large pools within Building 5. However, after serious leaks in the early 1980s the fuel was transferred to an external “drystore” constructed by adapting three existing concrete tanks, previously allocated for the storage of liquid radwaste. This was intended to be a temporary solution to the emergency situation. There are currently approximately 20,000 spent fuel assemblies (SFA) stored within the three tanks. The condition of the dry storage units is poor with inadequate roofs which have allowed water ingress to the tanks. Inspection of the cells has indicated very high activity levels in the interstitial water. The UK Government’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Former Soviet Union (FSU) Nuclear Legacy Programme has been supporting a project concerned with SNF management at Andreeva Bay since 2002. RWE NUKEM is the project management consultant to the DTI for this and other projects, under this Programme. The Programme forms part of the UK’s contribution to the G8 Global Partnership Initiative. The progress of the project is described in this paper. The underlying objective of the project is to identify and implement solutions for existing safety, security and environmental problems of SNF storage at Andreeva Bay, which are acceptable to both the DTI and all key Russian stakeholders. BACKGROUND The Andreeva Bay Coastal Technical Base was established in the early 1960’s and was used for the refueling of nuclear powered submarine cores and for storing spent nuclear fuel from submarines and nuclear powered ice-breakers. The Base was also used for interim storage of the solid and liquid radioactive wastes resulting from nuclear submarine operations and maintenance. Andreeva Bay is located in the Zapadnaya sea inlet at the extreme North-West of the Kola Peninsula (Russian Federation), about 40km from the Norwegian border and some 80km from Murmansk to the south-east. WM’05 Conference, February 27-March 3, 2005, Tucson, AZ Spent nuclear fuel (SNF) was initially stored in two large pools within Building 5, however in the early 1980’s, after serious leaks from the pools, the fuel was transferred to an external “drystore” constructed by adapting three existing concrete tanks, previously allocated for the storage of liquid radwaste. There are currently approximately 20,000 spent fuel assemblies (SFA) stored within the three tanks. The site currently contains very large inventories of radioactive waste. This is principally present as spent fuel, in the dry storage units (Tanks 2A, 2B and 3A). The potential inventory in the three dry storage units is of the order of 10 Bq. Another very contaminated facility is Building 5, the former pond storage facility for spent fuel. The dry storage units were designed to store the spent fuel for 6 years. The tanks are currently in poor condition and are no longer proof against rain and snowmelt and from ground water penetration. Water is now present in many of the cells and is in contact with the fuel as the water is contaminated. The activity of the water has been observed to be increasing since 1999 suggesting that there is continuing fuel degradation in the tanks. There are no facilities or equipment on the site to allow improved management of this fuel. One of the dry storage units in particular, Tank 3A, is more susceptible to the penetration of rain water and snow melt as it has no cover other than concrete slabs covered with bitumen (Figure 1). The other tanks have roofs that allow some, but not full, protection. Fig. 1. Dry storage Unit 1 (facility 3A) Until recently there has been very little infrastructure to support operations at Andreeva Bay. None of the existing facilities had been maintained over the last 30 to 40 years and there were no services (electricity, water, roads, health physics, monitoring, decontamination, waste WM’05 Conference, February 27-March 3, 2005, Tucson, AZ management) at the site. The old pier remains in very poor condition and adjacent areas are very contaminated. The new pier was never completed and is not in an operational condition.