Norway contributes to safer and more effective handling of spent nuclear fuel in Russia

Historical archive

Published under: Bondevik's 2nd Government

Publisher: Ministry of Defence

News story | Date: 19/11/2003 | Last updated: 21/10/2006

(17.11.03) State Secretary Gunnar Heløe represented Norwegian authorities at the inauguration of the new transit storage facility for spent nuclear fuel at Atomflot in Murmansk. This facility has been financed through the Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation (AMEC) programme which involves environmental collaboration between the US Department of Defense and the Defence Ministries of Norway, Russia and the United Kingdom.

Norway contributes to safer and more effective handling of spent nuclear fuel in Russia

Spent nuclear fuel from decommissioned nuclear submarines being dismantled in the Murmansk area is shipped to Atomflot for onward transportation by rail. The process of transferring the containers from the ship to special railway trucks has in the past been a bottleneck. The new transit storage facility can accommodate 19 transport containers and makes it possible to receive containers unloaded from the ship on arrival in Murmansk and to transfer them onto specially built railway trucks on a continuous basis.
The Russian media showed a high level of interest in this development

In order to protect the workforce, the local population and the environment against the effects of radiation, the Norwegian developed PICASSO software package has been installed at Atomflot. A total of 14 Russian developed radiation sensors are installed in various locations and are connected to a PC network. The signals from the sensors are automatically analysed and displayed using PICASSO. The system will automatically trigger an alarm if the radiation at any location exceeds a predetermined level. The overall effect is to ensure safer and more efficient handling of spent nuclear fuel from decommissioned Russian submarines in the general neighbourhood of Norway’s northern borders.
Demonstration of PICASSO

From the Norwegian side the projects have been coordinated by the Ministry of Defence and led by scientists from the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI). Personnel from the Research Institute for Energy and Nuclear Technology (IFE) in Norway have contributed additional technical expertise.

(Picture: State Secretary Gunnar Heløe and Monica Endregard from FFI)

As State Secretary Heløe put it in his comments on the occasion: “This illustrates that the AMEC collaboration is on the right track and that it is yielding concrete results in its work of cleaning up military-related environmental threats in the North. This work is of the highest importance and it is quite clear to me that the participating nations are deeply committed to the further development of this cooperative endeavour”. Picture from the press conference