In new AMEC twist, Russia offering to scrap aged British nuke subs
- Norway and UK to share £3.9 million burden of dismantling Russian November class sub
- Norway and United States drop out of AMEC to assume observers’ roles
- Dutch firm Dockwise delivers last of its subs from Gremikha
- Norway Releases Funding For AMEC Sub Transportation In A Victory For Bellona
- UK sticks to its guns in AMEC quarrel
- Norway to scrap another Russian sub, but two previous efforts ignored spent nuclear fuel safety
- Norway Complicit in Same Unsafe Towing Practices That Sank the K-159
- Russian Naval Negligence Sinks Retired Nuke Sub in Barents Sea, Killing Nine
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Prior to this, the four-nation military-to-military nuclear remediation group – which consists of the United States, Russia, Norway and the United Kingdom – has directed its largess toward solving nuclear waste and submarine decommissioning problems in Russia.
But the UK, the group’s newest member, caused a schism in the group when it joined in 2003 by suggesting that Norwegian and US efforts were flagging because they refused to integrate commercial organisations into Cold War legacy clean up projects in Russia.
The UK also asserted that Russia should be encouraged to play the role of a partner in the group rather than just its sole beneficiary. The United States and Norway spoke out against the inclusion of commercial structures – specifically Britain’s NUKEM group – because of the delicate trust the group had forged since 1996 between military commanders in the West and Russia.
The United States has had little participation in AMEC since the shake up, relegating itself to an observational role.
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| The AMEC logo with two of its founding partners crossed out. |
| Bellona |
Norway ended it’s active participation in AMEC last year, but it is still involved, primarily with the UK, in a hands-on AMEC project, sharing the financing a £3.9 million ($7.6 million) dismantlement project on a November Class submarine begun at the Nerpa shipyard near Murmansk on the Barents Sea in February.
Recent days have seen efforts from Russia toward reciprocating part of the AMEC largesse it has received, and the Royal Navy last week held talks with officials from Zvedochka, near Arkangelsk – Russia’s main shipyard for decommissioning nuclear submarines from its own Northern Fleet, the Barents Obeserver reported.
More than 100 such submarines have been scraped by Zvezdochka since the early 1990’s with the support of various international agreements, primary among them the US-Russian Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) programme, run by the US Department of Defence, and for which AMEC has long been considered the environmental wing.
Earlier last week, the British ambassador to Norway, David Powell and William Elliot, the British consul general in St. Petersburg visited Murmansk and the Nerpa shipyard to gauge progress on the Norwegian-UK joint effort begun in February, said the Barents obeserver.
British Naval officials have also visited Russia in recent days to discuss the project, a Zvezdochka spokesman said, as quoted by RIA Novosti. The naval visits were also confirmed by a spokesman for the Royal navy as well as Britain's department for trade and industry, which oversees Britain's nuclear programmes in Russia, including AMEC project coordination.
"There are many issues to be decided before signing off on this deal, such as how the subs will be tranported and the dismantlement costs," said naval offical who requested that his name not be used as he was not authoirsed to speak publcly about the project.
"There are also legal aspects of the AMEC agreement that need to be reviewed before the project is classified as a bona fide AMEC project, such as the exent to which funding from other member nations, mainly Russia, will be feasibly committed to dismantling Western submarines."
The British Naval official noted that the main contirbution, however, would be the know-how of Zvedochka engineers.
Because the cash usually flows in the opposite direction, he said, the project, when finalised would represent a major policy advance for the UK's participation in AMEC - which is to bring Russia into the fold as a partner rather than just the recipient of western controlled funding.
The deal, if approved by both sides, would mark a major milestone in restructuring AMEC to include Russia in the organisation as a full-fledged participant, the spokesman said.
The UK has a minimum of 11 retired nuclear submarines laid up at sea awaiting dismantlement and the unloading of spent fuel of their highly radioactive reactors.
This is an extraordinarily dangerous situation, and one that speaks of desperation, as Russia had been until recent years the only nation in the world to store retired submarines bearing spent nuclear fuel at sea.
The British-Russian scrapping project, if it comes to fruition, will not involve storing the reactors from the British submarines in Russia.
Zvezdochka officials said they could undertake the scrapping of the British subs under the framework of the AMEC agreement, the Barents Observer reported.
The British submarines would transported to Zvezdochka, preferably on barges whose decks are able to submerge beneath the submarine and lift it out of the water. One such transport project of a derelict submarine was conducted by the Dutch shipping firm Dockwise.
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| Dockwise's unique heavy lift vessel transporting a derelict Russian submarine to dismantlement. |
| Severnaya Subbotnaya Gazata |
Such transports employing barges rather than traditional towing were brought about by vociferous protests to the Norwegian and Russian governments, and the international community as a whole, lodged by the Bellona Foundation.
Bellona’s involvement in changing these methods came in the wake of the sinking of the K-159 in 2003. This rusted out nuclear vessel was being towed by the Russians from one shipyard to another when high waves broke the tow lines and the sub sank with nine Russian seamen who were aboard to monitor leaks, killing them all.
Further investigations by Bellona revealed that Norway had contributed to an international project that involved towing two other nuclear submarines in similar fashion, raising an uproar in the environmental community, as Norway had clearly opted for cheap over safe transport methods.
The latest submarine transport projects financed by Norway have insisted on using the semi-submersible barges.
Zvezdochka officials, however, say that towing the British subs is also under consideration, RIA Novosti reported.
If the agreement is hammered out, the submarines will be transported via the western coast of Norway around the tip of the Kola Peninsula to Zvezdochka, the Barents Observer said. There, the reactor compartments for the submarines will be removed, hermetically sealed and sent back to Great Britain.
French officials are also started exploring the possibility of having aged French nuclear powered submarines scrapped at Zvezdochka, the shipyard spokesman said. The French Embassy in Moscow, however, could not confirm that this was the case as parties responsible for French nuclear projects in Russia were unavailable for comments.
