Bellona Web has meanwhile published an update to its 2003 working paper “Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators.”

The joint effort to dismantle Russia’s estimated 1000 RTGs falls under the common goals of the Group of Eight industrialised nations’ Global Partnership programme to lock down Russia’s proliferation hazards entirely over the next eight years. The US Department of Energy (DOE) got on board with the RTG dismantlement effort along the Eastern part of Russia’s Northern Shipping Route in 2004, to the tune of some $40m.

American support has already jump-started the building of a site for interim storage garnered from decommissioned RTGs in the Russian Far East—the DalRAO site near Vilyuchnisnk created in 2000 to handle radioactive waste from Russia’s rusted out Pacific Fleet submarines.

It is something of a mystery, therefore, as to why the March 14th to 15th conference, held at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, was kept under such wraps, as US-Russian non-proliferation efforts are usually the stuff of big press in Russia.

The conference dealt with several accidents in dismantling RTGs—the most recent of which occurred in Northeast Russia where the DOE is concentrating its funding. The incident, which occurred in September, was only recently made public by Russian nuclear authorities. The conference also publicised the unacceptably high incidence of theft of precious metals and vandalism of RTGs, leading to the abandonment of the highly active nuclear sources that power them.

Furthermore, the conference raised the question about how strictly governmental regulations on removing RTGs are being observed, especially now that foreign money is funding much of the activity. It also posed hard questions to donor governments—especially the US government—about how well their money was being handled, even though no ties have been established foreign funding and mishandled RTG dismantlement procedures.

In mid-February, a similar seminar on RTGs decommissioning was held in Oslo, organized by the Contact Expert Group of the International Atomic Energy Agency. At this conference—which was similarly closed—Deputy Head of Russia’s Federal Agency for Atomic Energy (Rosatom) Sergei Antipov announced that Russia, with long-standing help from Norway, and new-found support from the United States, has decommissioned some 200 of 920 operable RTGs, according to Rosatom’s official web site. More than a hundred of those are simply unaccounted for.

By Russian nuclear regulatory accounts, the bulk of these devices, located along Russia’s Arctic and Pacific coasts, have not been visited by the relevant maintenance authorities for years. Most of these batteries by admission of Russian nuclear officials, are untended, falling apart and have long surpassed their engineered life-spans—a point underscored by Antipov in Oslo. Hardly any of the devices are protected by fences or even signs indicating radiation hazards. Meanwhile, as evidenced by two incidents in Norwest Russia in 2003, the unguarded devices are pillaged by metal scavengers for the valuable metals used to protect the radioactive batteries.

International help
In Oslo, Antipov stumped for a united structure and system in Russia that would coordinate the decommissioning of RTGs—something akin to Rosatom’s Master Plan for nuclear clean-up in Russia’s Northwest. Antipov said that different organisations from different countries try to make contact with Russian authorities to help in the RTG dismantlement effort, but have no idea where to start, causing confusion and delays.

Rosatom, Antipov said in Oslo, was now working on the blueprints for such a structure, but insisted that all activities must be overseen by Rosatom.

In addition to the DalRAO site, Rosatom officials insisted in Oslo that RTG dismantlement sites be created in the Far East to avoid the financial and proliferation strain of bringing the to Moscow for dismantlement at the Institute for Technological Physics and Automatisation, and the further shipment of their strontium cores to Russia’s Mayak facility in the southern Urals.

According to Antipov when he spoke in Oslo, the DOE promised to examine the possibility of funding the construction building a special dismantlement chamber at the DalRAO site.

Norway will clean up more RTGs
At the Russian-Norwegian meeting, Russian and Norway signed an agreement to dismantle the remaining 110 nuclear powered lighthouses in the Murmansk and Arkangelsk regions of Russia by 2009—with the total elimination of all Russian RTGs by 2012—replacing them with renewable energy sources, and to transport the radioactive waste to Mayak. At an estimated $30,000 to $35,000 per RTG unit dismantled, the effort can be estimated to carry a price tag of more than $3.5m, though no official figures have been released.

Old polar station at the New Siberia island.

Arctic Coastal Dynamics project

They were suspended from a helicopter by cables for transport to the Russian polar station at Bunge. When the helicopter ran into heavy weather the crew was forced to jettison the two RTGs from a height of 50 meters on the tundra at Zemlya Bunge island, 112 kilometres from another Russian polar station, Sannikova. They have not yet been recovered.

Questions have been raised as to whether any of the newly-found US funding financed this misadventure. Bryan Wilkes, spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration for the DOE—which manages the DOE’s nuclear remediation efforts—said in a recent interview with Bellona Web that he was unaware of the September mishap, adding that the DOE had tighter controls over how its money was spent and the criteria that govern that spending.

"If something like that had happened with any funding from the DOE we most likely would have heard about it,” said Wilkes by telephone from Washington.

“We don't just contract out to the lowest bidder. We want to make sure that each project is fulfilled in a safe manner, which is why we examine environmental impact studies before the project is carried out.”

The question of whose funding goes were, and how it is spent, is especially pertinent on the European front after an environmental assessment blunder by Norway in 2003 when the country dismantled two Victor-II class submarines. Just prior to when the EUR10m dollar deal was inked, a derelict submarine called the K-159 sank in heavy weather with 800 kilograms of highly enriched uranium and 9 crew members on board while it was being towed to a dismantlement point.

No foreign funding was involved in the K-159 accident. But Bellona investigations later revealed that the two submarines whose dismantlement Norway was financing had been towed to their respective dismantlement points in the same slipshod manner as the K-159. The revelation released an uproar in the Norwegian government and a broad reassessment of its donation policies toward Russian nuclear remediation.

Zemlya Bunge island: Sandy shore of the higher terrace near the former polar station Bunge.

Arctic Coastal Dynamics project

Visible radioactive pollution on the RTG casing was not detected. No radioactive contamination of the surrounding was observed and no one was exposed to radiation, according to FSETAN. Still, a scenario in which strontium-90 from these RTG's cores could leak into the environment became imminent after experts in July 2004 confirmed a leak at an RTG located on Cape Navarin in Chukotka. The leak was chalked up by the experts to “an unknown inner thermo-physical process.”

Earlier theories indicated that destruction of the capsule and resulting leaks were impossible, provided no powerful explosives or industrial equipment were used. To read about these and other incidents, see Bellona's newly updated working paper “Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators.”

The Commission for Incident Investigation has initiated work on verifying the exact location and condition of the RTGs.

According to Sergei Lukovnikov, acting representative of the Northern European interregional territorial district of FSETAN, the spot were the RTGs crashed to the ground will only be accessible, due to weather conditions, in the summer, perhaps as late as July.

Nuclear safety record in tatters after accident
Had it not been for this incident, Northern Russia’s annual incident statistics in would have been headed for satisfactory marks from regulators. But the Northern European regional FSETAN report for 2004 notes that “the condition of radiation security at facilities of national production under observation are evaluated as being satisfactory and, on the whole, meet the demands of rules and norms. The exception is the Hydrographic Facility, whose activities resulted in deterioration of radiological situation of the environment.”

The accident was a result of violations by Hydrographic Facility of the Conditions for Licensing, which are spelled out in FSETAN’s regulation CE-04-209-1482, issued August 19th 2004. According to Lukovnikov, those conditions stipulate that every phase of dismantlement be supported by corresponding documentation and approved by FSETAN.

Following the violation of FSETAN’s licensing conditions, authorities issued a September 22nd protocol on administrative violations and submitted it for evaluation by the St Petersburg and Leningrad Region Arbitration Court. Representatives of the Hydrographic Facility failed twice to appear in court and could not prove or disprove that they had received a summons the hearings. The court fined the Hydrographic Facility $1000 (30,000 rubles).

The Hydrographic Facility appealed this decision to the Northwest Regional Court of Arbitration saying they had never received their summons, and the case will likely be a retrial with legal representatives of the Hydrographic Facility in attendance. If they are not able to prove that they never received their first summons, the original court ruling will likely stand.

Former Hydrographic Facility Director Yevgeny Klyuev (now deputy director) and Current Director Victor Medvedev.

Lukovnikov added that skirting these demands led to “the inadequate transportation of RTGs and the accident. There were no transport containers. Transport took place violating norms and rules.”

Several other RTGs have already been removed this year, but under the conditions spelled out by FSETAN’s regulations.

Hydrographic Facility Director Victor Medvedev had scant comment on the incident when Bellona Web finally reached him after two weeks of phone calls.

“I have no comment,” he said, but then went on to add impatiently that he didn’t “understand, why any article should written about the fallen RTGs or about the Arbitration court. All of that has nothing to do with the environment. A lot of people are calling me.”

He then demanded, in violation of Russian mass-media legislation, that Bellona web show him its article, after which he would decide “whether it’s worth commenting on.”

Russian journalists are guarded from having to demonstrate need for requested commentary by article 39 of Russia’s law on mass media.

So how well is the Hydrographic Facility Handling its responsibilities?
The Hydrographic Facility’s deputy director, Yevgeny Klyuev, was equally reluctant to speak on the issue, initially referred all questions back to Medvedev. But he did point out that the facility safely removed 15 RTGs from the Yakutiya region in far Northeastern Siberia in the Summer 2004 and transported them to Atomflot in Murmansk. From there, they were taken to Moscow for salvage by the Federal Science Research Institute of Technical Physics and Automatisation.

For the whole of last year, Klyuev said that “sixty nine RTGs were removed from various municipalities throughout Russia for salvage and dismantling. Plans are underway to salvage another 50 RTGs in 2005.”

Another source within FSETAN, who asked that his name not be used, supported the Hydrographic Facility’s position and cited lack of funding as the principle cause of the September mishap. Overall, the source said, the Hydrographic Facility, despite its unfamiliar mandate within the government, has a good record with decommissioning RTGs for last year.

Rashid Alimov reported from St Petersburg and Charles Digges reported from Oslo.