Bellona Archive

The Northern Fleet consists of 11 bases and shipyards for service, graving and dismantlement. There are Severomosrk which serves as the main base and administrative centre for the Northern Fleet and lies 25 kilometers north of Murmansk on the eastern side of the Murmansk Inlet. Gazhievo is base point in Olenaya Bay and the settlement Skalisty. Sayda Bay is a former fishing village that was annexed as a military area in 1990. Its now stores hulls and reactor compartments from nuclear submarines. Nerpa is situated in the innermost part of Olenya Bay. Today, it falls under the auspices of the Ministry of Economy. The two shipyards of Severodvinsk, Zvedockha and Sevmash, are considered a closed city on the White Sea, 35 kilometres west of Arkhangelsk. Vidyaevo consists of two bases: Ara Bay and Ura Bay. In 1979, it Vidyaevo became a base for nuclear-powered submarines. Zapadnaya Litsa is the most important Russian naval base for nuclear-powered submarines. It is located in the Litsa Inlet at the westernmost point of the Kola Peninsula, about 45 kilometres from the Norwegian border. The Gremikha naval base is the second onshore storage site on the Kola Peninsula for submarine spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. The largest radwaste site is located in Andreeva Bay, situated on the north-western side of the Kola Peninsula. Andreeva Bay is part of Zapadnaya Litsa, and is 55 kilometres to the east of the Russian-Norwegian border. Navy Yard No. 10, or Shkval, is situated near the town of Polyarny, on the outermost western side of the Murmansk Inlet. It was the first shipyard to deal with nuclear submarines. Naval yard No. 35, Sevmorput, is a Northern Fleet naval repair yard located in the Murmansk Inlet between the nuclear icebreaker base Atomflot and the merchant harbour

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