Background: Lepse service ship

The technical support vessel Lepse presents the biggest nuclear and radiation risk of all retired nuclear service ships in Russia. In 1988, the vessel was taken out of service, and, in 1990. The Lepse's SNF storage holds (in casks and caissons) 639 spent fuel assemblies (SFAs), and a significant portion of them is severely damaged. Extraction of the SFAs from storage holds would present a radiation risk and be a complex technical operation, the framework for which has still not been worked out. The ship is presently laid-up at Atomflot, which carries out service on nuclear powered icebreakers. Atomflot is located in the Kola Bay, two kilometres from the boarder of Murmansk city, which has population of 400,000. The ship is operated by joint stock company Murmansk Shipping Company (MSCo).
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS
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Nils Bøhmer/Bellona

[ 04.04.2005 ]
Decommissioning of the technical support vessel Lepse (Murmansk region)
The technical support vessel Lepse presents the biggest nuclear and radiation risk of all retired nuclear service ships in Russia.
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Alexander Raube

[ 17.08.2004 ]
Nuclear Waste Ship Decommissioning: Different Approaches
Russian nuclear oversight officials consider technologies for decommissioning and dismantling the notorious Lepse radioactive waste storage ship that have earlier been suggested on Bellona Web to be "preferable" to other possible solutions under consideration. Bellona calls for a transparent environmental evaluation of dismantlement projects for the Lepse.
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[ 15.04.2004 ]
The Nuclear Waste Ship History
This film created by Bellona-Murmansk tells about the most dangerous ship in the Northern Europe called Lepse. The ship, which stores onboard tones of spent nuclear fuel, has become a grave illustration of the problems haunting the Russian nuclear fleet and the international efforts aimed at solving those problems.
VIDEOS
"Nuclear waste ship history" is a film about the Lepse service ship made by Bellona Murmansk. Should you have troubles playing the film, download VLC media player from this location: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/.
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