The Pacific Fleet Nuclear Powered Submarines Defueling and Dismantlement of Their Reactor Compartments

Abstract

In the next thousand years mankind will meet different new challenges; some of them are unknown or hidden so far. Our responsibility is to solve the problems we have already faced with, and we must settle it properly, as quickly as possible and with the minimal losses. What shall we do with retired Russian nuclear powered submarines (NPS), that bring the actual nuclear and radiation threat to Russia, the countries of the Northern Region and the Pacific Basin? The main resolutions of the basic issues caused by the necessity of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from nuclear power plant (NPP) of NPS removal,SNF disposal, and NPS reactor compartments (RC) management are presented in the paper. Many of submarines with unloaded SNF are mooring around the naval bases andship repair plants (SRP) at the Far East of Russia. For the last few years the Russian Pacific Fleet has only accumulated the floating NPS with SNF. All SNF ponds are now packed; the shipment of SNF from the Far East to the reprocessing plant in Siberia ispractically discontinued. The fresh alternative for the integrated SNF defueling of the retired Russian NPS and its storage is developed by the Russian experts. Instead of the routine approach, the removal of an intact drained reactor pressure vessel (RPV) with its core and internals is considered to be preferred. The removed RPV is to be transferred into a two-purpose cask, and the casks with the intact RPV should be transported to the available coastal drifts which are to be used as a long term storages. A closed RPV with core and internals removes from a ship's NPP more than 99% of high level activity waste(for non-accident NPP). It principally changes the approach to the reactor compartment management.