Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

For the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, the problems connected to radioactive contamination of this closed sea of the Northern Europe with its the lowest ability for self-cleaning are very urgent. For 80 millions populations from 9 countries inhabiting the Baltic coast, the questions of the Baltic ecology have paramount social and economic importance. And frequently these problems besides practical and scientific importance have the expressed social - political shadow, especially after Chernobyl NPP accident. Now the Baltic Sea concerns, alongside with the Irish Sea and the Black Sea, to the three the most “polluted“ (by technogenic radioactive pollution) seas of the world.

Prior to the presentation Mr. Bergman, as one of the appointed cochairmans for the session, elaborated on the different concepts of risk, their similarities and differences. There are sometimes conflicts between efforts to reduce different risks. Examples; efforts to reduce environmental impact often results in the increase of occupational exposure; efforts to carefully assess risk before taking operational actions may result in further deterioration of a situation that result in more dangerous operations. It is therefore necessary to carefully evaluate all different aspects of risk to reach a practical and sometimes pragmatic balance.

The main objective of elaboration of a document on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is to prepare technological processes safe for the environment and other decisions for performance of works on NS dismantlement. In the course of EIA the following tasks are fulfilled:

Norway has been involved in nuclear safety projects in north-western Russia since 1995 through the Norwegian Plan of Action. All the projects are carried out within the Russian Federation regulatory framework, while taking due account of international guidance and recommendations as well as good practice in other countries.

The Action Plan for Nuclear Safety is the Norwegian Authorities’ instrument for cooperation with Russia in the field of nuclear safety and environmental protection. It is headed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). The main focus for the Action Plan can be divided into three objectives: to prevent negative health, environment and economical effects from radioactive contamination; to contribute to preventing radioactive and fissile material from going astray; to strengthen Russian regulatory bodies with responsibility for nuclear safety and radiation protection (1, 2, 3).

I represent here the Canadian company “Nuclear Safety Solutions Ltd.” (NSS) that is a branch of the British corporation NNC already mentioned here. I am glad to have an opportunity for presenting you the results of environmental impact assessment project “Program on the Dismantlement of Nuclear-Powered Submarines (NS) Removed from Service at the Enterprise “Zvezdochka” in the Town of Severodvinsk”.

The circuit of complex nuclear powered submarines (NPS) recycling accepted now is reduced to containerization of the highly active equipment of reactor installations in volume of reactor compartment and to time storage of reactor compartment afloat in the multi compartment block structure. Works on one compartment blocks formation for storage on the firm basis now are in an initial stage. Radioecological danger of mass afloat storage removed of operation NPS and cut out reactor compartments essentially grows, if from a reactor spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is not unloaded.

Risk: medical, radiation, ecological, social-hygienic monitoring. Radiation-Hazardous objects. Population. Personal. Shore technical bases.

The speakers in the session presented varying aspects of impact – and risk assessment. The first speaker, Mr. Kulikov, presented experience with EIA in a dismantling process. He stressed that the Russian equivalent to EIA is not the ecological expertise but the OVOS, and pointed to the positive aspects of the idea of generic EIA, or class EIA. He also showed the usefulness of scenarios in the risk assessment procedure, and pointed out that the risk assessment system does not include non-nuclear accidents, such as those that may occur involving oil or chemicals.

In the last years the existing organisation concerning the control and the licensing of activities related to the use of nuclear energy in France has been improved for more transparency and to warranty the independence between: