This Is How Russia Disposes Of Its Dated Nuclear Submarines

The question of how to dispose of nuclear-powered equipment and irradiated waste has been a nagging companion for the world’s advanced navies for decades, and in the case of the former Soviet Union one of its solutions was evidently to sink it into the Arctic Ocean.

Information now provided to the Norwegian daily Aftenposten by Russia’s authorities catalogue “enormous quantities” of Soviet-era nuclear reactors and radioactive waste dumped into the Kara Sea over the course of decades, far worse than previously known, and which include the experimental K-27 submarine that was eventually scuttled in 1981 once repairs to its liquid metal nuclear power plant were deemed impossible to complete.

That scuttling operation was allegedly performed at a far shallower depth than the International Atomic Energy Authority's guidelines of 3,000 meters, and although its two experimental VT-1 reactors were sealed to avoid radioactive pollution there are now questions as to the real danger of contamination. According to the Bellona Foundation, a Norway-based environmental NGO with a long history of involvement with the Soviet Union’s nuclear dumping grounds, information that the K-27’s reactors could re-achieve critical status was released during a seminar with Rosatom (Russia’s nuclear regulatory body) in February of this year.

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