IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONCEPT AND THE PROGRAM OF COMPLEX DECOMMISSIONING OF NUCLEAR SUBMARINES, NUCLEAR-POWERED SURFACE SHIPS AND MAINTENANCE VESSELS AND REHABILITATION OF RADIATION-HAZARDOUS FACILITIES: MAIN RESULTS AND UNRESOLVED PROBLEMS

摘要

Starting in the late 1950s, large-scale activities were deployed in the former USSR on development of the oceanic nuclear naval fleet comprising: general-purpose and strategic-missile Nuclear Submarines (NSs) - total built about 250 subs - and Nuclear-Powered Surface Vessels (NPSS) - total built 5 vessels. To support the nuclear fleet activities, appropriate supporting infrastructure was established: 4 naval Coastal Maintenance Bases (CMB) and more than 30 nuclear Maintenance Vessels (MVs). Due to both expiration of service life of the above vessels and observation by the Russian Federation (RF) of the relevant international obligations, in the latter half of the 1980s active process of withdrawal from military service of general-purpose NSs, strategic-missile NSs and MVs began. Complex decommissioning of NS differs considerably from that of non-nuclear vessels and armaments due to presence of nuclear Reactor Installation (RI) containing considerable amount of radioactive substances (up to 1 million Ci in activity) accumulated in Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) and RI metal structures.