Andreeva Bay is considered one of the largest storage facilities in Europe for storing spent nuclear fuel. This object was rightly considered the most dangerous in terms of radiation throughout the Cold War. For many, this toponym was the most terrible definition characterizing the technical base on Andreeva Bay.
Location
Andreeva Bay is located right on the shores of the Barents Sea. It protrudes strongly into the northwestern part of the coast. It was also named after Nikolai Andreev, who was a doctor on the schooner Bakan, who served in the Baltic Fleet. She regularly participated in polar expeditions that explored the Arctic Ocean.
Several streams flow into it. The lip has low banks. The depth of the bay regularly decreases towards the top of the lip. There are no settlements on the banks of the lip. The administrative center is located in Zaozersk, Murmansk region.
Problem with radioactive waste
The most famous problem that has existed for many years on Andreeva Bay in the Murmansk Region is related to waste. On one of the shores of the bay is the base of the Northern Fleet of Russia, which was commissioned in the Soviet Union in 1961. It was here that throughout the Cold War, spent fuel was brought, which was extracted from the reactors of nuclear submarines. As a result, today the most urgent problem in this place is the disposal of radioactive waste.
She got up especially sharply when in 1982 there was a major accident that threatened the local environment. Its result was pollution of the Barents Sea. About 700,000 tons of water of increased radioactivity were found in the waters.
Currently, many international observers believe that the warehouse in this place is in poor condition. Mainly due to unstable funding. Because of this, it poses a serious environmental threat, which can be compared in scale to the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Accident on Andreeva Bay in the Murmansk Region
The base of the Northern Fleet, which stores radioactive waste, is located in the immediate vicinity of many settlements. In particular, only 55 kilometers from Murmansk and 60 kilometers from the border with Norway. A radiation accident occurred here in 1982. A radioactive water leak has occurred in one of the pools.
The elimination of the consequences of this disaster took several years. It was possible to finally cope with it only by 1989. During this time, about 700 thousand tons of radioactive water ended up in the Barents Sea.
Storage history
The vault on Andreeva Bay appeared in the early 60s. Responsible for him were the Soviet construction troops.
In fact, it was a technical base, which was located on the shores of the bay called Western Faces. The storehouse consisted of two piers, as well as a stationary pier and a sanitation facility. There was also a pool-type storage, which after 1989 ceased to be used. In addition, there were technical buildings and a checkpoint.
The building in which the accident occurred
The chain reaction that caused the accident occurred in building No. 5. This is the so-called raw storage facility. Two pools were built in it, in which waste was stored. They were in steel cases, each weighing about 350 kilograms.
The pools themselves were about 60 meters long and six meters deep. Hold up to one thousand cubic meters of waste.
In water, the covers themselves were always kept in limbo on powerful chains. They were mounted on special consoles at a considerable distance from each other, which made it possible to exclude the likelihood that the chain reaction would start on its own.
Water at the same time performed the function of biological protection. Cases were moved to their place only under water with the help of powerful chains. Repeatedly covers could fall to the bottom of the pool from the slightest blow. As a result, the bottom was littered with them, which posed a serious threat and danger.
Employees at that time in Zaozersk, Murmansk region, recalled that they were amazed at where they got. It all looked like some kind of horror movie. A completely black building with no windows, which stands on a rock among lonely hills ... The entrance to it was decorated with wrecked cars that once transported nuclear waste. Massive gates were torn from hinges in places.
The building itself was in a dilapidated condition. Holes gaped in the roof, electrical equipment periodically failed. But the worst thing, according to eyewitnesses, is the prohibitive levels of pollution. Building number 5 inside was completely radioactive.
Accident Timeline
A radiation accident occurred in February 1982. It all started with the fact that the right pool of the notorious building No. 5 gave the leak. In order to locate the cracks, it was necessary to go down to the pool itself. However, this did not seem possible, since the zones of radioactive contamination in this place were outrageous.
Then the original decision was made - to eliminate the leak, falling asleep with 20 bags of flour. It was assumed that the cracks would be sealed with the resulting flour dough. However, this attempt did not lead to anything. In addition, it turned out that ice appeared on the right side of the building. The method was quickly recognized as ineffective. But the size of the ice managed to establish the scale of the crack. It turned out that 30 liters of hazardous waste were poured per day. A special commission suggested that the cause of the leak was the destruction of the metal lining of the pool.
In April, it was found that a leak in the pool passes already 150 liters per day. In August, part of the basement was concreted, spending about 600 cubic meters of concrete. But this method also showed its inefficiency.
By September, the leak reached a critical level of 30 tons per day. There was a danger of radiation exposure of all personnel, as well as contamination of the adjacent water area. Then the pool was installed overlap of lead, concrete and iron, which allowed to reduce emissions up to 10 tons per day. True, experts later established that this happened due to the transfer of the building construct itself under the weight of new floors, which amounted to several thousand tons. Many believe that the collapse of the building did not take place by pure chance.
In December 1982, the installation of a ceiling over the right side of the pool was completed. In February 1983, that is, exactly one year after the problem arose, a special commission of the Ministry of Defense arrived at the facility. She decided to ban the operation of the repository, allowing only work related to the liquidation of the accident. Only after this, new waste ceased to be shipped to the pool.
Until September 1987, SNF was unloaded from Andreev Bay from the left basin. Dangerous fuel was sent to the Mayak plant. Only 25 covers remained, which were covered with boron in order to absorb neutrons.
It was possible to completely unload all radiation fuel only by December 1989.
Reasons for the destruction of pools
The commissions working at the facility put forward several reasons that resulted in a radiation accident.
This could be the poor quality of the welds used to cover the pool. Or seismic activity of the earth led to such consequences. According to another version, one of the pools leaked due to a skew of the construct of the building itself. And this has already happened because of the too high weight of the biological protection, which consisted of ceilings of lead, iron and concrete.
And finally, some experts blamed the temperature changes in the right basin for everything. At the moment, most experts believe that the latest version is the most believable.
The fact is that due to temperature changes, the pressure on the welds has increased. This led to their subsequent destruction. During the design of the nuclear waste warehouse, it was believed that the water would be heated solely due to the heat that the spent fuel assemblies would emit. They were always underwater in limbo.
That is why in building number 5 was not provided for a separate heating system. But the designers made a mistake. Under the conditions of the Arctic, conditions arose under which the surface of the pools in the winter months was covered with an ice crust about 20 centimeters thick. In order to get rid of it, the ice began to melt with the help of powerful jets of steam, which were supplied directly from the boiler room. All this was a gross violation of the radiation safety regime.
It happened like this. A hole was drilled in the ice, into which a pipe fell. Through it for several days came steam that melted the ice. Thus, the pool was heated. As a result, hazardous radioactive aerosols spread throughout the premises of Building No. 5. And also went beyond it - directly into the atmosphere.
Accident
During the liquidation of the accident, an accident occurred that exacerbated the situation of staff. At the time when covers fell to the bottom were removed from the pool, two liquidators were in danger.
The fact is that when the left pool was closed with special protective ceilings, the liquidators began to make windows in them using gas cutting. Through them penetrated a device capable of capturing covers from the bottom of the pool. After the operations were completed, the windows were closed with a sheet of iron, thus protecting the liquidators from radiation.
During these works, one of the liquidators, with the rank of foreman of the first article, accidentally stepped on one of the sheets of iron that covered the cut-through windows in a bustle. Unable to bear the weight of an adult, the leaf, together with the liquidator, fell into radioactive water. His legs crushed his boot, and splashes of dangerous water fell on other liquidators. At that time, there were no special radiation protection equipment on them.
According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, all those present on the face displayed indescribable horror, since they imagined how dangerous radiation was at the bottom of the pool. I had to urgently take emergency measures. Then one of the liquidators committed a real heroic deed. He jumped into the pool to save the life of his comrade. After a few seconds, the two of them were already on the surface, but they were wet to the skin in radioactive water. Both were in complete horror.
Later, the liquidator, having fallen into the pool, recalled that at that moment it seemed to him that he was in hell. After falling into the water, his legs were crushed by covers, from which a certain radiation death emanated. He only had time to think how stupid and ridiculous to die in just 20 years. His friend Semenov, risking his life himself, rushed into the water. He freed his legs from under the dangerous covers and pushed to the surface of the pool. This case is described in the book "In an embrace with death under radioactive water in Andreeva Bay", which describes in detail this whole situation.
Affected liquidators were immediately sent to the shower room for decontamination. When the radiation-detecting device was brought to their clothing, the arrow went off scale, showing tens of millions of beta decays. Both liquidators immediately shaved their hair in all parts of the body, placed them to live separately from the rest of the staff. Now they ate exclusively in rubber gloves. Because their body itself has become a powerful source of dangerous gamma radiation. What dose of radiation each of them received is still not known for certain. The fact is that their dosimeters were lost when falling into the pool.
Anatoly Safonov, head of the accident response work, later admitted that only a month later they were able to wash their bodies from deadly radioactive substances. Thick skin, for example, on the heels, had to be cut with a blade. Straight to the blood. Because these parts of the body did not succumb to decontamination.
A full medical examination of the liquidators was never conducted.
Chain reaction during elimination
Another emergency occurred during the unloading of covers from building No. 5. When they were transferred to a dry storage unit, situations arose repeatedly in which spent nuclear fuel spilled onto the surface from the covers deformed by impacts and ice.
When this happened, sailors with a regular shovel quickly poured it into the cells intended for disposal. They consisted of steel pipes up to four meters deep and about 400 millimeters in diameter. They were installed in an upright position, and concrete was poured outside. All this led to the emergence of a critical mass, which led to a spontaneous chain reaction. After some time, a bluish glow began to form above these cells. At the same time, it was accompanied by a buzzing that faded after a while.
All the same head of the consequences of the liquidation of the accident Anatoly Safonov recalled that it was observed by all those around him, including sailors, who were dangerously close to these cells. However, official statements and reports on what was happening were not made. He explained this by the fact that at the time it was decided to carefully hide such information in the Navy so as not to be blamed for what had happened. Therefore, everyone preferred to keep quiet.
Moreover, many people saw similar flashes, but already a blue-greenish dirty color, in the left pool of building No. 5 at the time when work was carried out to raise the covers from the bottom. Leonid Georgievich Konobritsky, a military physicist who was in place at that time, confirmed that these were spontaneous chain reactions.
All those present realized that the nearby Murmansk was at risk. The Barents Sea also became a dangerous radioactive object.
The consequences of this accident were finally managed only in a few years.
Solution
Currently, many scientists and researchers are working to level the threat that exists on St. Andrew's Bay. Certain steps in this direction have already been taken.
In the summer of 2017, an industrial complex began to operate, which is designed to extract spent nuclear fuel. This waste will be sent for recycling, followed by burial in the Chelyabinsk region. The Mayak plant is ready to provide such an opportunity.
Enormous funds were required for the implementation of this project. According to experts, about 100 million dollars. The money was allocated by an international consortium, which is directly under the auspices of the European Bank for Development and Reconstruction. It is assumed that spent nuclear fuel storage facilities can be cleaned in 5 years. Thus, it will be possible to finally remove the issue of the threat of environmental disaster in the area.