[Fwd: [Hazmat-WMD] Russian Power Lighthouses]

[Tom <tom@xrfcorp.com>]

  From another list.

Tom



-------- Original Message --------

Subject: [Hazmat-WMD] Russian Power Lighthouses

Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 08:55:49 -0600

From: "Kostiuk, Ed M." <EdK@Health.State.OK.US>

Reply-To: Hazmat-WMD@yahoogroups.com

To: "Group HazMat (E-mail)" <Hazmat-WMD@yahoogroups.com>







Two strontium powered lighthouses vandalised on the Kola Peninsula



MURMANSK - Two Strontium containing Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators,

or RTGs, used to power navigation beacons and lighthouses were found

literally ripped to pieces by unknown vandals during regular checks by the

Russian Navy's Northern Fleet in the area of the Kola Peninsula last week.



  Abandoned RTGs: Shown here are the strontium cores from two RTGS on the

Kola Peninsula. 

Finnmark region government 







Igor Kudrik, Rashid Alimov, Charles Digges, 2003-11-17 18:38



The damage was so severe that Murmansk Regional officials designated the

incident as a "radioactive accident."



It is assumed by local authorities that the vandals were scavenging for

valuable metals, including stainless steel, lead and aluminium, all of which

could easily be dumped on the scrap metal market in Murmansk. But the

vandals also took with them the depleted uranium casing, which is used to

protect the RTG's strontium-90 cores.



The strontium-90 cores-which have a half life of 26.5 years- were left at

the sites of the navigation devices. They are highly radioactive-emitting

some 1000 roentgens per hour-and local police officials and officials from

the Murmansk Regional Federal Security Service, or FSB, said in interviews

with Bellona Web that the suspects could well be dead or seriously ill. They

have therefore expanded their search for the suspects to include not only

the areas from where the RTG's were stolen, but to Murmansk area hospitals

as well. They are also combing local metal scrap yards, a Murmansk FSB

official said in a telephone interview.



The day after the incident was revealed, Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy

Sergei Antipov told Bellona Web in an interview in Murmansk that Russia's

Ministry of Atomic Energy, or Minatom, is actively looking into substitutes

for the strontium-90 batteries. One option, he said, was other nuclear

sources. But he also said Moscow was considering solar power arrays for the

navigation devices that were developed by Norway,



He noted however that Norwegian solar array designs were not sufficient for

Russia's purposes and that Russia would have to design its own.



That the generators, known as RTGs, could so easily be reached and torn down

literally to their radioactive cores is disturbing news for both the

environmental and nuclear security communities.



Both groups have warned Russian officials about potential disasters that

could occur should terrorists get their hands on any of Russia's aged 1000

RTGs-many of which have not been checked in years, and many of whose

locations, by admission of Russian Ministry of Defence, are unknown. In

Northwest Russia alone, there are some 150 of these strontium generators.

All 1000 of these generators have exceeded their engineering life span, in

some cases, by as much as a decade, according to a source in the Defence

Ministry who spoke with Bellona Web on the condition of anonymity.



In the wake of the discovery, the Murmansk Region Administration today

issued a statement indicating that on November 12th, the Hydrographic

Department of the Northern Fleet-while conducting a regular inspection of

the lighthouses-discovered a completely dismantled Beta-M type No. 255 RTG,

which was used to power the navigation lighthouse No. 414.1 in Olenya bay in

the Kola harbour.



The statement indicated that the RTG had been completely dismantled, down to

the depleted uranium protection vessel. One radioisotope heat source was

found near shore in water 1.5 to 3 meters deep.



The next day, according to the Murmansk Administration statement release

Monday, yet another Beta-M type No. 256 type RTG, which powered lighthouse

No. 437 on Yuzhny Goryachinksy island in the Kola harbour was found in

precisely the same condition-all of it's valuable metals had likewise been

stripped, including the depleted uranium, and a radioisotope heat source was

found on shore on the northern part of the island.







 

No overview or control of RTGs

The destroyed RTGs are the responsibility of the Russian Ministry of

Defence, which carried out periodic checks on the units-that are still

locatable-once or twice a year. Many RTGs in the Arctic north of Siberia and

the coast of the rough Russian Far East have, according to sources at

Minatom, literally been lost, or "orphaned."



According to Murmansk Regional Administration radiological officials

interviewed by Bellona Web, this is the second such incident in the region.

The previous case occurred in 2002 near Kandalaksha. In that case, three

RTGs were vandalized. Local radiological officials believe the thieves

mostly look for non-ferrous metals, which RTGs contain in large quantities

in their layers.



Further afield, a similar incident occured in the Leningrad Region in March

of 2003 when a Beta-M RTG was vandalised. The Navy carried out a control

inspection of this RTG in June of 2002-almost a whole year before the

accident was discovered. And in 2002, three hunters in the former Soviet

republic of Georgia were severely irradiated after stumbling across an RTG

that had been in the woods for years. Huddling around the strontium battery

as a heat source, all three received high radiation doses and spent months

in the hospital battling radiation sickness.



It is Bellona's position that the Russian Federation must provide stricter

controls over its RTGs and carry out an immediate inventory on all currently

operating RTGs. In addition to the health risks these radiation

sources-found in isolated areas with little to no warning about their

presence-pose, RTGs represent an obvious non-proliferation threat. Their

strontium components can easily be fashioned by terrorists into a so-called

"dirty bomb," which is a conventional bomb stuffed full of radioactive

materials. Fear of such radiological dispersal devices has grown the world

over after the attacks of September 11th 2001.



 Bellona's working paper on RTGs 

Bellona's newly released working paper on RTGs uncovers the environmental

and non-proliferation dangers associated with the use of these devices. The

working paper's evidence shows that the problem of Russia's RTGs has slipped

out from under control of the authorities responsible for them. The working

paper is thus far available only in Russian, but an English translation will

be published here within days.

 Jump to working paper » 





RTGs

There are approximately 1000 RTGs in Russia. Most of them are used as a

power source for lighthouses. RTGs are operated by the Defence Ministry, the

Ministry of Transport and Russian Hydro-Meteorological Service. The Ministry

of transport runs more than 380 RTGs, whereas the Ministry of Defence

operates 535, including more than 100 located on the Kola Peninsula. Most of

the RTGs, which fall under the auspices of the Defence Ministry, are located

along the Arctic coast, or the so-called Northern Sea Route.



Since 1960, nine different models of RTGs have been developed. The Beta-M

type RTG is most commonly use and there are around 700 of them in operation

across the Russian Federation.



Beta-M type RTGs put out 230 Watts of power. The weight of a standard RTG is

560 kilograms altogether, and the weight of the radioactive portion is

around 5 kilograms. This active portion contains 35,000 to 40,000 Ci of

activity. The radioactivity of an RTG at the distance of 0.02 to 0.5 meters

is 800 to 1000 roentgens per hour. These radioactive sources can reach

temperatures of up to 500 degrees Celsius.



Igor Kudrik reported from Oslo, Rashid Alimov from St. Petersburg, and

Charles Digges from Murmansk. 







[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





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