Re: National Public Radio Report

[Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 14:54 30.01.1997 -0600, you wrote:
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>Last night on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" there was a 
>report about a former Russian Naval Officer turned environmental activist 
>who was imprisoned by the FSB (formerly the KGB) for 10 months last year for 
>allegedly divulging military secrets in an article about "Nuclear" waste he 
>helped write. The article appeared in a Norwegian environmentalist magazine 
>and concerned waste leaking from nuclear waste storage areas into waters 
>close to Norway and from Russian submarines.
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>My question is: can anyone supply more details about the specifics?
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>Thanks in advance.
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>Dwayne Gardner
>CT DEP
>dwayne.gardner@po.state.ct.us
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It is well known, that nuclear waste - nuclear reactors from ships and
submarines and sometimes even the entire ship or submarine - have been
"disposed of" by dumping and sinking respectively in the Barent- and the
Karasea, close to Novaja Semla, which is an island formerly used for nuclear
test explosions. These areas are quite far from Norway.

The Internation Atomic Energy Agency has conducted already investigations on
this topic. Furthermore missions have been undertaken jointly by Russians
and Norwegians and I know of at least one mission, where a Canadian was also
involved. I would believe that you can find a lot of more precise
information and contacts at http://www.iaea.or.at.

The fact of dumping is known officially since several years, so the fact
alone was no secret last year. As to all I know about the situation it has
not been possible to detect any traces of artificial radionuclides in fish
or water or sediments other than originating from global fallout. The
concern is that the nuclear fuel and fission products may leak out after a
long time, whatever this may be, when the containments have rusted away.
Since nuclear fuel is usually not easily soluble in water - otherwise one
would not need concentrated nitric acid or similar to dissolve the used fuel
in a reprocessing plant - my personal opinion is that the risk associated
with this dumping is relatively low. 

I know of at least one nuclear powered Russian submarine which sank in front
of the coast of Norway after a fire. One might be of the opinion that a
nuclear reactor and especially nuclear warheads are safer for mankind on the
bottom of the ocean than on the surface of the earth in good shape......

Best regards

Franz
Schoenhofer
Habichergasse 31/7
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AUSTRIA/EUROPE
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e-mail:		schoenho@via.at