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CIA SPECIAL COLLECTIONS RELEASE AS0
KEWORANDUM FOR See ttsmbiraon
Wrt*Wasse ai Soviei
Defense Sise*
Theemwarujun was preparedhe request of ihe Departmentupport (he upcoming visit of nuclear waste management eaperuhe Soviet Untun The information used is widely available in the Soviei Union and ii the focus of the current public debate on Soviet defense waste management praences
ree tor Scientific and Weapons Research
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IMRl'CI ORATE OFCK
JO May IWO
USSR: Problems Wiih Raiiwaeiive Waste at Defense Siles
Environmental pi obifmi caused by ro&ozctr* waste euu at ihrtuioeuum production compUxesnd Tomsk Compute disregard for the potential hazards of roduyoevre watte in thend continuing untilreated corjominoiio* problems in extent and severity that are rivaled only by the ChernobyT disaster. At the plutonium production site at Krasnoyarsk, there is controversylan to inject radioactive wasteower reactor fuel reprocessing plant into the ground
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Background
The Soviet Miniitry of Nuclear Energy and Industry, which was eiiabliibed in ihe summeronsols (he sires producing defense wasic. Before the Ministry's formation, all aspects of ihe nuclear fuel cycle, all defense-related nuclear sites,ew power reactors were under the Ministry of Medium Machine Buildinghe remaining power reaciors had been operated by ihe Minisoy of Atomic Powernol then, when control was shifted in responseuie Chernobyl' accident, the Ministry of Power and Becoificannri bad owned and opera led molt Soviei power reactors. Although Ycvgeniy P. Velikhov urged Hut the MSM name be retained for sentimental reasons, tbe expanded organisation was renamed the Ministry of Nuclear Energy and Industry. Although the minis try name change, occurredear ago. discussions in local papers and debates still refer to the defense nuclear sites as being run by die MSM.
Problems with the handling and disposal of wanes at three defense sites currendy arcdebated. Atear Kyshtym, and at Tomsk, the problems arc with stored defense waste from pluionium production. Al (he plutonium prediction site ai Krasnoyarsk, the controversy islan to inject radioacdve waste frompower reactor fuel reprocessing plant Into Ihc ground.
ChPlyabinsk-40
is not marked on maps of the Soviet Union. Once lhc city bore the name of Beria. Today, the city, and the adjacent defense enterprise, the Mayak (Banner) Chemical Combine, are usually calledt was at this site ihat Igor VasUyevich Kurchatov, working antler Beria. built the Soviei Union's first plutonium production reactor. Here also, Academician V.hlopin and workers from the Radium Institute completed the first chemical plant for the scparadon of plutonium from irradiated uranium.
The firsi reactor. "A" reactor, was graphite moderatedhanoeli. (In comparison, the fust US plutonium productioncacior it Hanford,A" reactor, sometimts referred to asegan operatic*he reprocessing plant began operation later that year. The second reactor atas heavy water moderated. Shortly after (his reactor, which was designed by Academician Abtam Alikhanov. began operation, tbe heavy water in the two heat exchangers froze. Yefrim rVlovieh Slavskiy, then complex chief engineer and laier Minister of Medium Machine Building, claims he had to enter the radiation area and place his hand on one of the heat exchangers to convince die designers thai flic heavy water had frozen.
A lotal of five graphiie-moderitcd reaciors were built atmegawatt (MW) reactorhannels, began operation onn2 ibc SOI reactor began operation. The "A" reactor andeactor were decommissicoiedwo other larger graphite-rrsodexatcd plutonium production reactors are locatedeparate area of the complex. One of these reactors was decommissioned onhat reactor, whichhannels, is larger than the "A" reactor.
A nuclear fuel reprocessing and storage factory for power reactor fuel, submarine reactor fuel, and fuel from nuclear Icebreakers also is located at tbc complex. Radioactive waste from this plant is converted into Special glass, placed in stainless steel containers, and stored in canspecial storage facility at the site.
Discharge of Waste into theiver
Accctrding to the official report, "During the first years of die operation of the enterprise in this branch of industry there was no experience or scientific developmenl of questions of protecting ihe health of the personnel or the environment Therefore, during the fifties there was poUution of individual fans of the territory and around ihehese bland words actually mean that from its beginning8 through1 all radioactive waste from the radiochemical plant that repressed irradiated fuel and recovered the plutonium was discharged direcdy into the Techa River.
fter radioactivity was found as far away as the Arc ticew solution was adopted. Instead of discharging the radioactive waste into the Techa River, the wastes were dumped into Karachay Lake. The Techa River and all its noodlands were excluded torn use. The inhabitants of some senlemenis were evacuated, in other affected jeulcmerm, wort wasupply people *iih water from othereries of artificial reservoirs were created lo isolate waiei fiom the most contaminated areas. Tbe first reservoir was erected1 and the fourth4
Lake Karachay
ijeginning1 "medium-level activity* waste, including nitrate and uranium salts, was discharged into this natural lake. The lake eventuallyillion curies of the long-lived radionuclidesodnas discovered thai tadioactiviry from the lake was entering the ground water. Efforts io eliminate the reservoir beganhe lake still exists, although Us area has teen reduced. Today, radicmctrvity in the ground water has migratedilomeiers from the lake. On the lake shore in the region near the dischargeisoentgens per hour.
Waste Explosion7
For rwo years radioactive waste had been stored inubic-meser vessels were calledhese containers had walls ihateters thick and hoed wiih stainless steel. The container!pecial ventilation and cooling sysiem. The cooling failed in one of the containen, however, and the waste began to dry out. Nitrates and acetates in ihc waste precipitated, heated up. and. onxploded. The metra-thick concrete bd was blown off, and0 tons of waste containing someillioo curies of radioactivity were ejected. Abouterceni fell out in the immediate vicinity of the vessel. Theillion curvesilonieier-high radioactive cloud ihat was carried through Chdyabinik, Sverdlovsk, and Tumen Oblasis.0 square kilo-nereis were contaminated Radiation levelseters of the crateroentgens per hour.ilometer the levels wereoentgens per hour, andilometers the levelsoentgens per hour. Guards received the largest repofted dose,oentgens.
Thereowns ami villagesombined populationnside the are* contaminatedpXT-iq^-Yikmcur or grcatairtually all water-supply sources were contaminated. Cakndations indicated ihat ihe cumulative dose over ihe firsi month for the dure most coatarainatcd villages would rangeoentgens. These villages, in whicheople lived, were evacuated, but evacuation was not completed untilays after the accident.
The next wave of evacuations was conduciedalf year periodone year after the accident, from areas where theuriei-jxr-square-kJlcrrrieier. These people consumed contaminated foodsto six months without restriction and continued to consume some contain inuntil their evacuation. Inhabitants ofopulated areas,0 people,
The maximum average dose of radiation received before evacuation reachedoentgen equivalent man (lems) from external radiation andents of equivalent effective dose. One-fifth of tbe people living in the area affected by the release showed
reduced leucocytes in the Mood, and. in rare cases. tJirombocyte levels also were reduced.
No deviations in die incidence of diseases of the Mood and in the incidence of malignant
tumors have been registered.
ontamination Event
7 wind dispersed radioactivity from the shores of Lake Karachay around the reactor site, creatingevels of up touries per square kilometer.
The Situation Today
Parts of the siteose rate of up toilliroentgens per hour. The average value for the remainder of the site is in the range ofoicixsroentgens per hour. The Techa River is cordoned olfire fence and people are forbidden io catch fish, pick mushrooms or berries, oi cut the hay. Thereillion cubic meters of radioactive water in open reservoirs.
The South Urals Project
The Soulh Urals Nuclear Power Station is, in ihe words of Seldcaya Thirin.right bitch grove, which guards the seem of the Ural (radioactive]he nuclear Station was being built by the Ministry of Medium Machine Building. Twoype liquid-meial-cooled. fast-breeder reaciors were under constructionhird was planned. The nuclear power station was intended to provide employment for the skilled worken who have lost or will lose their jobs as plutonium-producing reactors kro shutdown.
The production complex, by consuming contaminated water for its needs, regulates the water level in the lakes. With three reactors shut down and two others toew danger was idcntir>sd-ovcrfillbg die reservoirs with natural water and possibly even failure of the dams, sending contaminated water into the rivers of the Ob basin. The South Urals nuclear power staTion was to avert this sort of caustropoe by using radioactive water to cool turbine condensers, thus increasing evaporation.
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Public protests and Questions raised by Oblast officials have ai least lemporarUy bai ted construe don. although some critics claim that the real reason Is thai the Ministry ran out of funds. In die public mind, constructive dialog on the nuclear power suiton il impossible without teaming the truth aboul the ecological impact of Ma yak Chemical Combine, particularly7 explosion.
Tomsk
The closed city ofs ihe location ot* the Sltseriao Atomic Posver Stadon.i the InUOTatiooal Coruercrice on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, the Soviets described the reactors at thiseing solely for rJecoic power generation.. M.i:s. then Chairman of the State Cora mince for UCIizatjon of Atomic Energy, admitted that these reactorsual paipose--plutooium production and tower gerserabon. Not0 dad the Sovieu rcs-eal that the reaciors were at Tomsk. The reactors described5 were graphite moderated, water cooled, andhannels. Thus, they are slightly larger than thereacwr shut down9 ai theomplex.
Problems with defense waste at Tomsk date back to. At thatenior cngircer for "monitoring stocJoaiang aod storage of special output'vast quantity of radioactive output" al the pttuiL Irvtsriya claims dial hii letter to the Central Committee and L. I. Brezhnev only resulted in hit reprimand and threatened expulsion from ihe party. Not untilhenadio warned that people had been conumuiaied. did the public leant of this problem.
igyaOyji alsoir^oned that the radioactive waste burial site is poorly fenced and contaminated water areas are not fenced at all. Elk, hare, duck, and fish are rontaminated. andeople were found to have higher than permtsiible levels of radioactive substances in their body. Ofour adults and three children have been hospludiiod.
Krasnoyarsk
In the. Stahn authorized the buildingradiochemical enterprise" for producing plutonium on the mountainotu shcira of the Yenisey River in the Siberian taiga. Thus was bom the raming-coemical combine and, along withlosed ciry.
Fifteen years ago it was resolved to add an irradiated fuel-storage facilityrocessing plant forW rjressorized water reactor fuelnd "other- reaciors at this site. Controversy aboutO-rrietric-ton-per-year reprocessing plant, known asas resulted in the mrnec! being posnponed. Inomiorr.olskaya Pravda reported that0 people in Krasnoyarskroteii.an, they were angered by the revcUDon that the KfcntiTic study jusofying the appropriateness of the site *as actually produced nine yean after construction started. The site is aboutercent complete and was originally scheduledtart reprocessing
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