AMEC 1.2 "A MODULAR MOBILE TREATMENT FACILITY FOR LIQUID RADIOACTIVE WASTE - PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND COMPARISON OF LIQUID LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE TECHNOLOGIES "IN USE" OR PLANNED FOR NORTHWEST RUSSIA"

A number of sites have been identified in remote coastal locations in the Russian Northwest Arctic where complex liquid radioactive wastes (LRW) have been stored. These radioactive wastes are mostly stored in tanks under environmentally unsafe conditions within close proximity to the Arctic coast. The LRW are the result of nuclear submarine decommissioning activities related to arms reduction during the post-Cold War period. The conditions of storage and general circumstances of the remote coastal naval facilities prevent the off-loading from these storage tanks onto surface ships for transport to the fixed liquid radioactive waste processing facility at Murmansk, Russia. In addition, some of the radio-nuclides, the extremely high salinity content and specific organic contaminants present in some of the LRW are outside the design capabilities of the existing low-level liquid radioactive waste (LLRW) processing capabilities in Russia. Also, the tanks containing the LRW were not intended for long- term storage of such wastes, and many are now in a rapidly deteriorating condition, threatening the nearby marine environment.