OREANDA-NEWS. The subject of the training is “Organization of Effective Response to Emergencies and Radiation Accidents in Murmansk Region.”

The exercise is supposed to help the regional and local authorities and concerned departments to improve their interaction in case of an external influence on and an emission of radiation from the containers with spent nuclear fuel stored at SevRAO (Northern Federal Enterprise for Radioactive Waste Management).

During the exercise the trainees will use the improved radiation monitoring and emergency response system of Murmansk region.

This project has been implemented by Rosatom, the Government of Murmansk Region and Nuclear Safety Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the framework of the agreement “On Multilateral Nuclear Ecological Program in the Russian Federation.” The project is financed by the “Northern Dimension” Environmental Partnership Fund, managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The beneficiaries of the project are the Government of Murmansk region, the SevRAO, Nerpa Ship Repairing Yard FSUE, Murmansk Department for Hydrometeorology and Ecological Monitoring.

The project is aimed at enhancing the preparedness of the emergency forces, minimizing the consequences of hypothetic radiation accidents, raising the efficiency of decisions and measures for protection of population and environment. 

The following measures have been taken under the project:

- Installation of 23 automated gamma radiation control stations in the region;
- Installation of 9 automated meteorological stations;
- Installation of modern computer and communication equipment in the Murmansk Department of the Russian Hydro-Meteorological Agency and the local data collection centers;
- designing of new and improvement of the existing software;
- integration into the territorial system of sensors situated on the border of the site of Atomflot FSUE;
- integration into the territorial system of sensors situated in Ostrovnoy restricted access municipality.

One of the key objectives of the exercise is to test the system real time.

Representatives of the Government of Murmansk region, the administration of Zaozyorsk, SevRAO FSUE, the Emergency Department of Murmansk region, the Murmansk Department for Hydrometeorology and Ecological Monitoring, Rosatom Crisis Center, the Crisis Center of the Nuclear Safety Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Typhoon SPA.
 
Since 2000, when the Government of the Russian Federation gave the Andreyev Bay base of the Navy to the Ministry of Atomic Energy, the nuclear submarine spent fuel storage facility has been provided with a roof and radiation control, groundwater monitoring and physical protection systems.
 
“On the basis of the analysis of the amount and state of the spent nuclear fuel and the optimal ways of its treatment, in 2010–2012 we are going to unload the fuel from the Andreyev storage facility. This project will help us to improve the ecology of the facility,” says the director of the International Center for Ecological Safety of Rosatom, the deputy director of NIKIEY Albert Vasilyev. “We have made the fuel unloading process more complicated and expensive so as to ensure 100% safety.” 

The facility is under constant control and no nuclear or radiation accidents can happen there.

The other author of the project, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of department of Nuclear Safety Institute, vice admiral Ashot Sarkisov says that there is a constant risk of terrorist acts aimed at destroying the protective barriers of the facility, however, the probability of a nuclear danger - even in case of an explosion - is just 3 to 100,000,000.