OREANDA-NEWS. June 18, 2008. A delegation of the UK Ministry of Defense, led by the head of AMEC (Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation) program, Commodore Simon Lister visited Nerpa shipyard (Snezhnogorsk, Murmansk region). The press service of Nerpa reports that the British guests have been familiarized with the results of the joint projects carried out in the framework of AMEC and Global Partnership programs since 2005.

They showed interest in Nerpa’s experience of recycling of nuclear submarines and storage of their nuclear reactors. The British guests visited Nerpa’s nuclear submarine scrapping sites and the onshore storage facility at Sayda Bay. Lister pointed out that the United Kingdom had several nuclear submarines that would have to be recycled soon and was examining relevant technologies used in different countries. Before coming to Russia, they had visited the United States and France. Each country has its peculiar approach to this problem. The approach of the UK will be based on the best practices in the world.

Lister said that the British Navy had 14 submarines and would have to decommission 1–2 of them each year.

Concerning the prospects of further cooperation in the framework of AMEC, Lister said that they would select 2–3 priority projects concerning ecological and radiation safety in the north of Kola Peninsula. At Nerpa shipyard the UK has so far financed six AMEC and GP projects worth almost 8mln pounds and concerning recycling of two nuclear submarines, construction of special pontoons for safe transportation of decommissioned nuclear submarines, development of the infrastructure of nuclear submarine recycling sites.