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Soviet nuclear reactor accidents also have contributed to 

 contamination of the Arctic. Numerous studies have documented 

 the disproportionately heavy fallout in northern Norway, Sweden, 

 and Finland from the Chernobyl' accident in April 1986. Fifteen 

 of the unsafe Chernobyl '-type nuclear reactors remain in 

 operation in the former Soviet Union, and together with other 

 types of old, unsafe Soviet-designed reactors, , comprise over half 

 of the power reactors now operating in the CIS and Eastern 

 Europe. In the Arctic, four small reactors using similar 

 technology to the- Chernobyl' reactors are at the remote 

 settlement of Bilibino in the Russian Par East, and a power plant 

 on the Kola peninsula has four aging pressurized-water reactors. 

 The demise of the USSR and its Bast European client governments 

 has left all of the reactors largely bereft of material support 

 and regulatory guidance. The situation is made worse by the 

 region's severe economic problems, which are undermining efforts 

 to maintain and improve safe operations. 



In addition to power reactors, hundreds of reactors are 

 aboard CIS submarines and naval vessels, the majority of which 

 are based in or near Arctic waters. A September 1985 explosion 

 during refuelling of a Soviet nuclear submarine near Vladivostok 



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