433 



visits to subsarin* optrating areas ar* turning up aora praviously unknown 

 disasters. During my last trip, I laarnad naw inforaation about two aaltdowns 

 — on* in 1979 and ona in 1985 — on subaarinas in tha Pacific Flaat. In 

 October 1991, wa invastigatad a reactor explosion tflat occurred on a Russian 

 subaarine on the Shkotovo near Vladivostok in August 1985. Ten aen were 

 killed, and 100, 000s of curies of radiation were released. There is still a 

 contaainated fallout trace in the area toda/. 



Whatever the competence of individual Russian subaarine officers, they 

 do not work in a vacuua. The huaan and industrial infrastructure in the 

 country is in bad shape. Even in "good" tiaes the Soviet Nav/ suffered 

 terrible disasters on nuclear subaarinas. Given the bad tiaes the Russian 

 Navy now faces, there is considerable reason to be alaraed about the 

 possibility of a serious accident involving a Russian nuclear-powered 

 subaarine in the next few years. 



A second subaarine-accident problea is subaarine collisions. During a 

 recent visit to floscow, the Chief Navigator of the Russian Navy, Contre- 

 Adairal Valery Aleksin coaplainad to aa quite strenuously about the February 

 1992' collision between the U.S. and CIS subaarinas. Ne noted that 100s of aen 

 and three nuclear reactors could have ended up on the ocean floor. 



There have been aaveral draaatic collisions between U.S. and Russian 

 nuclear subaarinas since the 1960s. In one case, in June 1970 in the Pacific 

 involving the U.S. subaarine U88 Tautog and the Russian Echo-class subaarine 

 K-877, subaariners In both craws thought the other subaarine had sank after 

 the collision. So long as Russian, U.S. and U.K. subaarinas continue to play 

 cat and aouse gaaes under the water, there will the possibility of a fatal 

 disaster taking nuclear reactors to the ocean floor. 



Nuclear weapons tests i The resuaption of testing at Novaya Zealya will 

 present an ecological hazard to the region. According to Victor Hikhailov, 

 head of the Russian Ministry of Atoaic Energy, 30 percent of Soviet nuclear 

 tests have vented radiation to the ataosphere. Continued testing will also 

 legitiaiza non-nuclear states' aspirations for acquiring nuclear weapons. 



NucleBr power I There are plans to construct several nuclear power 

 plants in the Russian Far East. In the Khabarovsk region, two 650 aegawatt 

 reactors are scheduled for construction. Several saaller reactors ~ actually 

 subaarine reactors buried underground and optiaized for electrical 

 production — say be constructed in the Priaorskii Kray in closed ailitary 

 areas. Also, the Kaachatka regional adainistration reportedly wishes to build 

 nuclear plants in their region. The dangers posed by the Russian civil 

 nuclear prograa do not need to be described here. 



IV. What can the Unite d States do? 



On 7 April 1992, we wrote President Bush and several senators and 

 congressaen to express our concerns about the dangers posed by Russian nuclear 



