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Greenpeace Vladivostok Report 

 6 November 1991 



L Introduction 



The effecu of glasnost and the end of the Cold War have opened previously secret areas 

 and topics in the Soviet Union. In the case of the Soviet Far East, residents around nuclear- 

 powered submarine facilities in the Vladivostok area are asking questions about past submarine 

 accidents, and current and planned nuclear waste disposal procedures. The military in the region, 

 somewhat uncomfortably and reluctantly, has been forced for the first time to respond to what 

 they term popular "radiophobia." In doing so, the military has provided new and unprecedented 

 information about a reactor explosion aboard a nuclear-powered submarine in August 1985. and 

 nuclear waste handling in the regioiL 



More openness by the military may ameliorate civil-military tensions in the region. 

 However, they may also exacerbate them. The military in the region has not held the 

 environment in high regard. As more information about past abuses becomes available, residents 

 may redouble their criticisms of the local commanders. Also, the size of the clean-up cost from 

 past mispractices, as well the cost to decommission old nuclear-powered submarines, may 

 engender more reproaches. 



The information about the accidents, as well as additional information about submarine 

 reactor design, is providing a different perspective on Soviet submarine operations. A high 

 accident rate, plus low fuel enrichment levels, provides technical reasons why Soviet submarines 

 have lower operating tempos than their western counterparts. Also, the size of the Soviet 

 submarine force may have been partially derived from a need to keep an adequately repaired and 

 fuelled force at sea. Although the Soviet Union may have technically advanced submarines, the 

 information coming to the fore raises questions about its overall operationally capability, hindered 

 as it may be by accidents and limited reactor core lives. 



Ultimately, additional information about past Soviet submarine accidents and reactor 

 operations, may show the Soviet submarine force was less a threat to the U.S. and its allies, and 

 more of a threat to its own sailors and the environment 



n. Nuclear-Powered Submarine Facilities in the Vladivostok Region 



The centers of nuclear-powered submarine opjerations in the Vladivostok area are to the 

 east of Vladivostok, some 35 miles across Ussuryiskyi Bay, in the Shkotovo region and on Strelok 

 Bay. The region includes at least four facilities, all or some of which have been operational since 

 the early to niid-1960s: 



A. A major nuclear submarine overhaul and refuelling yard at Bolshoi Kamen (Shkotovo- 

 17), on the west side of the Shkotovo peninsula on Ussuryiskyi Bay facing towards 

 Vladivostok. There at least two plants here concerned with overhauhng and refuelling 

 submarines (one or collectively known as the ZVEZDA plant), as well as disposing of 

 their nuclear waste. In addition, the first decommissioned submarine to be dismantled in 



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