473 



FBIS-SOV.90-138 

 18 July 1990 



NATIONAL AFFAIRS 



77 



centers ai which ihcy are based, design miscalculations, 

 and organizational disarray sharply reduce (he potential 

 of these expensive technical resources. Years are passing, 

 but there are no signs of any hopes of an improvement. 

 Rather the reverse: The prestige of the trade of recharger 

 IS declining and the level of specialized training is falling 

 *ith the change of generations. Conflicts are brewing 

 between the officers of technical support ships, rear 

 services, and control organs and may have an unpredict- 

 able effect on the safety of work whose nature is unique. 



The pressure-vessel reactors used in ship power plants 

 are reliable at all stages of operation except one — the 

 unsealing of the reactor prior to unloading the spent 

 nuclear fuel. During this operation there is only passive 

 monitonng of the state of the reactor and the slightest 

 blunder by personnel may displace the reactivity com- 

 pensation devices, entailing a release of reactivity. How 

 all this ends is well known from the tragic example of the 

 refueling of a Pacific Reet submarine. 



Even after the s()ent nuclear fuel has b«en unloaded, the 

 unsealed reactor is itself an extremely powerful radiation 

 source for a while and requires special measures to 

 maintain the safety of the environment. 



The commentary mentions an expert commission that 

 found no violations at the naval bases on the Kola 

 Peninsula and in Arkhangelsk Oblast. With all due 

 respect for the prestige of the panicipanis in the survey. 

 I don't think that its results should be interpreted with 

 such latitude. The commission's task did not include a 

 detailed survey of installations and technology intended 

 for handling radioactive waste and spent nuclear mate- 

 rials — the end products of the activity of nuclear- 

 powered Northern Reet ships and nuclear-powered, 

 ships belonging to the Murmansk Steamship Company. 



We who are professionally involved in this problem feel 

 simply ashamed to speak of the extent of the technical 

 neglect in this sphere. The unpreparedness of the fleets 

 for the decommissioning of nuclear submarines — and 

 nuclear icebreakers too— which have reached the end of 

 their lifetime has exacerbated this problem to an extreme 

 extent. 



There is not enough space in a letter. Comrade Fleet 

 Admiral, to cite all the proof confirming the depressing 

 situation in such a delicate sphere of the fleet machinery. 

 The author hopes for direct dialogue and is prepared for 

 it at any level, especially as the urgency of taking 

 measures is self-evident. It is even more self-evident that 

 science should rectify the situation in a timely way. Alas, 

 at present official science with its departmental char- 

 acter and hierarchical structure is scarcely capable of 

 this. Technological breakthroughs are possible only via 

 unorthodox approaches. 



One last point. Everyone must know that the disman- 

 tling of nuclear submarines that have reached the end of 

 their lifetime and the creation of a modem infrastructure 



for handling radioactive waste will entail expenditure 

 comparable with the construction of new nuclear- 

 powered ships. 



[Signed] V. Pcrovskiy. former commander of the surviv- 

 ability division of the Leninskiy Komsomol, the first 

 Soviet nuclear submanne. Leningrad. 



60 Motor Vehicle Battalions Detailed to Harvest 



90V\fn7JIB Moscow IZVESTJYA in Russian 9 Jul 90 

 Morning Edition p 2 



[Report on interview with Lieutenant General A. Nad- 

 olskiy. deputy chief of the Main Staff of Jhe Ground 

 Forces, by N. Medvedev; place and date not given: 

 "Army Harvests Crops"] 



[Text] By a decision of the Government of the USSR. 

 30.000 military trucks, or 60 motor vehicle battalions. 

 are being assigned to uke part in the current harvest- 

 campaign. They are scheduled to start work on 10 July. 

 but have actually started already. A temporary staff has 

 been set up in the Ministry of Defense, headed by 

 Lieutenant General A. Nadolskiy. 



[Medvedev] Anton Kononovich. your organizational 

 position is deputy chief of the Main Staff of the Ground 

 Forces. What did you think about when you found out 

 that there would be "grain batulions" this year? 



[Nadolskiy) About the fact that the hot months are 

 starting again. We assign dozens of motor vehicle battal- 

 ions to take pan in the harvest every year, frequently in 

 the hottest sectors. The officers and soldiers give all they 

 have in the work — from the start of the harvest campaign 

 until snowfall, as the saying goes, until the last pood of 

 gram Is transported out of the fields. 



I also thought about the difficulties that we Inevitably 

 will encounter. We have the equipment, but what will it 

 be like with the driver complement? There is a big 

 shortage. The Army is being cut and problems are 

 accumulating that are related to the virtual breakdown In 

 the current spring call-up in the Baltics and some Tran- 

 scaucasus republics. 



[Medvedev] But, nonetheless, battalions ar^ being 

 formed? 



[Nadolskiy] This year we must send 50 motor vehicle 

 battalions to the autonomous republics, krays. and 

 oblasts of the Russian Federation as well as 10 to 

 Kazakhstan. Each battalion has about SOO vehicles. I 

 should note that this is a temporary formation. They 

 have been set up In almost all military districts and in the 

 fleets and In the services of the Armed Forces. Approx- 

 imately one-third of them have been manned with per- 

 sonnel. We will call up military reservists — this Is what 

 was decided by the USSR Council of Ministers and the 

 Governments of the RSFSR [Russian Soviet Federated 

 Socialist Republic] and Kazakhsun in coordination with 

 soviet organs in the oblasts where tRe battalions will be 

 working. Only military reservists who are not directly 



