488 



Greenpeace Severodvinsk Report 



Greenpeace also received confirmation from Admiral Pakhomov that a early model liquid- 

 metal cooled reactor submarine suffered a severe accident in 1968 when its coolant 

 "froze." There are conflicting reports, however, what was done with the reactor. The 

 Admiral claimed it was removed from the submarine, and has been in a land based storage 

 site near Murmansk for the past twenty years. Analysts in Moscow, however, said that the 

 damaged reactor was only kept on land for several years after the accident, after which it 

 was encased in concrete and dumped on or just off Nova Zemlya. 



E. Health effects: 



As an measure of the safety of the plant operations, local health officials claimed that 

 local infant mortality rates had declined from 30.3 per thousand in 1961 to 8.8 per 1000 in 

 198S (8.8 per thousand is lower than that of Russia's as a whole and the whole 

 Arkhangelsk region as well). However, they also noted there is an increase in the 

 proportion of tumors in the 8.8 number. There was a general agreement, however, that 

 the data needed to make an accurate assessment of the effects of the plant on the health 

 of the residents was not available. 



F. E>efense Conversion: 



Indications are that submarine production will be falling at Severodvinsk. Navy officials in 

 Murmansk told Greenpeace during a visit to that city in early September, that production 

 has almost halted in Severodvinsk. Admiral Pakhomov noted that economic troubles, and 

 the break up of the Soviet Union had already interrupted supplies to the plant Local 

 residents said two of the building ways were full of a equipment, but that nothing was 

 being built on them, while othets related that unemployment was on the rise at 

 Severodvinsk as work was cut back at the plant City oCGcials thought that production 

 would drop, perhaps as much as by a half next year. 



Due to declining military production, Severodvinsk city ofBcials are interested in defense 

 conversion plans. The large scale effort of coordination between the plant, the city and 

 higher level authorities that will be needed to achieve conversion of this specialized facility 

 has not yet occurred. Nor are city officials sure where the capital for such conversion will 

 be found. They expressed interest in receiving technical help from the west on how to 

 achieve defense conversion. 



