MOTHBALLED NUCLEAR SUBS CREATE ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Russia’s attempt to raise the sunken nuclear submarine Kursk from the bottom of the Barents Sea is generating concern worldwide about radiation leaks and environmental contamination. University of Arkansas chemical hazards expert Jerry Havens has found that concern about the Barents Sea and nearby Kola Peninsula are very real, if late in coming.

"What has already happened there is an environmental disaster," said Havens, Distinguished Professor of chemical engineering and director of the Chemical Hazards Research Center (CHRC). "Even though it is in the Arctic, which is a particularly fragile environment, it is a disaster that will affect the rest of the world."

Havens studied the situation recently when he served as a technical reviewer for the Technical Guidance Group of the Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation (AMEC) program. This trilateral NATO initiative comprising the United States, Russia and Norway was established in 1996 to foster communication and undertake joint activities on environmental matters in the Arctic. Specifically, AMEC is trying to find ways to mitigate the environmental damage resulting from Russia's compliance with the1991 START treaty, which limited the number of specific classes of ballistic missiles each nation could retain.

Russia began treaty compliance measures, including decommissioning of half of its nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) fleet, about the same time its economy collapsed. Faced with more than 100 SSBNs and no money, the Russian Defense Ministry brought the submarines to port at their nuclear naval bases on the Kola Peninsula (northern fleet) and near the Kamchatka Peninsula (southern fleet) and parked them.

"Many of these seriously deteriorating submarines are over 30 years old and some are in danger of sinking at the dock," Havens explained. "These nuclear submarines pose a trans-national-boundary environmental threat primarily because of the highly radioactive spend fuel that remains in their nuclear reactors. We must develop methods for the handling, treatment and storage of waste from the reactors. At best, what we have now are stop-gap measures."

Nuclear submarines are actually powered by enormous, half-ton batteries that are charged by the nuclear reactors. When the submarines were brought to port, the batteries were removed and stored on shore. Unfortunately, both the Barents Sea and Kola Peninsula are in the Arctic Circle. The batteries are subjected to repeated freezing and thawing and many have cracked, leaching lead and acids into the environment.

AMEC brings together scientists in an attempt to solve the critical environmental issues of radioactive waste and the remediation of hazardous waste sites. AMEC focuses on prototype and technology development. Currently it has 10 active projects and has completed three others.

"It is critical that the United States participate in the efforts to prevent further damage to the environment," said Havens. "It's not just Norway's problem or Russia's problem. We are all in the same world and if we don't work together to solve these truly international problems, eventually the pollutants released into the Barents Sea will wash up onto our own shores."

But that is not the only reason the United States needs to be involved, according to Havens. The U.S., which also has SSBNs , co-signed the START treaty and has begun to decommission some of its nuclear fleet.

"While we have a more orderly decommissioning process and vastly better storage facilities, we are still struggling with the extremely difficult and contentious problems of environmentally acceptable disposition of these radioactive materials," he added.

Havens has a wide-ranging expertise in assessing chemical hazards. At the CHRC he built the largest ultra-low-speed boundary layer wind tunnel in the world, which is used to study the release of heavier-than-air gases into the atmosphere. His work in gas dispersion modeling and risk assessment includes projects ranging from the U.S. EPA evaluation of Superfund hazardous waste incinerators to the International Medical Commission on Bhopal study on long-term health effects from the 1984 Union Carbide disaster in India. Computer models developed at the CHRC have been adopted by the U.S. Government for use in siting liquefied gas storage terminals and are now in use worldwide.

In 1999 the Office of Special Counsel of the U.S. Attorney General’s Office selected Havens to evaluate several aspects of the events leading to the fire and explosion that destroyed the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, Texas. In addition to evaluating tear gas concentrations inside the compound, Havens determined that the explosion and fireball were caused by the rupture of a liquefied petroleum gas tank that had been overheated by the fire, and not by an explosive device, as had been suggested.

Havens is also a member of the Working Group on Destruction of Chemical Weapons of the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Scientific Advisory Board. OPCW is responsible for monitoring and certifying the destruction of chemical weapons worldwide. One of the principal U.S. locations for destruction of chemical weapons is the Pine Bluff Arsenal, where Havens served as a chemical officer in 1963-65.

"It is in our best interest to work through AMEC to help solve this environmental crisis in the Russian Arctic, as it will no doubt be a rehearsal for other problems that are being identified almost daily," said Havens. "Some would say that we can’t afford to help. I don’t think we can afford not to."