Where is the all-time nuclear submarine buried?

When nuclear submarines are no longer in use, experts will dismantle them in a complicated and time-consuming process.

When the time is up, nuclear submarines will become a concern.(Photo: Science Photo Library).

Nuclear submarines are useful tools in secret exploration activities. However, when it is no longer possible to meet basic tasks, they will become dangers floating on the water. Since many navies have to deal with Cold War-era submarine fleets, or old nuclear ballistic submarines, one of the planet's most exotic industries was born.

In the Kara Sea region, north of Russia's Siberia region, the underground " cemetery " where ships are piled up like garbage with scattered reactors and fuels at a depth of 400 meters. The diesel-powered submarine dump in around Olenya Bay, in the northwestern peninsula of Russia, filled with rusty ships to reveal the inner torpedo tube, the conning tower was corroded over many strange angles. The hull breaks apart.

According to Norway's Bellona environmental agency, the Soviet Union turned the Kara sea into a radioactive garbage pit . The seabed scattered 17,000 radioactive waste containers, 16 reactors and 5 intact nuclear submarines with a reactor with fuel. Meanwhile, the Kara sea area is now the target for oil and gas mining companies. Nils Bohmer, Bellona's managing director, warned that drilling operations accidentally into the old submarine waste could puncture reactors or fuel rods, release radioactive nuclides.

Some submarine cemeteries are also visible from Google Maps or Google Earth . Enlarge America's largest nuclear waste storage facility in Hanford, Washington, and Sayda Bay in the Kola Peninsula, you will see them. Giant steel boxes are loaded in rows up to 12 meters in Hanford, floating on the waters of Japanese waters, or anchored at the dock of the Pavlovks submarine base near Vladivostok (Russia).

Russian reactors were brought to the port in Vladivostok.(Photo: Bellona Foundation).

Removed

Metal boxes are the remains of hundreds of nuclear submarines. The US Department of Defense's handling agency in Bremerton, Washington, draws fuel and closes them. In this meticulous process, waste submarines will be taken to a dock to drain the fuel. Excess fuel is packed into containers and transported safely to processing facilities or recycling plants.

Parts such as steam generators, pumps, valves and pipes now no longer contain uranium, but the metal inside is still radioactive. After the fuel removal process, the specialist will separate the cavities of the reactor and an empty chamber from the hull and weld each thick steel connector.

In Andreeva Bay, Russia still stores fuel used in 90 submarines from the 1960s and 1970s. In 2002, the G8 countries began a 10-year submarine shutdown program and were worth 20 billion, to transfer processing technology to Russia. As a result, the fuel treatment technology at Severodvinsk facility and other dismantling points have been improved.

Some former Soviet submarines contained liquid metal (combining lead and bismuth) to cool the reactor and remove heat from the core . When it's cold, the reactor freezes, transforming into a mass. Bohmer said the two submarines of this type are not currently disabled and must be transferred to a shipyard in Gremikha Bay to ensure safety.

Using a separate three-part method, Russia handled 120 nuclear submarines from the Northern Fleet and 75 submarines from the Pacific Fleet. Meanwhile in the US, 125 Cold War submarines were dismantled in this way. France also applies the same process.

The Royal Navy submarine design allows separation of reactor modules without cutting the chambers from the middle section . However, the plan to deal with 12 submarines in Devonport, southern England and seven submarines in Rosyth, Scotland, will not take place until the government decides on five areas to store old fuel and pressure vessels.

The process of fuel processing and nuclear submarine structure is often time consuming and expensive.Many submarines are at risk of radioactive leakage.(Photo: Science Photo Library).

Pollution

Environmental protection organizations expressed concern about fuel storage areas in the United States . The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has long been the ultimate gathering place for used fuel tanks, from the first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus (1953).

" The prototype reactor for the USS Nautilus was tested at the INL and since then, all fuel from naval submarines has been sent to Idaho. Used fuel is stored on the surface, but the substance is The remaining waste is buried on the aquifer and this can continue for about 50 years, causing concern for the people of Idaho, "said Beatrice Brailsford, member of the Snake River Alliance environmental organization. . Not only does it affect clean water, it also affects crops.

Even when protected with high safety, radioactive substances can still leak out . Abnormal leaks have occurred at both INL and Hanford when bushes flew into the cooling tank, contaminated with contaminated water and blown out by the wind.

Meanwhile, long-term and expensive measures do not seem to prevent military planners from continuing to build more submarines . Not only the US, Russia is also aggressively assembling four new Severodvinsk nuclear submarines and can build eight more by 2020. Submarine graveyards and used fuel storage seem to be will continue to be busy in the future.