Germany agrees to help Russia dispose of 120 nuclear submarines

BERLIN (AFP) Oct 09, 2003
Germany agreed Thursday to invest 300 million euros (354 million dollars) in a project to help Russia safely dispose of 120 of its Soviet-era nuclear submarines, the economy ministry said.

The deal, set initially for six years, was signed by German state secretary for the economy Alfred Tacke and the Russian deputy minister of atomic energy Sergei Antipov during a German-Russian summit in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.

"With the submarine project, we are making an important contribution to the fight against the spread of weapons-grade nuclear material. At the same time, we are giving a strong impetus for German-Russian economic cooperation," Tacke said in a statement.

The project will take place under the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction signed by the Group of Eight richest nations at their 2002 summit in Kananaskis, Canada.

According to the statement, Moscow has already dismantled 40 nuclear submarines apart from their reactors, which are "swimming highly dangerously in the Saida Bay near Murmansk" in the northwest of the country.

The German-Russian project would establish a temporary storage site near the Saida Bay in a region were a large number of decommissioned nuclear submarines have accumulated.

"If the leaders of the G8 member countries give financial assistance to Russia as they promised, we can go five times as fast in dismantling decommissioned nuclear submarines," said Murmansk regional governor Yuri Evdokimov, quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.

According to the Russian atomic energy ministry, quoted by ITAR-TASS, 192 Soviet-era and Russian submarines have been decommissioned since the 1980s, of which 89 have been dismantled.

Of the 103 nuclear submarines awaiting dismantlement, 76 still contain a nuclear reactor.

The sinking of the Kursk in August 2000 with the loss of 118 lives raised international concerns about the dangers posed by Russia's nuclear submarines.

The Kursk sank in 108 metres (360 feet) of water in the Barents Sea after an explosion in a torpedo compartment. After outcry over the initial lack of reaction by Russian authorities, the wreck was raised to the surface in October 2001 and taken to the Nerpa military base at Murmansk for dismantling.

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