2 Background
2.3 Environmental Risks
Although there are obvious examples that come to mind when thinking about environmental damage caused by the nuclear industry,31 issues tied to this emerging industry are
multifaceted. It appears that most of the issues come from refueling and disposal of spent nuclear fuel (hereinafter SNF). Handling and storage of SNF is in fact one of the major issues with the nuclear industry.32 As mentioned before, responsibility for repairs and refueling will most likely be in the hands of the country supplying the FNPPs, and expectations are that
28 Dyke, Jon M. Van. "The legal regime governing sea transport of ultrahazardous radioactive materials." Ocean Development &International Law 33.1 (2002): 77-108. (p.78).
29 Nadelson, n 26, (p. 203).
30 Dyke, n 28, (p. 79).
31 Accidents such as Chernobyl and Fukushima are well known to the public.
32 Additional information available at: Options for Management of Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste for Countries Developing New Nuclear Power Programmes. (2018, December 19). Retrieved July 08, 2020, from https://www.iaea.org/publications/12255/options-for-management-of-spent-fuel-and-radioactive-waste-for-countries-developing-new-nuclear-power-programmes.
ultimately these vessels will be decommissioned and disposed in specialized facilities by the supplier.33 Obviously, this raises questions as to how these facility will be established, and reliability ensured. Developing countries being used as dumping grounds for hazardous waste is also a recurring issue that may worsen with more FNPPs.34 Some issues are already arising from the single Russian facility, home of the Akademik Lomonosov, Rosatom. It appears that operations could pose risks of contamination, including gas release from reactors on vessels and from stored SNF during the initial month of storage.35 However, there are some examples of how Rosatom handles these operations because of the Russian fleet of nuclear icebreakers.
SNF from their reactors is handled at a Rosatom site and apparently there has not been any significant contamination of the nearby bay.36
Some skepticism does exist nonetheless, as Tscherning points out, risks arise during initial fueling, during transportation, during day-to-day operations and during the refueling.37 Nevertheless, Tscherning also admits that these vessels do have the potential to reduce traditional costly maritime supply routes of fuel which need to be kept open by nuclear powered icebreakers.38 On top of that, their versatility seems to be a possible solution to modern energy demands. As mentioned in the introduction, large scale desalination is one of the services that these vessels can provide on top of heat and energy. As demand for fresh water is predicted to increase, FNPPs hold a considerable advantage since costs of nuclear desalination can be 30-60% lower than the most economical fossil fuel-based systems.39 Importantly, there are considerable risks to take into consideration due to the locations that FNPPs will be deployed to. Since one of the advantages is in fact that these vessels can be deployed in remote areas where resource extraction occurs, especially in northern areas, risks do accumulate in such circumstances. Naval accidents in normal circumstances create
challenging search and rescue operations, depending on location, weather and number of
33 Dowdall, n 5, (p.12).
34 Abrams, David J. "Regulating the International Hazardous Waste Trade: A Proposed Global Solution."
Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, vol. 28, no. 3, 1990, p. 801-846. (p. 804).
35 Dowdall, n 5, (p. 19-20).
36 Additional information available at: Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). Arctic pollution issues: Radioactive contamination. Østerås: Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, 1997.
https://oaarchive.arctic-council.org/handle/11374/924,
37 Tscherning, Rüdiger. "Transportable Nuclear Power Plants–An Update on Regulatory Responses in International Nuclear Law." Nuclear Law in the EU and Beyond. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, 2014. (p. 181).
38 Tscherning, n, 37 (p. 176).
39 Dowdall, n 5, (p.11-12).
passengers. It is considerably different when the passengers that need to be rescued are in polar waters, with challenging weather conditions and the vessel sinking has the potential to release radioactive material in the water for an indefinite period of time.40 Plutonium and other isotopes such as americium do not dissolve in water, meaning that they can become part of the sediment and that they may move and contaminate surrounding areas every time the ocean floor is disturbed.41 Contrarily, other isotopes such as strontium-90 and caesium-137 are water soluble but equally dangerous as they can be absorbed by fish or other organisms.42 This has the potential to directly affect consumers through popular fish, especially predators such as tuna, through a process known as bioaccumulation.43
There are competing views on the risks that FNPPs pose to the environment and to
populations close to areas of operation. On their principal web page, Rosatom uses terms such as green energy, environmentally friendly and sustainable to describe what the Akademik Lomonosov can provide.44 Critiques of this new technology come from different fields, with obvious ones such as Greenpeace, which released a peace entitled “32 years after Chernobyl, next up, a Chernobyl on ice?”.45 The title of this article is controversial to say the least, as the size and potential damage of the reactors is a forced comparison with a land-based nuclear power plant.46 Experts in the nuclear energy field, while providing more insight than
Greenpeace on what their critiques are based upon, seem to be on a wait-and-see approach.47 Nonetheless, since these are not operational yet, it is impossible to be certain on the impact that they may have. Some studies have reached competing conclusions to some of these questions. Worst case scenario would be a situation in which a large amount of energy
40 For a detailed report on search and rescue in the Arctic: Solberg, Knut Espen, Ove Tobias Gudmestad, and Bjarte Odin Kvamme. "SARex Spitzbergen: Search and rescue exercise conducted off North Spitzbergen:
Exercise report." (2016). http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2414815.
41 Nadelson, n 26, (p. 204).
42 Ibid.
43 Bioaccumulation: the accumulation over time of a substance and especially a contaminant (such as a pesticide or heavy metal) in a living organism https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bioaccumulation.
44 Reactor Plants for Small- and Medium-Sized Nuclear Power Stations. www.okbm.nnov.ru/en/business-directions/reactors-plants-for-small-and-medium-sized-npps/.
45 Alimov, Jan Haverkamp and Rashid. “32 Years after Chernobyl, next up, a Chernobyl on Ice?” Greenpeace International, 26 Apr. 2018, www.greenpeace.org/international/story/16149/32-years-on-chernobyl-on-ice/.
46 The two KLT reactors on board of the Akademik Lomonosov have each a 35 MWe capacity
(www.fnpp.info/.) wheras the four RBMK reactors of the Chernobyl Power Complex had the capacity to produce 1000 MWe each (https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident.aspx).
47 Nikitin and Andreyev, n 19, (p.23).
reaches supercritical conditions and becomes impossible to control.48 Risk of such an event occurring is higher during refueling operations, which occur every 3-4 years.49 Of course, probability of an accident does increase with the frequency operations are carried out, however, risk remains low overall.50
Despite the fact that there is only one FNPP, critiques concerning the Akademik Lomonosov should not be overlooked. The construction of the Akademik Lomonosov and other units like it should follow what are known as Normative Documents, a collection of rules and standards ensuring quality and safety.51 According to Kuznetsov, certain elements of the reactor do not correspond or outright violate these Normative Documents52 The same author is also skeptical of some of the developers’ claims that despite FNPPs being new, they can rely on in-service experience with the KLT-40C reactor installed on submarines and ice-breakers.53 As a matter of fact, although it is true that these reactors have long been used on different vessels, there is a long list of accidents with reported contamination.54 Of the 47 accidents documented by Kuznetsov, only fifteen had any impact on human beings, nine of which resulted in
contamination.55 Of the nine times people were contaminated, seven were accidents in which only the crew operating the vessel were affected. Thus, of the 47 accidents, only six resulted in death of either civilians or crew member.56 As a matter of fact, one of the worst accidents documented was the sinking of the submarine the Kursk, when 118 people died. The tragedy of accidents with so many casualties is undeniable; nonetheless, research on the
environmental impact of this misfortune reveals a less dire situation. Through two expeditions done by a Norwegian company with Norwegian and British deep-water divers,57 reports showed there were no indications of leakage.58 Although military secrecy limited the
48 Dowdall, n 5, (p.47).
49 Ibid (p.26).
50 Ibid (p.48).
51 Kuznetsov, V. M. Floating Nuclear Power Plants in Russia: A Threat to the Arctic, World Oceans and Non-Proliferation Treaty. Agency Rackurs Production, 2004. (p.18).
52 Kuznetsov, n 51, (p.18).
53 Ibid.
54 Ibid (p. 66-69).
55 Ibid.
56 Ibid.
57 Amundsen, I., et al. "The accidental sinking of the nuclear submarine, the Kursk: monitoring of radioactivity and the preliminary assessment of the potential impact of radioactive releases." Marine pollution bulletin 44.6 (2002): 459-468. (p.459).
58 Ibid (p.467).
availability of details pertaining the structure and condition of the Kursk,59 the report
concluded that there would not be any considerable impact.60 A similar conclusion came from a report on the environmental impact of the sunken submarine Komsomolets. The study undertaken by the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment determined through a worst-case scenario study that there would not be any significant hazard today or in the future.61 To conclude, the information provided in this section, excluded past accidents of different types of vessels, is mostly based on speculation. Although concerns regarding safety standards are not surprising, especially around a novelty such as FNPPs; the reality is that these are based on the first and only FNPP currently available in Russia. Risks and other concerns, although understandable, are based on limited information.