Russia will scrap five nuclear submarines decommissioned from the Pacific Fleet by 2010 under a joint project with Japan, according to Japan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Shintaro Ito. The Victor class vessels will be dealt with under the Star of Hope programme for the dismantling of decommissioned nuclear submarines in Russia’s Far East, which was adopted in 2003 during a visit to Russia by Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Mr Ito told a news conference in Vladivostok, where the headquarters of the Russian Pacific Fleet are located, that Japan had allocated Yen 20 billion (around US$ 170 million) to the project. The minister also said the dismantling of the first decommissioned Victor I nuclear submarine would start in the near future at the Zvezda Shipyard in a suburb of Vladivostok, and would take some 10 months to complete.
During the dismantling process, spent nuclear fuel will be removed from the submarine’s reactors and put into storage. The hull will be cut into three sections, and the bow and stern sections removed and destroyed. The reactor section will then be sealed and transferred into storage.
There are some 30 decommissioned nuclear submarines moored at various ports in Russia’s Far East.
