Japan / Russia | A project in which Japan is helping Russia dismantle decommissioned nuclear submarines abandoned on the far east Russian coast is expected to conclude in 2010, according to government sources.
Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura is scheduled to meet with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow on Monday, and will confirm arrangements to complete the project.
All the vessels, about 70 in total, will be dismantled and taken away in the project. Japan has to date put up about 1.7 billion yen to take apart two submarines and plans to contribute about 3 billion yen more for the dismantling of another four vessels.
The submarines were built by the former Soviet Union as part of the Cold War arms race with the United States. But the collapse of the Soviet Union and the birth of a new Russia brought political chaos and later, economic difficulties, meaning the submarines were just abandoned without being dismantled following their decommissioning.
In 1993, it was learned that spent nuclear fuel from superannuated Russian submarines had been dumped in the Sea of Japan, which highlighted the dismantling issue.
