Nuclear wastes in neighbouring countries
The majority of nearby nuclear wastes is situated in the areas of the former Soviet Union. In the Kola Peninsula, there are spent fuel dumps of nuclear-powered submarines and ice-breakers, especially in Andrejeva Bay and the Gremikha maintenance bases. These dumps contain about a hundred tons of high-level spent fuel. There are also large quantities of other kinds of wastes, such as radioactive scrap metal.
In the storages of the Leningrad nuclear power plant in Sosnovy Bor, there is spent fuel equivalent to about 5000 tons of uranium. Since there is no intention to reprocess it, it will probably stay there for a long time.
In Sosnovy Bor, there is also a regional management centre for radioactive wastes. In the storages of the centre there is 60 000 m3 of radioactive waste. Its total activity is about 10 petabecquerels (PBq = 1015 Bq).
In Estonia, near the town of Sillamäe on the shore of the Gulf of Finland there is a large (50 hectares) waste depository. The total radioactive waste amount there is 12 million tons and of that amount about half originates from the enrichment of uranium. An international project for the restoration of the area was completed in 2008.
Although the above-mentioned nuclear waste accumulation sites are not a direct threat to Finland, STUK takes part in the projects which aim at improving the state of nuclear waste management in Northern Europe.
