17/08-2004
One of the most radioactively dangerous ship in the whole of Northern Europe, the Lepse stores in its hold tonnes of spent nuclear fuel, or SNF much of it damaged and therefore extremely dangerous to move from Russias civilian fleet of nuclear icebreakers.

It was Chernogorov's assertion in his report that, in order to secure the Lepse from posing further radioactive hazards to the Murmansk region, it should simply be filled with a special radiation resistant concrete mixture, leaving the SNF onboard in storage.

In October 1991 Chernogorov managed to plug 208 tonnes of concrete into the fissures between the SNF storage tanks aboard the Lepse.

In 1994, Lennart Meri, president of the former Soviet Rebulic of Estonia met Russian president Boris Yeltsin in Moscow and they agreed to secure Soviet nuclear reactor submarine compartments in the former 93rd training unit of the Soviet Navy in the Estonian town of Paldiski, 50 kilometers west of Tallinn.

“This mixture and the technology of its usage were worked out based on the experience we gained in 1991 during concrete grouting in the spaces between the tanks of the Lepse. A similar mixture was used in Paldiski,” Chernogorov said. Two surface prototypes of reactor compartments of first and second generation nuclear submarines with functioning nuclear energetic installations were secured and laid up using the concrete mixture.

When the operation was finished in September 1995, Estonian President Meri, standing without remarks on the concrete sarcophagus over one of the reactors, confirmed, more articulately than words could have, that the operation had been a success.

Originally posted by PsykoOps
reply to post by makeitso

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Either I'm losing my memory or it never went trough. As I remember it happening it was something they wanted to do right away after the accident but because of public scrutiny they dropped the idea.