Estonia has five nuclear-related facilities: Sillamae Metal and Chemical Production Plant (also known as Silmet), the Paldiski nuclear reactor training facility, the Saku and Tammiku waste depositories, and Dvigatel. There is no highly radioactive waste in Estonia: Silmet has uranium tailings, Paldiski and Saku have solid and liquid waste, and Tammiku has low- and intermediate-level solid waste.
The Sillamae Metal and Chemical Production Plant (Silmet), a former Soviet uranium refinery, has nearly 8 million metric tons of hazardous waste on site. A study sponsored by the European Commission in 1998 ranked the radioactive waste dump at Silmet fourth most dangerous out of 7,000 plants, mines, and repositories in Europe that pose an environmental risk. In July 2000, Hans Jakob Eriksen of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, who serves as the Danish coordinator of environmental aid to Estonia, reported that the dump contains at least 1,200 metric tons of depleted uranium and 600 metric tons of thorium.
During the Soviet era, Paldiski served as a naval training base for nuclear submarine personnel and housed three military units. Paldiski has two decommissioned pressurized-water submarine training reactors and a waste facility housing approximately 800,000 liters of liquid radioactive waste stored in concrete tanks. On 30 September 1995 control over the facility was successfully transferred from Russian to Estonian officials. The Estonian government appointed the Estonian Radioactive Waste Management Agency (AS ALARA Ltd.), a state-owned company, to manage the facility.
Dvigatel's primary function is to supply equipment for chemical- and energy-related industries, including specialized equipment for nuclear power plants. Formerly one of the largest enterprises in the Soviet Union’s military-industrial complex, Dvigatel fills orders from groups such as the Swedish firm Asea Brown Boveri, the Troitsk Institute of Innovative and Thermonuclear Research, and the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom). Minatom contracts have included producing equipment for spent fuel reprocessing, long-term storage of nuclear materials, and for air filtration in nuclear power plants.
Although rumors circulated in October 1991 about a secret enrichment plant on the Baltic coast near the port of Narva, Estonian officials identified the site as a U3O8 production plant. Estonia has no operating nuclear power reactors. The utilities of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania released a joint feasibility study in October 2006 calling for the construction of at least one new nuclear reactor of between 800 and 1,600 MW in Lithuania to replace Ignalina-2, which is scheduled to be closed in 2009. In March 2007, Poland agreed to participate in the project, which is estimated to cost $5 billion.
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Updated December 2007 |
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