''Landysh'' (russian: Ландыш, lit=Lily of the Valley; known as ''Suzuran'' in Japan) is a floating facility for processing contaminated water produced when

decommissioning Decommissioning is a general term for a formal process to remove something from an active status, and may refer to: Infrastructure * Decommissioned offshore * Decommissioned highway * Greenfield status of former industrial sites * Nuclear decommi ...

nuclear submarine A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically diesel-electric) submarines. Nuclear propulsion, ...

s. It was built in Russia with funds from Japan as part of an agreement on nuclear arms disposal, but has not left the wharf. Japan requested that Russia send ''Landysh'' to help in the aftermath of the

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...

History

In 1972 the

Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter The Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter 1972, commonly called the "London Convention" or "LC '72" and also abbreviated as Marine Dumping, is an agreement to control pollution of the sea by dum ...

was held and in 1975 the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

ratified the agreement to limit the dumping of high-level

radioactive waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons r ...

s in the oceans. In 1983 many Convention members signed a voluntary moratorium on all dumping of radioactive wastes at sea, but the USSR did not sign and continued to dispose of low-level radioactive reactor coolant water from its nuclear submarines. Leaks and intentional releases of radioactive materials from Russian facilities in the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

prompted Japan to offer financial aid for Russia to build facilities to treat low-level radioactive water in 1994. By 1996 a design for a floating processing facility was accepted and contracts issued to the Tomen Corporation (Japan),

Babcock & Wilcox Babcock & Wilcox is an American renewable, environmental and thermal energy technologies and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets across the globe with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio, USA. Historicall ...

(USA) and the

Amur Shipbuilding Plant OJSC Amur Shipbuilding Plant (russian: Амурский судостроительный завод, ''Amurskiy Sudostroitelnyy Zavod'', and also called the "Leninskiy Komsomol Shipyard") is an important shipyard in eastern Russia, based in Kom ...

(Russia). ''Landysh'' was built at the Amur shipyard in

Komsomolsk-on-Amur Komsomolsk-on-Amur ( rus, Комсомольск-на-Амуре, r=Komsomolsk-na-Amure, p=kəmsɐˈmolʲsk nɐɐˈmurʲə) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located on the west bank of the Amur Rive ...

, completed in 1998 and commissioned in 2000. ''Landysh'' remained at

Zvezda shipyard Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex (russian: Судостроительный комплекс «Звезда») is a Russian shipbuilding company that operates the country's largest shipyard in the town of Bolshoy Kamen in the Russian Far East. Establi ...

Bolshoy Kamen Bolshoy Kamen ( rus, Большой Камень, p=bɐlʲˈʂoj ˈkamʲɪnʲ, lit. ''large stone'') is a town in the south of Primorsky Krai, Russia, located on the opposite side of the Ussuri Bay as seen from Lazurnaya Bay. The town was closed ...

until 2011. As of 9 May 2011 discussions between

Rosatom Rosatom, ( rus, Росатом, p=rɐsˈatəm}) also known as Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom or Rosatom State Corporation, is a Russian state corporation headquartered in Moscow that speciali ...

, the Russian nuclear agency, and Japan concerning the dispatch of ''Landysh'' to Japan were still ongoing. Japanese reluctance to accept Russian assistance may be linked to the

Kuril Islands dispute The Kuril Islands dispute, known as the Northern Territories dispute in Japan, is a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over the ownership of the four southernmost Kuril Islands. The Kuril Islands are a chain of islands that stretch b ...

between Russia and Japan.

Description

''Landysh'' is a

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

and must be towed from one location to another. It is long, wide, and has a double hull; its waste-treatment facility has thick

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

walls to prevent spills. It displaces 3,900 tonnes and carries a crew of 46.

Capabilities

There are conflicting reports about what level of radioactivity can be in the water processed by ''Landysh''; some sources state that it can only process low-level water whilst other sources state it can handle medium- and low-level water; all sources agree that it can process up 7,000 m³ per year. There have been questions raised about the effectiveness of the decontamination process, especially regarding the removal of

caesium-137 Caesium-137 (), cesium-137 (US), or radiocaesium, is a radioactive isotope of caesium that is formed as one of the more common fission products by the nuclear fission of uranium-235 and other fissionable isotopes in nuclear reactors and nucl ...

. ''Landysh'' uses a combination of

filtration Filtration is a physical separation process that separates solid matter and fluid from a mixture using a ''filter medium'' that has a complex structure through which only the fluid can pass. Solid particles that cannot pass through the filter ...

ion exchange Ion exchange is a reversible interchange of one kind of ion present in an insoluble solid with another of like charge present in a solution surrounding the solid with the reaction being used especially for softening or making water demineralised, ...

and

reverse osmosis Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification process that uses a partially permeable membrane to separate ions, unwanted molecules and larger particles from drinking water. In reverse osmosis, an applied pressure is used to overcome osmotic pre ...

to remove

radioactive material A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess nuclear energy, making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ways: emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation; transfer ...

from water. After collecting and concentrating the radioactive materials, they are mixed with

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...

and placed in 200-litre barrels for further

management.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Google Image Search for Landysh in Russian
2000 ships Barges of Russia Nuclear technology in Russia Ships built by Amur Shipbuilding Plant Waste treatment technology