22-24 April 2002

NATO-Russia workshop on decommissioning nuclear-powered vessels A workshop dealing with "Unresolved Issues Remaining in the Decommissioning of Nuclear Powered Vessels" took place in Moscow from 22-24 April, and was attended by high-level officials, including Mr. V. Lebedev, Secretary of State and Deputy Minister, Ministry of Atomic Energy of Russia. The workshop included an overview of nuclear vessel decommissioning programmes in various countries as well as bilateral and multilateral programmes, but concentrated mainly on technical problems involved in the more difficult cases, such as vessels with damaged cores, vessels with unusual coolant conditions, or land-based infrastructure issues including contaminated structures and waste storage locations. The workshop was supported by the NATO Science Programme and directed jointly by Academician Ashot A. Sarkisov, of the Nuclear Safety Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Leo LeSage of the Argonne National Laboratory, USA. Additional information: The webmodule of the NATO Science Programme.