Despite cold political climate, the U.S. and Russia cooperated on a secret September voyage with Highly-enriched uranium from Poland to Murmansk. Norwegian radiation authorities not informed before the vessel sailed into its economical zone.
Head of Vardø Vessel Traffic Service, Ståle Sveinungsen, confirms to BarentsObserver that the vessel “Mikhail Dudin” was carrying a load of highly radioactive material when it sailed along the coast of Norway two weeks ago.
“That is correct. The vessel entered Vardø Traffic Service’s systems on the evening on September 2nd and sailed out again in the afternoon on September 8th,” says Ståle Sveinungsen.
Last position of the vessel, posted on MarineTraffic.com was September 15th, when she was in the waters just outside Atomflot in the Kola Bay.
“Mikhail Dudin” come [sic] from Gdynia in Poland and sailed into Norwegian economical waters southeast of Kristiansand and left Norwegian waters east of the Varanger fjord in the Barents Sea where she made port call to Murmansk the day after.
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Nuclear physicist with the Bellona Foundation in Oslo, Nils Bøhmer, is concerned about the fact that the agency responsible for radiation preparedness was not informed before.
“I’m deeply worried about that fact,” he says to BarentsObserver and argues that lack of information makes it very difficult to establish needed safety precautions.
Highly-enriched uranium can be used to produce nuclear weapons and the Americans responsible for the transport have on similar occasions earlier argued that fears of terrorism is the main reason why such cargoes sails without upfront notices.
Full article: Secret nuclear cargo along coast of Norway (BarentsObserver)
Global Geopolitics 