ST.PETERSBURG. Feb 3 (Interfax-Northwest) - A delegation of the U.S. Department of Defense plans to visit the Nerpa shipbuilding facility in the Murmansk region, northern Russia, in March to define the prospects of cooperation in nuclear submarine disposal.
Nerpa chief engineer Rostislav Rimdenok told Interfax that the Americans will discuss with the Russian side, among other things, the use of equipment delivered to the facility under the Common Threat Reduction program, also known as the Nunn-Lugar initiative.
Disposal of written-off ships and submarines is a priority for the facility, Rimdenok recalled. That is why Nerpa is developing a disposal system using U.S. technological equipment. In particular, the metal cutting line with a guillotine has been commissioned. Its output is 73 tonnes of scrap metal per hour.
As the CTR program has been completed at Nerpa, the facility's management is planning "to get the U.S. experts' permission to continue using the system, including for the cutting of the Kursk nuclear submarine being kept at the plant, until the CTR is reoriented at multipurpose submarines and the 10+10+10 program is launched," Rimdenok said.
The 10+10+10 program intended for speeding up the reduction of excessive Soviet nuclear and chemical armament stocks was approved at the G-8 summit in Kananaskis.
The program funded by 10 leading nations of the world provides for allocating USD10bn to Russia and CIS nations over a period of 10 years.