Due to their high levels of radiation, they were considered a health risk to the pupils. 8.3 Radon - storage facilities for civil purposes The civil storage facilities for radioactive waste in Russia are known under the name of Radon . In the former Soviet Union, there are in all several hundred storage facilities of this kind. 70 companies and institutions in the counties of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk use these civil Radon storage facilities. The storage facilities are situated 28 kilometres from Murmansk on the Petshenga road to Norway, and was established in 1964.
Radioactive waste is deposited in four concrete tanks within a fenced area.
The area is marked with warning signs for radioactivity, and a guard house with one employee is placed at the entrance. Encompassing the storage facilities by a radius of one kilometre is a safety zone in which no cars may stop. The waste is packed in steel drums and transported to Radon in three custom-built lorries. The overall capacity of these storage facilities are 800 cubic meters of waste, the concrete tanks presently contain approximately 400 cubic meters of solid low- and medium level radioactive waste. This waste was delivered from Atomflot at the beginning of the 70's.