Sub won't be raised soon

2003-09-01 19:10

Moscow - The derelict nuclear submarine that sank in the fish-rich Barents Sea while en route to a scrapyard can't be raised until at least next year, the Russian navy's deputy chief said Monday.

The submarine K-159 sank on Saturday during a fierce storm while being towed to a port on the Kola Peninsula where its reactor was to be removed and dismantled and the rest of the ship scrapped. Nine of the 10 men aboard were killed.

Navy and Atomic Energy Ministry officials were quoted by Russian news agencies on Monday as saying that radiation levels remained normal in the sinking area, some 350km north of the Arctic Circle where Finland and Norway abut Russia.

But environmentalists warned after the sinking that the contamination danger was substantial and the Navy's chief of general staff Admiral Viktor Kravchenko said "the ship must be raised in order to carry out a complete unloading of the reactor".

Kravchenko said Monday it would be unfeasible to try to cut the reactor out of the ship, which is lying on its side at a depth of 238m. Preparatory work is under way for the complex raising operation, he said, but the lifting could not begin before 2004.

The raising operation's complexity is likely to be increased by the severe weather that often hits the Barents Sea, where gales sometimes whip up on short notice.

The day after the sinking, Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov ordered a temporary halt to towing other mothballed submarines to breaker yards, raising the prospect of further delays in Russian efforts to dispose of more than 100 nuclear vessels.

Most of the decommissioned ships have sat deteriorating for years in Russian ports, to the alarm of critics who say their reactors could leak or be plundered for nuclear materials by terrorists.

The K-159 was attached to pontoons for the towing, which were ripped off by the storm. In addition, its conning tower was open when it went down.

- AP