[ RadSafe ] Russian nuclear sub may be raised with the help of British experts

[Fred Dawson]

Sunday Times reports

British to help raise Russian nuclear sub
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2557885,00.html

A RUSTING Russian nuclear submarine that sank in the Barents Sea with the 
loss of nine crewmen may be raised from the ocean bed next summer with the 
help of British experts. A Ministry of Defence salvage team will examine the 
vessel's two nuclear reactors before deciding whether it can be raised from 
a depth of more than 900ft.

The K-159, a November-class submarine commissioned in 1962, sank when it was 
hit by a storm while being towed to be scrapped in September 2003.
The Russian government was embarrassed by its loss, 40 miles off the coast 
of the Arctic Circle city of Murmansk. Its reactors are filled with 
three-quarters of a ton of spent uranium. The vessel is lying at more than 
twice the depth from which the Kursk - the nuclear submarine that sank in 
2000, killing its 118-man crew - was raised.
"There's an element of fear of the unknown here," said Morgyn Davis, project 
team leader for salvage and marine at the Defence Logistics Organisation, 
whose team is consulting the Russian authorities about the K-159. We have 
towed nuclear submarines before and we have practical experience with nukes, 
which obviously very few nations have. "
The Norwegian government, which was given responsibility by the Group of 
Eight (G8) leading industrial nations for overseeing the post-cold war 
clean-up of ageing military equipment in the Arctic, has come in for 
criticism over the sinking.
Norway largely financed the disastrous Russian towing operation in which 
four rusting pontoons, built in 1942, were used as a support structure for 
the submarine.
After the sinking, Britain stepped in and offered its services, playing a 
key role in towing two remaining November-class submarines safely across the 
Barents Sea. The British team will now work with Norwegian and Canadian 
diving experts and Dutch salvage engineers.
Currently engaged in keeping the oil tanks of the sunken battleship Royal 
Oak from leaking into Scapa Flow, Davis's team last raised a submarine in 
1985. It was also involved with a British company whose submersible rescued 
seven Russians in the mini-submarine Priz off Kamchatka in the Russian Far 
East in August 2005.
"We've worked closely with the Russian government and we think we understand 
what's involved with the K-159," said Davis. "The first thing to do is to 
get down to the wreck in remote-control submersibles, cut the pontoon wires 
around the submarine and put sensors on to check for radiation. We think it 
is flooded with water, so raising it like that, from that depth, would be 
very difficult."
If the hull is intact the team may pump in compressed air to allow the K-159 
to rise with the assistance of balloons. If the vessel is too badly damaged 
it may just be entombed in concrete and left on the seabed.
According to some reports the hatches were open at the time of the sinking - 
to allow the crew to get air.
Shortly after the accident, retired Admiral Eduard Baltin revealed that the 
K-159 had been taking water during its last mission in 1983. He said that 
placing men on the crumbling submarine "was like putting them in a barrel 
full of holes".
The families of the submariners who died welcomed the news that Britain may 
help raise the K-159. They have fought to have the vessel brought back to 
the surface since 2003 and are now suing the Russian government for 
compensation.
"The defence ministry has been promising to raise the sub for three years 
now, so it's high time it happened," said Valentina Lappa, the widow of the 
K-159's commander, Sergei Lappa.
"We've been treated with utter disregard. We have no place to mourn our 
loved ones. There may still be some remains in the submarine. Our men 
deserve a proper burial. I have no husband and no tombstone, only a terrible 
void."


Fred Dawson

fwp_dawson at hotmail.com