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

[Morten Sickel]

I don't know the general journalistic standards of the sunday times, but
Norway was by no means involved in the towing of K-159. We were, on the
other hand togheter with UK within the AMEC cooperation involved in the
sucessfull transport of another November class sub, 291 on a heavy lift
vessel late last summer.


Morten Sickel
Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority


-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of Fred Dawson
Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 11:43 AM
To: srp-uk at yahoogroups.com; radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Russian nuclear sub may be raised with the help
ofBritish experts

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 



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