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[MIannaccone@dhhs.state.nh.us]

Monday August 14 7:25 AM ET
Russian Nuclear Submarine Crippled on Sea Bed

By Patrick Lannin

MOSCOW (Reuters) - More than 100 Russian sailors were trapped in their nuclear-powered submarine on the sea bed off northern Russia Monday after
technical faults forced them to shut down the nuclear reactor, the navy said.

Russia's independent NTV television station said the cause of the accident was flooding of the torpedo tubes and front section of the submarine Kursk,
 and said a power shutdown might lead to problems with oxygen supplies.

The navy could not be contacted to confirm the details of the accident.

The head of the navy's press office, Igor Dygalo, said earlier that unspecified technical faults had forced the Kursk to settle on the sea bed after
training exercises in the Barents Sea, most of which lies in the Arctic circle north of European Russia.

He gave no details of the depth or location of the Kursk, classed as Antyei in Russia and Oscar-2 by NATO, but said no nuclear weapons were on board.

He said the submarine's nuclear reactor had been shut down and there were no radiation leaks, and that rescue vessels had rushed to the scene.

A reporter for NTV speaking from the Northern Fleet's base of Severomorsk said the crew of the Kursk had had to ground the vessel on the sea bed after
 its torpedo tubes and front section flooded.

The reporter gave no source for his information. He also said a power shutdown on the vessel might lead to problems with supplies of oxygen on board.

It was not clear whether the crew were trying to fix the problem themselves.

The Norwegian environmental group Bellona said on its web site (www.bellona.no) that rescue efforts could be hampered by the power shutdown.

It quoted former Russian naval officer Alexander Nikitin, who works for Bellona and was recently cleared by a Russian court of spying, as saying that
if the submarine was at a depth of more than 100 meters it would be difficult to use the Kursk's ballast tanks to refloat it.

Nikitin was quoted as saying that Oscar-2 class submarines did not have rescue capsules to take the crew to the surface and that deep-going rescue
submarines would have to be used.

Kursk Is New Submarine

Interfax news agency said the Kursk came into service in 1995 and had 107 people on board, including 52 officers. Itar-Tass said its class of
submarine could carry up to 130 men.

The defense ministry of Norway, which has territorial waters in the Barents, said it had no information about the incident.

One of the most serious recent submarine disasters was off Norway's north coast in 1989, when a Soviet Mike class nuclear submarine, the Komsomolets,
sank after fires on board.

A total of 42 crew died in the accident. Norway says the sunken submarine's nuclear reactor and torpedoes are still slowly leaking plutonium into the
water.

The latest edition of the Military Balance, a guide to the world's armed forces by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Oscar class
 submarines can carry 24 Shipwreck underwater-to-surface guided missiles and heavy water torpedoes.

The missiles can be loaded with conventional or nuclear warheads, the book said.

The environmental group Greenpeace lists 23 incidents involving U.S., Soviet and Russian nuclear-armed warships between 1950 and 1993 on its Web site
(www.greenpeace.org), and says they resulted in the loss of 51 nuclear warheads under the sea.

Submitted by
Mario Iannaccone
Health Physicist
miannacc@dhhs.state.nh.us

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