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The Russian submarine K-159, now on the sea bed
Sunday, Sep. 07, 2003

Open quoteK-159, a rust bucket of a Russian nuclear submarine, was being towed to a navy scrap yard late last month when it sprang a leak and went down in the Barents Sea. Nine sailors lost their lives — a fraction of the 118 who died when another Russian submarine, the Kursk, exploded and sank three years ago. But this latest sub disaster could have even more serious consequences.

A high-level Russian official tells TIME that it "presents a threat more menacing than that of the Kursk," a state-of-the-art submarine whose reactors were much less likely to leak radioactive material before the sub could be recovered. "There's no telling how [K-159] will hold up underwater," this source says. The wreckage is under crushing pressure, 238 m down, and its hull is deeply corroded. Although its reactors ground to a halt 15 years ago, the spent nuclear fuel — 798 kg of the stuff — was never unloaded.

If the Kursk recovery is any guide, salvage operations won't be possible before May. The Russian Naval Command promises it will retrieve K-159 by next year — without foreign assistance. TIME's source is skeptical: the navy is short on funds. Three years after the Kursk disaster, it still hasn't bought the gear necessary for such an operation. The government, meanwhile, has allocated only $70 million for all nuclear cleanup and maintenance in Russia. It cost $150 million to recover the Kursk.Close quote

  • YURI ZARAKHOVICH
  • Is the new Russian sunken sub worse than the Kursk?
Photo: REUTERS | Source: Nuclear reactors aboard a sunken Russian submarine may pose a serious environmental threat