K-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.