Russia eyes raising thousands of radioactive relics from watery Arctic graves
It should have been an easy job. Instead, towing a rust-bucket nuclear submarine known as the k-159 to scrapping ended in a headache Russia has yet to get over
The sailors had done it dozens of times. Throughout the late 1990s,
the Russian Navy, assisted by international partners, had hauled scores
of derelict nuclear submarines to successful dismantlement – marking a
major step forward in making the world safe from the nuclear relics of
the Cold War. But this time, something went terribly wrong.
The sub itself was a perfect example of what Russia was trying to
clean up. Launched in 1963, the K-159 had become hopelessly irradiated
after a coolant leak in one of its reactors two years later. Over the
next decade and a half, the navy tried to restore it to service without
success, and in 1989 it was decommissioned altogether.
From then on it sat neglected at the Gremikha base on the eastern
edge of the polar Murmansk region, prey to rust, water, and the harsh
Arctic elements – its two reactors still loaded with 800 kilograms of
aging nuclear fuel.
In 2003, the orders finally came down to send it to scrap at the
Polyarny Naval Shipyard, 350 kilometers to the northwest along the Kara
Sea. The sub was no longer seaworthy so four pontoons were welded to its
corroded hull to keep it afloat during its journey. Ten sailors were
stationed aboard the vessel to pump out water and plug up the leaks
along the way.
Data: 03.02.2020
Fonte: www.bellona.org
