A decommissioned Russian nuclear-powered K-159 submarine bound
for the scrapyard sank in the Barents Sea on August 29, killing
at least nine of the 10 member crew.
The Russian Defence Ministry said the submarine’s nuclear
reactor was shut down at the time the vessel sank about 4am (1200
AEST) about three nautical miles north-west of Kildin Island.
No weapons were aboard the sub, the ministry confirmed.
One sailor was rescued, the bodies of two dead crew members were
found and the fate of seven others were unknown, the ministry
said.
The K-159 was decommissioned on July 16, 1989.
Just two days before the sinking, the sub was being towed on four
floating hulls from its base in the town of Gremikha to a plant
in the town of Polarnye to be scrapped.
The hulls were ripped off the towed sub during a fierce storm
and the submarine sank in 170 metres of water.
A more long term concern is the eventual leakage from K159’s
first generation twin nuclear reactors.
Eventually the effects of saltwater will cause the reactor compartments
and consequently the reactor vessel to fail, resulting in large
amounts of coolant and corroded fuel to leak out to the surrounding
waters.
Newer, better designed plants will withstand this for many decades,
but K159 has been described as a ‘virtual antique’.
Just three years ago, on August 12, 2000, an explosion shook the
nuclear submarine Kursk during exercises, sending it to the bottom
of the Barents Sea. All 118 men on board were killed.
