A Russian nuclear-powered submarine sank in stormy Arctic seas yesterday, killing nine servicemen, as it was being towed into port for scrapping, defence officials said. The K-159 sank onto the seabed 170 metres down in the Barents Sea, but officials said the 40-year-old vessel's nuclear reactors had been shut down in 1989 when it was decommissioned and they discounted an ecological threat.
An environmental pressure group, however, said water was likely to seep into the reactors and that radiation levels in the area would have to be watched closely. In Italy, President Vladimir Putin, who suffered badly in the political fallout from the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine in the Barents three years ago when 118 servicemen were killed, vowed a thorough investigation. "Of course, all reasons for the tragedy will be established," Putin told reporters on board the warship Moskva off Sardinia where he is on a visit.
Chief military prosecutor Alexander Savenkov told Russian TV First Channel the submarine's captain, Sergei Zhemchuzhov, was being questioned about the incident, which took place in an early morning storm. One officer was rescued alive from the crew of 10 on board when an accident occurred in the towing operation at about 2 a.m. The bodies of two servicemen were recovered shortly after the incident.
Navy chief-of-staff Viktor Kravchenko quashed chances of the seven missing sailors being found alive, given the heavy seas and a water temperature of 10 Celsius. He said surface rescue ships, using special listening equipment, had failed to detect any signs of life on board.
"No signs could be heard. Obviously, there are no members of the crew left alive on board," Kravchenko said, adding that relatives had been informed. He said the K-159 - like the Kursk - would be raised. "At the moment we are considering the various ways of raising (the submarine). We will definitely raise it so that it can be destroyed," Kravchenko said in televised comments.
Kravchenko, in a televised exchange with Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, said both reactors had been switched off on the K-159 in 1989 and "put into a nuclear safe condition". "At this site, the radioactive level is normal," he said. Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said all weapons, including torpedoes and rockets, had also been removed from the vessel when it was decommissioned.
Norwegian environmental group Bellona, which has long studied Russia's nuclear arsenal, blasted Moscow for allowing the ageing vessel to be towed in rough seas and said new disasters were likely because of poor safety measures. Bellona head Frederic Hauge said there was no seal around the reactors to stop water seeping in.
"Water is likely to get in and that will cause leaks," he told Reuters, adding radiation levels would have to be monitored to see if there was any impact on fish. But he said that even if all the radiation leaked out it would only slightly raise levels in the area.
The submarine was being towed along the coast of the Kola Peninsula to a scrapyard at Polyarny when supporting floats broke apart. The K-159 tipped over and went down five km northwest of Kildin Island. The incident bore uncanny echoes of the Kursk disaster in which all 118 crew were killed. Putin was on holiday at the time and returned to face criticism that he had not responded adequately to a national tragedy.