LURKING NUCLEAR DISASTER?
It is 28 August 2003, and a Russian K-159 submarine is being towed out of Gremikha naval base in northwestern Russia. Four large floating pontoons have been attached to the 107-metre-long corroded hull, which is being transported further up the coast to Murmansk, where it will be scrapped, along with several other Cold War nuclear submarines.
Two days later, the submarine is caught in a storm off the island of Kildin in the Barents Sea. Waves up to four metres high and 33-knot winds shake the pontoons loose at its bow. The K-159 begins to take in water… then it sinks – dropping to the sea floor 246 metres below, with nine crew members.
The submarine being scrapped was powered by a nuclear reactor still full of radioactive materials. And the K-159 is not the only submarine lost to the oceans. The wreck of another Russian nuclear sub, K-27, was sunk in 1982 and has been resting ever since at a depth of 30 metres in the sea
