Bow of 'Kursk' safe from blast risk, claims Russian Navy
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Your support makes all the difference.Divers are preparing to cut holes in the outer hull of the sunken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk to which cables will be attached allowing the shattered vessel to be winched to the surface.
As the operation to salvage the Kursk, which sank a year ago after an explosion tore apart its bows, gets under way the Russian Navy says there are no unexploded munitions in the forepart of the submarine.
The plan is to cut off the mangled front end using robot-operated chainsaws starting on 8 August. Deep-sea divers will have cut 26 holes so the wire cables can be attached to the rest of the submarine. It is hoped to lift the Kursk off the seabed 350ft feet down in the Barents Sea on or about 15 September. Diving teams, working in shifts, were yesterday installing and testing machinery to cut into the hull.
"There is no unexploded ammunition around the first compartment of the Kursk nuclear submarine," said a navy spokesman, Captain Igor Dygalo. He said divers from an international team, mostly British, had made an extra inspection of the area immediately in front of the Kursk.
The most likely explanation of the sinking is that there was an accident with a single torpedo. Possibly its fuel, which was deemed unstable by other navies, exploded, and that set off other torpedoes. But it is not clear if all the Kursk's torpedoes and missiles are now harmless. The Navy also insists there is no danger from the two reactors on board. Captain Dygalo said they had been examined several times, though he did not state when these inspections were made.
One of Russia's leading nuclear physicists, Yevgeny Velikhov, the director of the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, said yesterday that stresses involved in the operation to lift the submarine "should be substantially milder than the explosion that occurred on board the Kursk".
He said there was no sign of radiation around the vessel. "If nothing happened to the reactor at the time of the explosion, then nothing will happen to it while the submarine is being brought to the surface, although, of course, there are a lot of problems," Dr Velikhov said.
Vyacheslav Zakharov, the chief representative of the Dutch heavy-lifting company Mammoet said one of the main problems in the operation was the lack of communication between those involved "for which reason, problems in relations arise".
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