Trip to check radiation after 1989 sinking of Russian sub
Posted Jul 5, 2019 07:38:02 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
COPENHAGEN — Norwegian authorities say a joint Norwegian-Russian expedition will assess whether a Russian submarine that sank 30 years ago is leaking radioactive material.
The Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority say a Norwegian research vessel will set off Saturday from Tromsoe, northern Norway, to the Arctic Barents Sea where the Komsomolets submarine sank in 1989.
Forty-two of its 69 crewmen died in a fire, and the submarine’s nuclear reactor and two nuclear warheads are still on board.
The agency said Friday that a remote-controlled submersible would be used and the work “would be demanding” as “lies deep” at about 1,700 metres (5,610 feet)
Norway has found elevated concentrations of the radioactive substance cesium-137 around the wreck but said the levels were barely detectable and presented no danger.
The Associated Press
