KURSK - to be raised in June

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BBC

Monday, 14 May, 2001, 10:41 GMT 11:41 UK

Kursk salvage to begin 'in June'

Efforts to raise the wreck of the Kursk nuclear submarine from the sea bed will begin next month, a senior Russian official has announced.

Russian news agencies quoted Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov as saying the operation to lift the vessel, which sank in the Barents Sea last August, killing all 118 men on board, would take three months.

It would be completed around 20 September, he said.

The cause of the tragedy remains unknown - Western experts say two explosions heard before the submarine sank were probably triggered by an accident in the torpedo bay, but the Russian navy has searched for signs of a collision with a Western submarine.

Bodies

Mr Klebanov said that a deal would be clinched on Sunday with Dutch and Norwegian firms to proceed with the operation.

The proposal, unveiled in January, involves lifting the wreck with huge cranes and securing it under a giant barge.

A number of Russian Government ministries and firms would also take part, he said.

Russia has promised since the tragedy to raise the submarine, which lies more than 100m beneath the surface, north of the port of Murmansk.

However some of the crewmen's families have said they would prefer their husbands and sons to remain untouched.

Twelve bodies were recovered last year, but conditions were too dangerous to recover more.

Radiation risk

The Kursk, one of the Russian navy's largest and most modern nuclear submarines, was taking part in a large naval exercise when the tragedy occurred.

The Russian Government is supposed to share the cost of the lifting operation - estimated at $70 million - with the Kursk Foundation, an international fund-raising group.

Mr Klebanov said earlier this year that the submarine's mangled torpedo compartment would be cut away from the vessel and left on the sea floor, in order to minimise the possibility of further explosions.

Some experts have suggested that the operation to raise the submarine risks damaging its reactor and causing a radiation leak.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001


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