Russia bans towing of nuclear subs after sinking
The move raised the prospect of further delays in efforts to dispose of more than 100 rotting ships and their reactors. The ban by defence minister Sergei Ivanov followed the sinking of a nuclear submarine en route to an Arctic dismantling facility on Saturday.
Mr Ivanov also said that radiation levels in the area of the Barents Sea where the submarine K-159 went down were normal, but environmentalists suggested after the sinking that the danger of contaminating the fish-rich area was higher than officials portrayed.
The K-159 will be raised from the bottom of the Barents Sea, Mr Ivanov said, but warned preparations for the operation could take several months.
The submarine, which was decommissioned in 1989, sank while it was being towed to a scrapyard on the Kola Peninsula where its nuclear reactors were to be removed and dismantled.
One sailor was rescued and the bodies of two others were found. The others have not been located, but officials said there was no chance of their being found alive.
A storm ripped off the pontoons that had been attached to the submarine for towing and Russian news reports cited unidentified navy sources as suggesting the pontoons had been placed improperly. Mr Ivanov said the submarine sank with its conning tower open.
"There were definitely elements of this frivolous Russian reliance on chance, that everything will work out," Mr Ivanov said yesterday.
"This confirms yet again the simple truth that all instructions and orders must be taken seriously."
However, Mr Ivanov also said the men aboard the K-159 were not to blame. "There are no complaints against you you were only a witness," he said in a televised meeting with surviving sailor Maxim Tsibulsky, who lay in a Northern Fleet hospital bed appearing healthy but exhausted.
Russia has decommissioned 189 nuclear-powered submarines over the past 15 years but 126 of those still are at docks with nuclear fuel in their reactors, creating international concern about leaks and the possibility of nuclear materials being obtained by other nations or terrorists.
Mr Ivanov's apparent frustration with procedure violations in the towing echoed the reaction of President Vladimir Putin, who said on Saturday that "the sea demands discipline".
The exact circumstances of the sinking remain unclear.
The ship's reactors were reportedly shut down when it was taken out of service, but environmentalist Alexander Nikitin, a former Russian navy captain, said the risk of a leak was high and he criticised the navy for choosing the "cheapest and worst option" by not removing the reactors before towing the boat to the dismantling point.
The submarine sank about three nautical miles northwest of Kildin Island off the Kola Peninsula, the same area where the nuclear sub Kursk sank almost three years ago.
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