Vladimir Putin is 100% focused on the war in Ukraine, which he started 2 years and 7 months ago, but without achieving his initial goals. But currently, the news related to the submarine K-27 is terrible, it being a real nuclear bomb “ticking”, at the bottom of the Kara Sea, where it sank 42 years ago.
The Ministry of Emergencies of the Russian Federation announced that its divers are inspecting the K-27 submarine, and the danger of a nuclear radiation leak is very high, according to Eurasian Times.
Moscow authorities announced that the ship was located in Stepovoy Bay and was classified as a hazardous radiation facility. The ministry said specialists were prepared to carry out their inspections over the next month, despite the challenges posed by low air and water temperatures as they assessed the submarine’s condition.
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In 1968, during the height of the Cold War, the submarine K-27 experienced a catastrophic event when radiation leaked from one of its reactors while sailing in the Arctic. The incident resulted in the tragic loss of nine lives.
The K-27 was the first Soviet submarine to incorporate innovative lead-bismuth cooled reactors. These reactors were designed to be smaller and more powerful than standard pressurized water reactors, but faced significant operational challenges from the start.
On May 24, 1968, a severe failure occurred in one of the submarine’s VT-1 reactors, resulting in a dramatic drop in power from 87 percent to just seven percent. This sudden drop in production was accompanied by an alarming increase in gamma radiation that flooded the reactor compartment.
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“When the submarine surfaced to make the trip back to the docks, the division ordered it to shut down its engines and await special instructions,” Mazurenko recounted. “The captain (Pavel Leonov), however, decided to continue because if the submarine had stopped for a few hours, no one would have survived long enough to bring it back to base.”
Tragically, every one of the 144 crew members was exposed to radiation, resulting in nine deaths from radiation poisoning related to the incident. The K-27 was permanently withdrawn from active service in June 1968.
The submarine was officially decommissioned in February 1979 and was later sunk in the Kara Sea on 6 September 1982, coming to rest at a depth of only 33 m (108 ft), near position 72°31’28″N, 55° 30’09″ E.
Russian divers’ inspection of the K-27 submarine highlights Moscow’s concerns about substantial risks to the vessel. For years, Russian authorities have been studying whether the sunken K-27 can be safely raised to remove the uranium from its reactors.
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Moscow’s latest Arctic development plan includes ambitious initiatives aimed at recovering various types of nuclear waste that were previously disposed of by the Soviet Union in the Barents and Kara seas.
This plan calls for the recovery of the K-27 and K-159 nuclear submarines by 2035. Due to their dangerous nature, both submarines present formidable challenges to cleanup efforts.
Combined, K-27 and K-159 contain about one million curies of radiation—the equivalent of about a quarter of the radiation released in the first month of the 2011 Fukushima, Japan disaster.
This situation leaves environmental conditions in the Russian Arctic in a precarious state with unpredictable results. Russia cannot face this challenge alone; global cooperation will be essential to address the pressing issue of nuclear waste recovery and to ensure the safety of the Arctic environment.
Source: ziare.com
