The last trip

A little more than a year after it sank in the waters of the Barents Sea with 118 officers and sailors, the nuclear submarine Kursk, the former pride of the Russian fleet, set out on its last voyage... Gigantic hydraulic cranes, pontoons, 26 cables and hundreds of experts and divers took part are in an operation that will cost about 65 million dollars and end up in the dry dock of the Roslyakovo shipyard, near the home port of Murmansk.

The Kursk did not actually surface... the 18.000-ton submarine was raised some ten meters below the surface and thus towed to dry dock on Wednesday, October 10. The last phase of the operation, the towing to dry dock, has been stuck due to technical problems that are expected to be resolved by the end of this week. One of the most important things is the issue of the safety of two nuclear reactors with a total power of 380 megawatts. All checks so far indicate that both reactors were closed either by the last command of Captain Kursk or with the help of an automatic mechanism that does it by itself in the event of an accident. According to the statements of representatives of the Dutch concern Mammoth-Smit International, which is in charge of extracting the submarine, as well as the Russian Navy, both reactors are at rest and there is no danger of radioactive contamination. But the population of Rosljakov is not really convinced of that. Evacuation plans already exist, and data on the level of radioactivity in the sea and air are constantly displayed on a large electronic display in the center of town.

THEORIES I FURTHER U OPTICS: The nervousness is also caused by the fact that not much is known about the condition of the 22 Granit-type cruise missiles, each of which has about a ton of explosives and, at least in theory, is powerful enough to sink an aircraft carrier. The missiles are supposed to still be in that part of the submarine that is currently waiting in front of Russia's largest dry dock. Namely, the extraction of the submarine has two stages. The bow of the ship was all distorted by the explosion that sank the submarine. Experts feared that extracting the entire submarine at once could be dangerous, so the front part was cut off and remains at the bottom of the sea for now. If everything goes well with the first phase, and if there is money left, the bow of the Kursk will be removed next year.

According to most estimates, the secret of the explosion that blew up the Kursk is hidden in the bow. The theory about the Kursk colliding with another submarine or ship is still in circulation; the depth of the sea at the place where it sank is barely more than a hundred meters, but most experts believe that it is probably the explosion of the torpedo during the test firing, and then the explosion of the rest of the weapons. There is speculation that it may be fuel instability in the new type of torpedo, but the Navy is keeping quiet about it for now.

When it enters dry dock, Kursk will remain in the center of attention for many reasons; according to the commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral Vjecheslav Popov, the operation to dismantle the submarine, its weapons and nuclear reactors will last about a year. But first, the remains of the sailors are expected to be removed from the submarine. The spokesman of the Northern Fleet, Vladimir Navrocki, says that it is expected that about 30 to 40 sailors will be found, 12 bodies were recovered by divers last year, and the rest of the crew members were, apparently, literally turned to dust during the explosion, or were carried away. the sea... It is assumed that the first look inside the submarine in dry dock will be morbid: "We have chosen the best and strongest experts in pathological medicine, but it is difficult to say how even they will to cope with what they find," said Nawrocki. It is known that 23 sailors survived the first explosion, as it caught them in the stern part of the submarine. Letters found with them indicate that they met a truly terrible death when the submarine ran out of oxygen...

THE SEARCH I FUNERAL: The very extraction of the remains of the submarine is explained by the danger that its nuclear reactors would represent in the long run in the waters of the Barents Sea, which is rich in fish and serves as an important source of food; but there is another, political one. Russian President Vladimir Putin personally gave his word to the family members of the fallen sailors that their bodies will be found and buried "properly and appropriately". The Kursk disaster was also the first disaster of the newly elected Russian leader. In the early days when the country was still hoping to carry out an operation to save family members, the president continued to frolic in the Black Sea while the entire nation blinked in suspense. The rational explanation that his presence in Murmansk would not help anything, did not help in improving the image either. Saving what could be saved, Putin then met with the family members and promised that at least the bodies of the sailors would be found and decently buried... some of them would be...