Work Begins On Fixing Pontoons To Lift Wrecked Russian Sub

TERRADAILY

The drydock at Murmansk where the Kursk will be inspected. Pool Photo

Murmansk (AFP) Oct 13, 2001
Salvage workers took the first step towards placing the wreck of the Kursk submarine in dry dock Saturday as they began attaching a pontoon under the Giant-4 barge which five days earlier retrieved the 18,000-tonne hulk from the seabed.

"The first pontoon has gone under the barge," Northern Fleet spokesman Vladimir Navrotsky told reporters, adding that work to place the second, right-side pontoon, would get under way as soon as the left-side pontoon was fixed in place, hopefully by late Saturday.

The second pontoon should be fixed in place by Sunday evening, he said. On Monday, after divers have checked the attachments are secure, water will be pumped out of the pontoons, having the effect of raising the barge, along with the submarine fixed underneath it, by around seven metres (22 feet).

Late Monday, Russian officials and the Dutch salvage contractors are to sign a protocol attesting that the barge is ready to be towed into the port of Roslyakovo, a few hundred metres (yards) away, for the submarine to be placed in dry dock, Navrotsky said.

Work to raise the wreck into dry dock will then begin on Tuesday or Wednesday, he said.

Dutch divers earlier Saturday completed work to remove protuberances from the submarine's second section, adjoining the area where the prow had been cut away to avert the risk of explosions in the torpedoes housed there.

The nuclear-powered Kursk submarine was finally raised from the seabed on Monday, after a three-month operation costing some 65 million dollars.

It sank in 108 metres (330 feet) of water on August 12, 2000 during naval exercises in the Barents Sea, with the loss of all 118 crew aboard.

The salvage operation was ordered by President Vladimir Putin in line with a pledge he gave to the seamen's families that their bodies would be retrieved for burial.

Experts are hoping that examination of the wreck will throw light on the reasons for the disaster.

The submarine's two nuclear reactors are to be extracted from the wreck which will then be dismantled.

The front section of the Kursk is to be recovered in a separate operation next year.

TERRADAILY

Relief In Russia As Kursk Heads For Dry Dock

Murmansk (AFP) Oct 9, 2001
The crippled Kursk submarine was heading for dry dock Tuesday as Russia hailed the success of a lifting operation that has gone some way towards repairing the navy's tattered image. "The hardest task has already been accomplished," said Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov before leaving the northern port city of Murmansk, where the 20,000-tonne Kursk was expected to arrive Wednesday.

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