Russian Emergencies Ministry: In September, they will begin to examine the K-27 submarine that sank 32 years ago
The Emergencies Ministry divers will begin to examine the Soviet submarine K-27, which is resting on the bottom of the Kara Sea. This was reported by the department.
K-27 is a Soviet nuclear submarine, the only ship built according to Project 645 ZhMT with liquid metal as a coolant. The submarine won various awards, and its crew included admirals and Heroes of the Soviet Union.
Commissioned on April 1, 1962. From April 21 to June 12, 1964, it made a record-breaking autonomous voyage in the waters of the Central Atlantic. On May 24, 1968, a radiation accident occurred, the entire crew was injured, 9 people died. On February 1, 1979, the boat was excluded from the USSR Navy and disbanded on October 1, 1980. In September 1982, it was sunk in the Kara Sea off the northeastern coast of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago at the entrance to Stepovogo Bay.
“In September, personnel from the Leader Center of the Russian Emergencies Ministry will examine the K-27 nuclear submarine, sunk in the Kara Sea,” the statement said.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations will take part in the expedition on the research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh for the fifth time, the purpose of which is to inspect the submarine. For a month, divers will have to work in harsh weather conditions, including snowstorms and low air and water temperatures. Work at depth will be carried out using the Rovbilder-600 and Falcon underwater drones. The first one has a gamma spectrometer from the Kurchatov Institute National Research Center.
As stated by the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Alexander Kurenkov, within the framework of a five-year campaign to raise explosive objects, almost 126 thousand dangerous objects were identified and removed from the bottom of reservoirs.
The sunken submarine causes serious damage to the environment and the economy
The submarine K-27 of Project 645ZhMT was decommissioned from the Northern Fleet of the USSR in 1980, and in 1982 it was sunk in the Kara Sea, in Stepovoy Bay. Its depth is currently 31 meters. The reason for writing off the submarine was an accident of the RM-1 reactors with a liquid metal coolant. As a result, the ship was irradiated, and the entire crew of 105 people suffered from acute radiation sickness. Nine of them could not be saved. At the same time, in 2012 it was reported that the vessel would be raised to land and it would be cut up. This point was included in the draft strategy for the development of the Arctic zone of Russia.
Currently, the submarine poses the greatest radiation hazard to the Russian Arctic, as it still has unloaded reactors on board. If they are damaged, fishing in the submarine burial area will have to be banned for a long time, which will seriously affect the economies of several countries. In particular, in 2021, probable losses for the economies of Russia and Norway were estimated at $120 million.
At the same time, environmentalists from the Bellona Foundation called on Russia to raise sunken submarines with radioactive waste from the seabed in the Arctic. In addition to the K-27 of Project 645ZhMT, environmentalists are concerned about the fate of the nuclear reactor of the K-140 submarine, five reactor compartments of various submarines, and the screen assembly of the Lenin nuclear icebreaker. In total, today there are about 1,000 objects on the seabed of the Arctic seas that pose a high threat to the environment and can become sources of radioactive contamination.
What makes the K-27 Project 645ZhMT unique?
The Soviet submarine K-27 is the only ship built under the Project 645 ZhMT with liquid metal as a coolant. It had a number of advantages due to the use of a nuclear power plant with a liquid metal coolant reactor. This is a higher speed, better dynamics and, accordingly, higher maneuverability.
The negative aspects of the installation’s operation included the problem of the constant formation of radioactive polonium-210 and the risk of poisoning the crew.
The crew, formed by the time of the first submarine tests, headed by Captain 2nd Rank Ivan Gulyayev, underwent a special training course at the Navy training center in Obninsk, where the 27/VT test stand with a liquid metal reactor was built.
Related materials:
On June 22, 1963, the K-27 nuclear submarine raised the USSR Naval Flag and went to sea for five days. Four months later, members of the government commission headed by Vice-Admiral Georgy Kholostyakov signed an act on the acceptance of the “experimental nuclear submarine K-27 of Project 645” into operation.
In April-June 1964, K-27 made its first autonomous voyage, setting a record for the duration of its stay in a submerged position – 51 days. Its commander, already a captain of the 1st rank, Ivan Gulyayev was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, and other crew members also received awards for that voyage and the development of new technology.
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