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Kursk Raising May be Put Off for a Week
The raising of the sunken Kursk nuclear submarine may be postponed for a week because rough weather in the Barents Sea this month has delayed preparatory work, a senior Cabinet official said Friday.
The statement by Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who is in charge of the salvage operation, was the first official signal that the Kursk's lifting set for Sept. 15 could be pushed back. The government remains firmly committed to raising part of the Kursk this year but, with weather steadily worsening, even a slight delay in the lifting plan could thwart the operation altogether.
Klebanov said officials were still sticking to Sept. 15 as the target date for raising the Kursk and they expected to wrap up the operation by Sept. 20-21, when the submarine is to be put in dry dock near the Arctic port of Murmansk. However, he said the date for ending the operation could "theoretically" be pushed back to Sept. 25-27, Russian news agencies reported.
The seas remained calm Friday, allowing the Dutch consortium in charge of the salvage effort to continue installing equipment for cutting off the Kursk's fore section. The Carrier barge has lowered the first of two powerful anchors intended to fix a cutting chain saw that will sever the front section before the rest of the submarine is raised to the surface.
Work is now underway to install the second anchor, said Russian Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo.
The first compartment, which was mangled during the explosions that sank the submarine, is being left on the sea floor because of concerns that it could break away from the rest of the ship during the lifting. The Navy has also warned that the fore section could contain unexploded torpedoes.
Officials said the first section or pieces of it could be raised next year.
Divers have already pierced 26 holes in the Kursk's double hull, to which steel cables will be anchored to tug the submarine to the surface. Sawing off the fore section would require good weather and may take about a week, officials said. More preparatory work would then be necessary before the raising.
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