News
Publish date: August 15, 2000
Written by: Thomas Nilsen
News
This photo shows one of Russia’s mini-submarines, purposely built to rescue crews out of sunken submarines. As shown in the photo, the mini-submarine is docked to an emergency exit hatch at a submarine. The rescue party in the area of accident will attempt to perform the same operation on the Kursk submarine at the bottom of the Barents Sea. The first attempt to dock to the hatch was not successful, but the rescue team is continuing their attempt and will hopefully manage to save the 116 crewmembers trapped in the sunken boat.
Russia has reportedly asked NATO for assistance in the rescue operation and late Tuesday night, a Scottish vessel carrying another mini-submarine for rescue operations from sunken submarines, is on its way to the north. But this vessel will need more than 40 hours to reach the Barents Sea, arriving at the earliest on Thursday afternoon.
ARS is a Russian abbreviation for “autonomous working capsule”, designed by Lazurit-bureau in St. Petersburg. It is supposed to have a crew of three and can possibly carry 15-20 persons each time. So, for the entire crew of Kursk, the operation has to be repeated 6 times. The ARS mini-submarine is 13.6 meters long and self-propelled. The batteries give the sub an operational time of 48 hours before they have to be recharged.
Throughout the past year, our mission at the Bellona Environmental Transparency Center has focused on two key, but intertwined issues—nuclear and radiation safety as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on, and the worldwide influence of Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, which itself is actively involved in the war and has participated in the occupation of a Ukrainian nuclear power plant.
At the beginning of the year, reports in the German and Russian press suggested an approximate 70% increase in uranium imports from Russia to Germany in 2024. But does this reflect broader European trends? It does not. Overall, imports of uranium and nuclear fuel from Russia to Western countries actually dropped sharply in 2024. Unlike the situation in Germany, this is already an established trend.
A Lingen, Germany plant could begin producing nuclear fuel in cooperation with a subsidiary of Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear corporation, which is directly involved in the war in Ukraine and occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.