News

Infamous Russian nuclear submarine to be scrapped soon

Publish date: September 3, 2003

Scrapping of the infamous Russian nuclear submarine K-19 will take place at Nerpa shipyard in Snezhnogorsk, Murmansk region.

All the attempts to turn K-19 into a museum failed. About 15 former submariners who had previously served on K-19 came to say farewell to the submarine. During the event they were rewarded with the medals ”In memory of serving on nuclear submarine missile cruiser K-19 ”Hiroshima”, which were fabricated at the shipyard. The veterans presented a bottle of vodka in the K-19 submarine shape to the shipyard’s director and asked him to wait some days with decommissioning. K-19 is not just the first Russian nuclear submarine, but it is the first nuclear submarine in the world suffered the nuclear reactor disaster. It happened close to the US coast on July 4, 1961, on Independence Day. If the crewmembers did not sacrifice their lives it could be the most gloomy Independence day in US history. Numerous books, articles and films have been produced in connection with this accident. Hollywood makers shot ”K-19:widow maker” with Harrison Ford as Captain. 36 submariners died onboard K-19 during two accidents, therefore it was called ”Hiroshima” and ”Widow maker”.