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Publish date: October 17, 2008
News
The test represents the first time such vessels have been towed by Russia with the use of specially designed support pontoons designed to avert a sinking similar to that of the K-159 incident in August 2003.
The transport was carried out at night, making conditions more difficult, but the experiment came off successfully.
The pontoon project was financed by Great Britain through the Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation (AMEC) programme, the B-port news agency quoted Nerpa as saying. Nerpa built the pontoons. Analogous systems for transporting boats that cannot travel on their own power do not exist in Russia.
But in 2006, the Dutch firm Dockwise was contracted to move the Russian K-60 decommissioned submarine with one of its so called heavy transport vessels by Norway in accord with the AMEC programme. Such vessels have submergible decks, which lift derelict submarines out of the water.
Each of the four support pontoons developed by Nerpa can hold 200 tons. For extra durability, the pontoons are double cushioned and two decks. The pontoons themselves balance a submarine during transport independent of weather conditions and wave height, and provide seaworthiness to even damaged submarines in wave conditions of more than four points.
A first generation decommissioned submarine was chosen for the experiment. The operation was undertaken within the framework of dismantling the November class submarine, project number 291, which is financed in various degrees by the U.K and Norway under the Global Partnership programme. After the experiment with the pontoons is certified by a government commission, they will be passes on to the emergency and rescue operations wing of Russia’s Northern Fleet.
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.