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Kursk suspected with nuclear missiles
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THE Russian submarine Kursk had nuclear missiles aboard when it sank in Arctic waters last year, despite Moscow's assurances it was only carrying conventional arms, the Norwegian independent station TV2 said on Wednesday.
Grigorij Tjomtsjin, a member of a Russian commission investigating the accident aboard the atomic-powered Kursk, told the station "yes, there were" when asked if it had nuclear weapons on board.
"They are no danger," he added, according to a translation of his remarks from Russian. The Kursk sank after an unexplained accident during a military exercise in the Barents Sea last August with the loss of all 118 crew.
Twelve of the dead have since been recovered from the wreck. Tests in the water around the Kursk have shown no unusual traces of radioactivity, but the presence of nuclear arms aboard could complicate a plan to lift the wreck.
Harald Ramfjord of Global Tool Management, a company working on plans to raise the Kursk, also said he had seen Russian evidence of atomic missiles aboard.
Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesman Karsten Klepsvik said the Russians had repeatedly denied there were nuclear weapons aboard the Kursk. He said the ministry had asked its embassy in Moscow to investigate the TV2 report.
TV2 said the missiles aboard the Kursk were apparently cruise missiles designated SSN19 Shipwreck by NATO. Such missiles could rust and start leaking far more quickly than a reactor, it said.
(SD-Agencies)
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