The location[]
It had a reactor malfunction whist on duty in the Barents Sea near to Russia, evacuated and dumped in the Russian Kara Sea to under 75ft of water, as was the normal Soviet practice at the time, not under the UN's offical minimal limit of 3,000 ft of water. It was laid down in 15 June 1958 and officaly dumped in a nortical scrap yard zone in 1979.
The accident[]
It was a November-class submarine that had a partial reactor core malfunction.
On 24 May 1968, the power output of one of its reactors suddenly dropped sharply; radioactive gases were released into its engine room; and the radiation levels throughout the K-27 increased dangerously – by 1.5 grays per hour. The poorly rained and equipped crew never noticed the widespread fuel element failures due to a partial fuel cladding rupture. About 20% of the reactor core had experienced inadequate and uneaven cooling prior to rupturing. 9 Crewmen then died of radiation sickness.
The K-27 was laid up in Gremikha Bay starting on 20 June 1968. Several tests, reactor-cooling off and repairs were attempted in 1973.
In the end the sub was declaied obsolete, its reactor compartment was filled with a special solidifying mixture of furfuryl alcohol and bitumen during the summer of 1981 to seal off the compartment to avoid polluting the ocean with any radioactive products Severodvinsk shipyard No. 893 "Zvezdochka".
The replacement Soviet Alfa class submarines were equipped with similar, but better made and planned liquid-metal-cooled reactors.
The aftermath[]
It was scuttled a special training area in the eastern Kara Sea, the 6th of September, 1982, near the location 72°31'28"N., 55°30'09"E., at Stepovoy Bay, in a fjord that was only 33 meters (108 feet) in depth.
Once it was dumped the shut down reactor began to decay over time and in time leak. It is now a radioactive and toxic hazard.
A Russian servery in 2006 and a Norwegian servery in 2012 found that their were no dangerous radiation levels outside the sub, but the Russians were concerned the rector was heating up in an uncontrolled and unexpected criminality event in 2012. France had offered to relocate it further out to sea later in 2012, but the Russians then decided to leave it in place regardless of the future radiation hazard, which they then went on to deny.
Other issues at the dump site[]
The Russian government recently relieved that the Kara Sea there are about 17,000 containers of radioactive waste, 19 ships contaminated ships, the K-27 and 14 nuclear reactors. Most of them are Soviet in origin and the rest are Russian.
Also see[]
- Atomic accidents and disasters
- The reactor explosion on-board Soviet submarine K-431
- The Soviet Submarine K-19 accident
- USS Thresher (SSN-593)