Presser in Moscow on operation to raise Kursk.

Описание: (18 Jul 2001)

Moscow - July 18, 2001
1. Wide shot 'Echo of Moscow' radio station news conference
2. Mid shot sound engineer
3. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Yuri Senatsky, Retired Russian Navy counter-admiral:
"Strategic missiles on board the sunken submarine may accidentally blow up in the course of the forthcoming operation and may cause a lot of trouble."

File - Barents Sea, 2000
4. Wide shot Kursk submarine
5. Mid shot pan Kursk

Moscow - July 18, 2001
6. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Yuri Senatsky, Retired Russian Navy counter-admiral
"The rescue operation should be arranged absolutely safely to avoid another catastrophe like Chernobyl, with the submarine's nuclear power reactors."
7. Cutaway cameraman
8. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Yuri Senatsky, Retired Russian Navy counter-admiral
"Nine Russian submarines of the same model as the Kursk are still in use, despite us having no knowledge of the reasons for the catastrophe."

Barents Sea - July 17, 2001
9. Vessel Mayo's horn sounding in memory of Kursk crewmen

STORYLINE:

The international team working to salvage the sunken Kursk submarine in the Barents Sea off the Russian coast have used an unmanned remote-controlled vessel to clear sand and silt from the submarine's damaged front compartment to prepare for the main phase of the two-month operation.

A Russian Navy spokesman said the compartment needed to be cleared of silt before robots could cut it off from the rest of the submarine.

The front compartment, which may contain unexploded torpedoes, will be left at the bottom of the Barents Sea when the Kursk is raised.

But some Russian naval experts have doubts about the operation.

Retired counter-admiral Yuri Senatsky, who served for many years as the chief expert on rescue operations in the Soviet Navy, warned of the dangers of missiles and unsafe nuclear power reactors still on board the submarine.

The Kursk sank on August 12, 2000, during a training exercise in the Arctic waters off northern Russia, killing all 118 crewmen aboard.

Russian officials said the disaster was triggered by a practice torpedo, but they remain uncertain whether it was caused by an internal malfunction in the torpedo - the theory favoured by most outside experts - or a collision.

The operation to raise the submarine, which has two nuclear reactors on board, is scheduled to last until mid-September.

Russia has maintained that no radiation has leaked from the wreck, but says it's raising it to ensure it poses no future danger.

An unmanned vessel from the Norwegian dive support ship Mayo has been used for preliminary radiation tests and for clearing away the silt from the first compartment.

After the silt was cleared on Wednesday, the Mayo left the site of the disaster for the Norwegian port of Kirkenes, where it will pick up equipment for the next phase of work.

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