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With a draft decree published in March, President Vladimir Putin launched an initiative to lift two Soviet nuclear submarines and four reactor compartments from the seabed, reducing the amount of radioactive material in the Arctic Ocean by 90%. The first on the list is the K-159 submarine.
Putin’s message, coming before Russia chairs the Arctic Council next year, is that the country is not only the pre-eminent military and commercial power in the Arctic, which is heating up in the wake of climate change, but also a guardian of the environment.
Submarine K-159 is located off Murmansk in the Barents Sea, a crucial fishing area and habitat for many protected marine animals.
At the same time, Russia is leading another “nuclearization” of the Arctic with new ships and weapons, two of which have already suffered accidents.
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union built more than 400 nuclear-powered submarines.
Just 97 miles from the Norwegian border, a NATO member, the arctic port of Murmansk, and the surrounding military bases became the hub for the USSR’s nuclear icebreakers and navals, as well as its highly radioactive spent fuel.
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, the consequences appeared. For example, in Andreieva Bay, where 600,000 tons of toxic water flowed into the Barents Sea from a nuclear waste storage tank, in 1982 the spent fuel from more than 100 submarines was largely preserved. in barrels that rust in the open air.
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