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Raising the Kursk

Posted by michael on from the raiding-davy-jones-locker dept.

imrdkl writes: "Theres a conglomeration of Euro companies, from Euro countries renowned for their sea-prowess, who are working together with the Russians to raise their stricken sub. This will be some happy news, when they get it finished. Hopefully before winter gets bad up there in the "circle". A pretty good article, with a nifty flash animation which gives some notion of the scope of this engineering feat is to be found at USA Today."

4 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Good news in a unhappy time. by pjbass · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's very encouraging to hear about some good news throughout this very unsettling time. The Kursk is certainly a tragedy to itself, and I'm glad to hear that the men who died on that submarine are not being forgotten, especially in something as terrible as the recent terror attacks. Perhaps is this acceptance from Russia of European help a side-effect of the world-unity we are starting to experience? Hopefully this is a trend we can look forward to.

    1. Re:Good news in a unhappy time. by kisak · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Even though it is nice for the families of the people who died to get to do a proper burial, I do not think this operation is done for the benefit of these unfortunate soldiers. It is a long tradition in marine nation to see the sea as a proper burial place for sailors who lose their life at sea. That is why for instant the ferry Estonia, that went down between Sweden and Finland, has not been raised or tried to be emptied for bodies, even though many relatives have been working hard for it. The argument of the Swedish goverment is that the ship itself is a proper graveyard for the passengers and the extra cost of raising the ship or getting out bodies at the risk of divers life, does not match the . The real reason to get the Kursk out of the sea, even though it is an extreemly difficult operation, is that you don't want a nuclear reactor in the sea slowly rusting away. This area of the north atlantic is extreemly important for fishing. The sad part is that there is still a lot of retired submarines and radioactive waste that the russian navy don't care about or don't have money to take care of in this area. The norwegian environmental organization Bellona has been working hard to gets funds and understanding that something has to be done to this potential environmental catastrophy. Check out http://www.bellona.no/ for more information.

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      --- guns don't kill people, people with guns kill people ---

  2. Re:would the sailors want this? by tstock · · Score: 3, Insightful

    read the article before posting:

    "Russian officials want to raise the submarine to eliminate any potential threat to the area's rich fishing grounds from its twin nuclear reactors and try determine the cause of its sinking."

    I don't think romatic views take precedence over glowing fish... but I could be wrong.

  3. Re:what happened to good old balloons? by Edgy+Loner · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Probably control. The lift bag system is nice and cheap, but tough to control. Once the load starts lifting the gas in the bags expands. That produces more lift, it rises faster, the gas expands more etc. The bags can rupture or dump their gas and then the whole thing sinks again.Jacks and big barge is the way to go here.