DATE=9/12/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / NUCLEAR (L-O)
NUMBER=2-266392
BYLINE=EVE CONANT
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The Russian government says that next month
deep sea divers will begin recovering the bodies of
the 118-crewmen who died aboard the sunken nuclear
submarine Kursk. Moscow Correspondent Eve Conant
reports Russia's Atomic Energy Minister warns against
re-floating the entire vessel.
TEXT: Russia's deputy prime minister, Ilya Klebanov,
told reporters in St. Petersburg that divers will
begin retrieving bodies of crew members of the Kursk
by early October. He says a mission to raise the
entire vessel will begin next year.
But Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov told a news
conference Tuesday that the nuclear reactors aboard
the submarine Kursk do not pose a threat to the
environment, and that radiation levels do not exceed
the permissible norm.
/// ACT ADAMOV IN RUSSIAN IN FULL AND FADE UNDER ///
He says - from the point of view of the nuclear
reactors and all nuclear energy installations, the
submarine should not be lifted. Neither ecological
nor any other factors require the submarine to be
raised.
Russian officials have said the Kursk's nuclear
reactors were shut down automatically at the time of
the accident and that there is no danger of the
reactors leaking. The Interfax news agency quoted the
Atomic Energy Minister as warning that only negligence
during the lifting operation would lead to an
environmental threat.
/// Second Act Adamov in Russian in full and fade. ///
He says - only extreme carelessness could transfer
this potential danger into a reality. I do not think
that the specialists who would be involved in this
operation would allow for such faults.
/// OPT /// Russia's N-T-V television quoted former
ship-building specialist Sergey Okunev as saying it is
unlikely the rescuers would find many bodies when they
attempted to recover them in October.
/// ACT OKUNEV IN RUSSIAN IN FULL AND FADE UNDER ///
He says - despite whatever the authorities may be
promising, they cannot remove the crewmen because they
simply will not be there. If such an explosion took
place as we understand, then 70-percent of what was
inside the submarine has likely been washed out to
sea. /// END OPT ///
The government announcements follow a series of
technical problems in recent days that have raised
concern over nuclear safety in Russia.
A Russian power company temporarily cut off
electricity to a military base outside Moscow for not
paying overdue bills. The base belongs to Russia's
Strategic Rocket Forces, which control the country's
land-based arsenal of nuclear weapons.
Russian officials said Monday several nuclear reactors
had to be shut down Saturday and Sunday due to a
failure in Russia's aging electric grid. Officials
said there was no danger to the public, but the
director of Russia's Mayak nuclear reprocessing plant
told Itar-Tass it was his employees' vigilance that
had prevented any serious problems or harmful
emissions.
Meanwhile, Russia's Supreme Court is to re-examine
Wednesday an investigation of a former Russian naval
captain turned environmentalist, Alexander Nikitin.
He was arrested in 1996 on charges of espionage after
publishing alleged abuses of Russian navy's Northern
fleet, including throwing radioactive materials
overboard into the Arctic Ocean. (SIGNED)
NEB/EC/KL/RAE
12-Sep-2000 10:22 AM EDT (12-Sep-2000 1422 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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