Tuesday, November 06, 2001

HOW KURSK DIED Amazing account by the British nuclear scientist working at sub wreck for the Russians

THE Russian submarine Kursk sank after the test-firing of a top-secret torpedo went disastrously wrong, the Sunday Mail can reveal.

Dr John Large, who led the salvage operation to raise the sub, described how the vessel was turned into a giant bomb after a "schoolboy chemical reaction" inside the cramped torpedo room.

The Kursk went down in the Barents Sea in August last year with the loss of all 118 officers and crew.

It was built to withstand attack from the outside - but any internal explosion would have caused major damage inside its pressurised hull.

Dr Large, a consultant in nuclear engineering and a Government adviser, revealed how the initial explosion was caused after the test-firing of a top-secret torpedo went catastrophically wrong and it jammed in the tube.

The torpedo exploded when hydrogen peroxide reacted with fuel propellant, turning the forward compartment into an inferno.

The panic-stricken crew then spent two desperate minutes trying to control the resulting blaze before a second devastating explosion sealed the sub's fate.

Another seven torpedoes blew up, blasting a massive hole in the hull.

Speaking for the first time since returning from Russia, Dr Large said: "This was a truly terrifying event. Terrifying in its speed and its destructive power."

His findings rule out theories that the Kursk sank after colliding with a spy sub, hitting a World War II mine or being struck by a missile from another Russian sub.

His conclusions are based on his own on-site research, new evidence passed to him by the Russian authorities and, crucially, personal conversations with Vice Admiral Barskov, vice commander of the Russians Northern Fleet.

Officially the Russians have accepted that a torpedo explosion sank the Kursk but have not said what caused it - though they have suggested it followed a collision with a British or American submarine.

But Dr Large has ruled out any such collision.

The scientist said the Kursk was testing an experimental torpedo capable of travelling at an astonishing 160mph underwater with a range of 20 kilometres.

The so-called 'super cavitating' torpedo - codename Shkval or Squall - used hydrogen peroxide gas to reduce friction around its nose as it powered through the water.

But together with the torpedo's propellant fuel, it is a highly unstable mixture.

Hydrogen peroxide was blamed for the loss of the Royal Navy's sub HMS Sidon in 1955. In that instance too hydrogen peroxide was being used as a propellant, but its use as a fuel was later abandoned.

However, the Russians continued to research its use as an 'underwater lubricant', when the gas would be released to surround the nose of the torpedo, reducing its friction through the water.

Dr Large said: "On firing, the torpedo jammed in the tube and became almost like a flame-thrower.

"Hydrogen peroxide is quite stable until it comes into contact with other agents, it then becomes a dangerous catalyst.

"In the case of the Kursk it seems the hydrogen peroxide gas motor was running before the torpedo was fired, that was the problem in hindsight.

"When the torpedo jammed, the hydrogen peroxide reacted with the gas used to propel the motor. There was a schoolboy chemical reaction and the fate of the Kursk was sealed."

Though the prototype torpedo had no nuclear warhead, it is estimated the misfiring was equivalent to the explosive force of just over 200kgs of TNT.

The sub was at periscope depth and doing about six knots when the first blast rocked through the hull. The explosion also caused hydraulic damage and broke the electrical circuits.

What happened next was chilling. For 135 seconds all contact between the Russian surface fleet and the Kursk was lost.

As crew who had survived the initial blast scrambled to emergency stations, the commanders desperately tried to regain control of their stricken vessel.

It is known that the Kursk's commander Gennady Lyachin was in compartment three or four - the sub's control and radio rooms - and is likely to have survived the initial blast.

Although crippled, it is thought the sub was still relatively stable as it glided deeper into the Barents Sea. But the inferno in the forward torpedo room was now creeping into the arsenal behind.

Dr Large said: "In those 135 seconds there was quiet. But the torpedo which had jammed and exploded either then blew off the rear torpedo door or burned through it into compartment number one where there was an arsenal of torpedoes.

"After 135 seconds seven standard torpedoes exploded in just a fifth of a second. That was the end of the Kursk. That is what sunk the boat.

"When I saw the damage I could not believe it. There was a hole you could drive a bus through."

Dr Large's findings are supported by evidence from the British Government seismic monitoring station at Blacknest, Berkshire.

As the Kursk was going down, scientists there picked up readings which appeared to be small earthquakes in the Barents Sea.

The first was a very minor tremor - caused by the jammed torpedo exploding - the second, just over two minutes later, hit four on the Richter Scale, the size of an earthquake.

Dr Large, who was head of the nuclear safety committee over- seeing the raising of the Kursk, says what still cannot be explained is the origin of a huge fire in compartment number three.

He said: "There was a very significant fire on board in that compartment. How it was ignited and if it was linked to what happened in the first compartment we don't know.

"But the heat was tremendous and it does seem odd.

"It may have been caused by a sudden power surge when the emergency back-up batteries started-up.

"The Russian Navy gave me the damage diagnostics and I also carried out my own research.

"The Russians were very open with me - but then they had to be."

What is more certain, according to Dr Large, is the fate of the Kursk's crew during those final few minutes.

He said: "I believe all the crew, except about 20 in the stern, died within seconds. Those who survived the initial blasts lasted only a few hours."

Only this week a farewell message in a bottle belonging to chief warrant officer Oleg Borisov was found by investigators searching the wreck of the Kursk. Other notes have also been found.

Dr Large, who says he is sure there were no nuclear warheads on the Kursk, says lessons can be learned from the disaster.

But he also raises a frightening scenario of other nuclear subs that are lost in accidents.

He said: "I am afraid this tragedy shows many things. The first lesson is do not fire an experimental torpedo from a fully-armed submarine. Another is that there are serious problems with Russian submarine design.

"But all nuclear navies of the world have to ask themselves if they have the capacity to recover their submarines, because on this occasion the Russians were lucky the Kursk sank in relatively shallow water. Another 200 metres and it would not have been possible.

"The Dutch salvage team did a fantastic job and developed their technology quickly to raise the Kursk, but in deeper water the boat would still be lying on the bottom with nuclear reactors prone to corrosion."

Last Monday, Russian salvage workers removed the first three of 22 Granit cruise missiles from the submarine.

The workers have also removed 45 bodies since it was lifted into dry dock last week. Another 12 bodies were removed last year.

Investigators, who have had to battle against lethal hydrogen sulphite gas in some areas, have so far been unable to reach a section connecting two compartments containing the submarine's two nuclear reactors because it was filled with debris from the blast.

Dr Large visited the salvage site several times over the last three months and oversaw the raising of the vessel from the salvage team's control room in Rotterdam.

He also monitored the raised submarine's docking at Severomorsk, but was not allowed on board.

He said: "All Western personnel had to be removed from the area before the dry dock was even drained."

The Kursk had two nuclear 220 megawatt reactors. It is these reactors which now pose a potentially dangerous environmental hazard.

Dr Large revealed that the Russian Federation is now seeking between pounds 20million and pounds 30million from the EC to remove the nuclear fuel from the vessel's reactors.

But he said the money should not be given unless the Russians gave assurances that such a potentially disastrous operation can meet Western safeguards.

He added that during the lift there was still the risk of torpedoes falling out of the Kursk on to the cut off section or sea bed.

He said: "The risk of torpedo explosion was real. We built into our safety plan that the reactors could withstand the blast of two torpedoes and the surface ships could also withstand the blast."

When she finally emerged from the waves, witnesses were astonished to see the concentration of the damage to the Kursk.

Almost 70 per cent of her 10,000 tonne hull was intact, still sleek and ominous.

But below the distinctive coning tower, with its Russian eagle badge, there was massive damage.

The vast bow had been torn apart by the massive explosions.

Inside the cavernous gloom of the hull was a twisted, scorched mangle of metal and wiring towering above workers as they scurried around the Murmansk dry dock under the watchful eye of Vladimir Ustinov, the Russian investigator.

Surveying the scene one salvage worker said: "You can only imagine what it was like for the men inside. It sends a chill down my spine to even think of their final moments.

COUNTDOWN TO DISASTER

A top secret, experimental torpedo, codenamed Squall, jams in its tube as the crew of the Russian submarine Kursk try to fire it during a routine training exercise in the Barents Sea.

2 The torpedo explodes inside the chamber sparking a furious fire in the torpedo chamber and severing the submarine's power system.

3 The fire ignites the Kursk's seven torpedoes. Explosion rips away the front of the sub, leaving a hole big enough to drive a bus through.

4 Officers in the control room try to regain control after the initial blast but 135 seconds later the second blast rips open the hull.

http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/shtml/NEWS/P30S2.shtml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), November 06, 2001