Operation for unloading nuclear fuel from Kursk submarine to start Friday

The Imandra depot ship, into which the nuclear fuel from the Kursk submarine will be unloaded, will arrive on Friday in the Nerpa ship repairing yards in the Murmansk region (the Kola Peninsula), reported deputy director of the yards Alexander Gorbunov on Thursday.

After the arrival, the depot ship will be brought to the dock where its highest masts will be cut down, said Alexander Gorbunov. Then, the depot ship will be rolled into a covered slip. The three-compartment unit, cut out of the Kursk submarine, has already been brought into that covered slip.

Incidentally, it is for the first time that the unloading of the nuclear fuel from the reactors of a wrecked submarine will be done in a covered slip, not afloat. "As matter of fact, the unloading process will start not earlier than in two weeks after the completion of all the preparatory procedures," said Alexander Gorbunov. It is planned to end the unloading of the nuclear fuel till the end of December, he added.