Sunken K-159 nuclear sub reactor poses no danger

The reactors of the K-159 nuclear submarine that sunk in the Barents sea on August 29 pose no danger, the Russian Ministry of Nuclear Energy assures.

"Work done to shut down the K-159 reactors fully ensures nuclear safety and rules out whatever possibility of a spontaneous chain reaction," the ministerial press service told RIA Novosti.

"Preliminary estimates show that even if radionuclides get into the environmental waters, which is barely possible, the radioactivity content in the sea water were the sub has sunk will be insignificant and will not lead to environmental pollution," reads the ministerial communique.

The K-159 went to the bottom in the small hours of Saturday. It had a crew of ten on board. Maxim Tsibulsky, Senior Lieutenant, has been saved and is convalescing in the hospital. The bodies of two other sailors - Yuri Zhadan, Captain 3rd Rank, and First Sergeant on contract service Yevgeny Smirnov - have been found in the water.

Seven others had failed to get out of the sinking submarine.