SEVEROMORSK, September 21 (AVN) - The specialists of the Navy search and rescue work are completing the plan of using Mir deep submergence vehicles of the Shirshov Atlantic Oceanographic Institute in the area of the Kursk submarine disaster, a source in the Northern Fleet headquarters told the Military News Agency.
The specialists from Kaliningrad will have to submerge and videotape the damage of the Kursk already next week. Then they will survey the first compartment (or what is left of it) of the vessel and study the breaks in the submarine's hull. They will also put special meters near the nuclear reactor of the submarine.
The Mstislav Keldysh research vessel carrying the Mir-1 and Mir-2 vehicles onboard will expectedly come here on Saturday. After that the developed plan will be discussed with the Shirshov institute deep submergence vehicles laboratory chief technical science doctor Anatoly Sagalevich that will menage the diving. After that the plan will be adopted by the government commission.
The Mir crews have a decade-long experience of work with sunken vessels. They covered the first reactor compartment of the Komsomolets nuclear-powered submarine with a protective shield in 1996 at the depth of 1,655 metres. Meters were set there two.
The source did not exclude that the Rubin central design bureau could change assignments for the Mirs. A lot will depend on the contract to be signed with the Norwegian Stolt Offshore company on Friday.