ST. PETERSBURG. Jan 11 (Interfax-Northwest) - A plan to recover the front of the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk from the seabed will be ready in the first quarter of this year, a Navy spokesman said on Friday.
The bow was sawn off and remained on the Barents Sea floor as the Kursk, which sank during a military exercise in summer 2000, was lifted and put in a floating dock.
The spokesman told Interfax information obtained as the submarine was being raised from the seabed and examined was being taken into account in drawing up the plan. But the plan "will not be made public" because it consists of "purely technical materials," he said.
He said the plan was based on a contract between the Navy and the Rubin ship design bureau in St. Petersburg.
Work is also in progress on a plan to dispose of the Kursk.
The vessel will be taken to the Nerpa shipyard in Snezhnogorsk, Murmansk region, which told Interfax it had received documents to that effect.