Scuttled in The Kara Sea
The K-27 was officially decommissioned on 1 February 1979 and her reactor compartment was filled with a special solidifying mixture of furfuryl alcohol and bitumen during the summer of 1981 to seal the compartment to avoid pollution of the ocean with radioactive products. This work was performed by the Severodvinsk shipyard No. 893 "Zvezdochka".
Then the K-27 was towed to a special training area in the eastern Kara Sea, and she was scuttled there on 6 September 1982 near the location 72°31'28"N., 55°30'09"E. off the northeastern coast of Novaya Zemlya (at Stepovoy Bay), at a depth of just 33 meters. It was necessary for a naval salvage tug to ram the stern of the K-27 to pierce her aft ballast tanks and sink her, because the K-27's bow had impacted the seafloor while her stern was still afloat. This scuttling was performed contrary to the International Atomic Energy Authority's requirement that nuclear-powered submarines and surface ships must be scuttled at depths not less than 3,000 meters.
The last scientific expedition of the "Russian Ministry of Emergencies" to the Kara Sea examined the site of the scuttling in September 2006. Numerous samples of the seawater, the seafloor, and the sealife were gathered and the analyzed. The final report stated that the radiation levels of the area were stable.
Lessons in nuclear submarine construction and safety learned from Projekt 645 were applied in Projects 705 and 705K – that produced the Soviet Alfa class submarines. These were equipped with similar liquid-metal-cooled reactors.
In September 2012 it was reported that the sub needed to be lifted from its shallow bed in the Kara Sea. The vessel is a "nuclear time bomb", as the rusting and decaying vessel may be reaching a critical level leading to an "uncontrolled chain reaction".
Read more about this topic: Soviet Submarine K-27
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