Russian Submarine Accident: Naval Analyst Discusses Salvage Operation
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The rescue operation now becomes a search and salvage operation for the Russian sub still sitting in the bottom of the Barents Sea. Norwegian divers now say there is no hope of finding any survivors on board. From Washington, more about the disaster, Naval analyst, military historian, Norman Polmar with us once again this morning. Sir, hello to you.</s>NORMAN POLMAR, NAVAL ANALYST: Good morning.</s>HEMMER: A lot of us thought it would come to this. You know the news. Your reaction?</s>POLMAR: I would say that, since about last Wednesday, there should have been no hope held for survivors. By that time, either the buildup of carbon dioxide, the lack of oxygen, the thermal conditions would have -- anyone left would have succumbed to those.</s>HEMMER: I know you bought -- brought along a sub model with us, which is similar to the Kursk, but not identical. What happens next in the recovery process? divers go in, search for bodies, is that the grim task?</s>POLMAR: Well, I think that the first thing they will do is try to get this after hatch open here. This is not a model of the Kursk, this is an earlier Soviet nuclear submarine. But this is the hatch that they have centered all of the work on, the attempts at rescue. This after section of the submarine is where any survivors would have been for the couple of days after the explosion. Again, the explosions were in the bow of the submarine, probably a torpedo, or torpedo fuel, or battery, was the initial incident. And then that detonated a warhead, which just tore out a huge chunk of the bow of the submarine. Every one in the forward compartment, unquestionably, forward compartments, unquestionably, went within the first minute or two or three, explosion, flame, and then a wall of water. By time it got to the center section of the submarine in here, hatches were probably holding, doors were probably holding, and some people probably stayed alive in these sections for a couple of days. The rescue efforts centering on this after hatch, we now know the hatch cannot be opened, could not be opened. They are going to try to pull it away, with a line from a surface ship, just use brute force to move it.</s>HEMMER: Yank it out.</s>POLMAR: Probably the hole hull was badly distorted from the explosions hitting the ocean floor. It is certainly now just going to be a salvage and body recovery operation. They will probably never raise the submarine, she is too large, 500 feet long, probably 20,000 tons or more with the water that is in her.</s>HEMMER: Any concern with those nuclear reactors on board, radiation?</s>POLMAR: I don't think. The Russians design decent reactors, good reactors I should say, for their submarines. I don't think we are going to see any problem from the reactors. They will certainly go down and check them. Diver will assure that they were shut down properly. They will be left there. What they will try to get out will be people, possibly some of the unexploded torpedoes, if they can locate them, and they are not too dangerous to handle, just to try to ascertain if it was one of the torpedoes that blew up. Certainly, the code machines, some other equipment, but I think the Kursk will be left there. Hopefully, they will recover all the bodies, the families certainly will want that.</s>HEMMER: Indeed. Norman Polmar, live in Washington, come on back. We will watch it throughout the week. The story will change again, we are sure. Thank you, sir.</s>POLMAR: Thank you.