First nuke-sub may be scrapped
The plan to rebuild the Soviet Union’s first nuclear powered submarine into a museum is in jeopardy due to the financial crises.
It was supposed to be the year of pride for the old submarine, Leninskiy Komsomol. 2009 marks the 50 year anniversary for the Northern Fleet’s first operational nuclear powered submarine. On March 12th, 1959 the submarine joined the 206th brigade of the fleet, based in Zapadnaya Litsa.
In February 2004 it was decided to rebuild the submarine into a floating museum to be located near the historical Aurora battleship in St. Petersburg, writes Murmanskiy Vestnik. The estimated cost of rebuilding Leninskiy Komsomol is 500 million rubles (some 11 million Euros).
Now, according to Murmansk Vestnik, the famous submarine might end its days as scrap metal, although no funds for scrapping the sub exists on this year’s budget.
The submarine itself is laidup at the Nerpa naval yard on the Kola Peninsula. The reactor compartment from the sub is taken out and safely stored at the onshore facility for reactor compartments in the Saida bay, also on the Barents Sea coast.
Leninskiy Komsomol, also known as K3, was built at the naval yard in Severodvinsk in the period from September 1955 till it was commissioned on July 1st 1958.
