(17 Aug 2000) Russian/Nat
XFA
A top Russian official insisted on Thursday there was no sign of radioactivity in the area surrounding the crippled submarine, "The Kursk".
The Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Rescue Operations, Ilya Klebanov, said on Thursday both Russia and Norway had taken samples of air and water around the nuclear submarine which gave negative results.
New evidence emerged on Thursday that an explosion wrecked the vessel and sent it plunging to the sea bottom in seconds.
Klebanov said most of the nuclear submarine's 118 crewmen were likely to have been in the damaged section of the vessel.
A Russian rescue effort has failed to reach the sub, and experts from Britain and Norway cannot get to the site until the weekend.
Klebanov said experts reviewing days of rescue efforts to save the Kursk, which is trapped 354 feet down in the Barents Sea, believe the submarine hit "a huge, heavy object."
He gave no additional details, but Russian theories about what befell the vessel on Saturday have ranged from a collision with a ship to an internal explosion to contact with a World War II mine.
SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"I'm sure you know there was no nuclear warheads in that submarine. When it comes to a nuclear reactors, both us and the Norwegians are taking samples of water and air and the tests show that the situation regarding radioactivity is absolutely normal like there has been no submarine in the area."
SUPER CAPTION: Ilya Klebanov, Vice Prime Minister of Russia, in charge of rescue operation
SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"Unfortunately, the most of the crew members would have been in the compartment of the submarine that suffered most during this instant accident. On the other hand, they should have had enough time to evacuate from the damaged compartment into different compartments of the submarine."
SOUNDBITE; (Russian) Ilya Klebanov, Vice Prime Minister of Russia, in charge of rescue operation
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