Researchers have found that a nuclear submarine built by the Soviet Union that was in a terrible accident in 1989 is leaking, but surprisingly not causing any harm to the ocean. Komsomolets (K-278) was the only sub of its kind that the Soviets made. WION reported.
Titanium alloy was used to forge its inner and outer hulls. It has two nuclear weapons and a nuclear reactor that is releasing material. But a fire that left 42 crew members dead has left it lying 5,511 feet below the Norwegian Sea.
Scientists with Norway’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority and its Institute of Marine Research sent a submersible to study the wreckage in 2019. After years of analysis, they state in a study that the Soviet Union implemented a perfect plan, preventing a major catastrophe. It was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on March 23, 2026.
The rear end of K-278 caught fire on April 7th, 1989, turning it into a blowtorch. It sank to the bottom of the sea and is still standing just as it was 37 years ago. The Soviet Union knew the dangers of having two nuclear weapons submerged in the ocean. So it regularly monitored the sub through the manned Mir submersibles. After the USSR dissolved in 1991, Russia stayed on the job and did not forget about the nuke sub. Sometime around 1994, an expedition noticed that two nukes had been exposed to the ocean. Scientists acted quickly and, in that year, sealed the torpedo tubes with titanium patches and plated other exposed areas with titanium.
