Your Rundown

Soviet Nuclear Submarine Leaks Radioactive Material from Norwegian Seafloor

The Soviet submarine K-278 Komsomolets, which sank in April 1989 after a fire killed 42 crew members, is intermittently leaking radioactive strontium, cesium, uranium and plutonium from its corroding reactor 1,680 meters below the Norwegian Sea. A 2019 ROV survey captured visible plumes seeping from ventilation pipes and the reactor area, with isotope levels near the hull reaching 400,000 to 800,000 times normal background levels, though contamination drops sharply within meters due to rapid dilution.