No Sub Radiation Peril, Soviets Say : Gorbachev Reassures World Leaders; More Than 60 Feared Lost in Sinking

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev sought to assure the world Saturday that no Chernobyl-like disaster looms in Arctic waters as observers here said the fiery accident that sank an advanced nuclear-powered submarine Friday claimed many more lives than initially believed.

After battling fire, explosion and the icy Norwegian Sea, more than 60 Soviet submariners are now feared dead as a result of the catastrophe that touched off international concerns of radioactive dangers.

“There is much to indicate that the number of dead was higher than first thought--though we do not have an exact figure,” Norway’s Defense Ministry spokesman Erik Senstad said. Earlier reports placed the number of deaths at 12, with many missing and an unknown number rescued by Soviet ships responding to distress signals.

Gorbachev relayed statements to the President Bush and other world leaders offering assurances that no nuclear disaster is in store in Arctic waters--in part because the crew shut off the submarine’s nuclear reactors before abandoning the vessel.

“The possibility of a nuclear explosion and radioactive pollution of the environment is excluded, according to the opinion of experts,” Gorbachev said in one such telegram to the Norwegian government.

Nevertheless, Norway dispatched ships and helicopters to collect water and air samples to be tested in Oslo for possible radioactivity.

Norwegian scientists reported early today that preliminary tests indicated little chance of radioactive contamination of the air.

“The test shows that a radiation leak while the sub was on the surface is unlikely. It does not tell us if there was a leak after it sank,” said Tor Strand of the Institute for Radiation Protection.

The institute said initial tests of samples from a Norwegian reconnaissance plane that flew over the area immediately after the sinking did not show abnormal amounts of radiation.

U.S. authorities said the possibility of widespread contamination is slight.

Gorbachev confirmed and expressed regret that “human lives were lost” but offered no casualty figures. He said a commission will investigate the circumstances surrounding the naval disaster. The cause of the fire is unknown.

“Despite all the efforts made after the fire broke out,” Gorbachev said in one telegram, “it was unfortunately not possible to save the ship.”

Senstad said Soviet officials confirmed that the vessel was a Mike-class submarine, the only one of its type and used to test advanced weapons systems.

Two Nuclear Reactors

Powered by two nuclear reactors, the submarine was believed to be an experimental model, capable of deep submergence and quiet, fast running. It carried six torpedo tubes from which it was equipped to fire conventional or nuclear torpedoes, along with short-range anti-ship missiles and the SS-N-21, a nuclear-tipped cruise missile with a range of more than 1,100 miles, designed to hit land targets. Soviet officials refused to say whether the vessel was carrying nuclear weapons.

Until full reports have been received from naval commanders and the Defense Ministry, Soviet spokesmen say they can provide few details--not the cause of the fire or its extent, not the number of dead, injured or missing or the number rescued.

If Norway’s statements prove correct, about two-thirds of the submarine’s 95-member crew were killed in the drama that began when a fire broke out about 11:41 a.m., local time, as the vessel traveled submerged in international waters, about 300 miles off the northern Norwegian coast.

The submarine surfaced with its stern ablaze and exploded before sinking in more than 4,500 feet of water at about 5:15 p.m., about 120 miles southwest of Norway’s Bear Island and 310 miles west of Tromsoe, on Norway’s northern coast.

“We know now that there was a powerful explosion on board after the fire spread and the vessel began to list,” Senstad said.

According to some unofficial reports in the Soviet Union, the crew may have scuttled the vessel themselves after battling the fire for more than five hours.

Later, some crew members were spotted by Norwegian air force observers in overloaded life rafts. Some men were clinging to the sides, immersed in the icy waters. Norwegian television showed a photograph of a raft packed with crew members.

A Norwegian Defense Ministry statement said it appeared that between 40 and 50 people escaped before the submarine went down.

“How many of those survived injuries and exposure to the cold water is uncertain,” the statement added.

Picked up by Soviet fishing trawlers and other vessels, survivors on Saturday were reportedly aboard a Soviet warship heading for the Soviet port of Murmansk.

The submarine went down where the Norwegian Sea meets the Barents Sea--a kind of underwater playground for U.S. and Soviet submarines seeking one another out in a sort of cat-and-mouse game.

One of the rescue ships that arrived on the scene was a Kirov-class cruiser with extensive medical facilities aboard.

While providing only minimal information about the sinking of the submarine and the fire that led to its loss, the Soviet government has sought to reassure the international community that there is no radiation danger.

Gorbachev, returning from a visit to London, went immediately to his Kremlin office late Friday night to review the situation, according to informed Soviet sources.

He was briefed by ranking military and naval officers and nuclear propulsion and nuclear safety specialists, who reportedly assured the Soviet leadership that both nuclear reactors aboard the submarine had been shut down as soon as the fire broke out and that there was no danger of a radiation leak from the sunken vessel.

Gorbachev then sent brief messages to Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Bush; the Soviet Union’s Warsaw Pact allies were also notified, the sources said.

The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said the Soviets notified it of the sub accident early Saturday and that the Soviets said there was no danger of a nuclear explosion or radioactive contamination.

Criticism Over Chernobyl

Soviet officials were criticized for not providing accurate or timely information after the April 26, 1986, explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that sent a cloud of radiation into the atmosphere, contaminating crops and livestock in Europe.

This time, the Kremlin wanted to get the word out as quickly as the facts were clear, according to Moscow sources, but was hampered in that Gorbachev and Eduard A. Shevardnadze, the foreign minister, had not yet returned from London.

Gorbachev had been alerted to the disaster while en route to Moscow, these sources said.

Norwegian Defense Minister Johan Jorgen Holst also said he thought that the risk of radioactive contamination was slight.

“We know that this type of vessel has two nuclear reactors and we assume that these nuclear reactors, because of very modern design, will be able to withstand the pressure involved.

“Now, the uncertainties, I think, have to do with the impact of the fire that preceded the submarine sinking.”

Johan Baarli of the government’s Institute for Radiation Protection said his agency dispatched two boats to the area to check for radiation.

Naval expert Damian Durrant of the international environmental group Greenpeace said the accident brought the number of nuclear-powered submarines lying on the seabed to six--four Soviet and two American.

“Over half the world’s nuclear power reactors are at sea, which is the most dangerous place for them to be,” he said.

Defense officials said that Soviet ships and planes are hovering close around the place where the craft went down, effectively maintaining their claim on the sunken vessel. Abandoned ships are considered fair game for any nation’s salvage operations.

“The Soviets are on-site and they are unlikely to be off-site anytime soon,” said a Pentagon official.

The waters in which the sub sank reach depths of more than 4,500 feet--beyond range of most salvage operations, experts said, but shallow enough to be within reach of submersible research vessels that could survey the wreckage.

“This is right in their (the Soviets’) back yard,” said one U.S. official. He added that it is “highly unlikely” that U.S. military forces would make an attempt to retrieve anything from the wreckage.

Tuohy reported from Oslo and Parks reported from Moscow. Times staff writer Melissa Healy in Washington also contributed to the story.

Soviet Disaster At Sea An advanced Soviet nuclear-powered Mike-class submarine, apparently en route to the Soviet Arctic port of Murmansk, caught fire and sank in the Norwegian Sea on Friday. A chronology of the events follows: A: Fire breaks out about 11:41 a.m. local time while vessel is submerged. Distress signal sent about 45 minutes later. Crew members try to contain blaze.

B: Sub surfaces and fire apparently spreads from one section of the 361-foot vessel to several others and sets off an explosion.

C: Life rafts carrying an undetermined number of crew members are spotted in the ocean; survivors picked up by Soviet warships and taken to Murmansk.

D: After five hours of unsuccessful attempts to extinguish the fire, Soviet officials order the nuclear reactors turned off. Sub sinks in more than 4,500 feet of water. Norwegian reports indicate that about two-thirds of the crew members, estimated to number about 95, may have died.