The former Russian navy captain and environmentalist, Mr Alexander Nikitin, said yesterday he feared radioactive leakage from the sunken Kursk nuclear submarine within a month, but that fallout would not be as serious as the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Mr Nikitin, an anti-nuclear activist who retired from the Russian Navy in 1992, said the submarine's two nuclear reactors had probably shut down automatically when the accident occurred, but that a risk radiation still existed.
"According to our calculations and information from the region, there have been no radioactive emissions or leaks yet," said Mr Nikitin, who spoke on the sidelines of the American Chemical Society's annual conference, which he was due to address yesterday.
"But in my opinion the submarine will have to be salvaged and taken out of the seabed because if nothing is done then there will be the emission of radioactive elements in the future," he said.
Mr Nikitin, accused but later acquitted by the Russians of revealing state secrets, said even after the two reactors shut down, they would still emit heat for some time.