- My name's Dan Snow, and I wanna tell you about History Hit TV. It's like the Netflix for history. Hundreds of exclusive documentaries and interviews with the
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and use the code "Timeline", you get a special introductory offer. Go and check it out. In the meantime, enjoy this video. (bright orchestral music) (dramatic orchestral music) (rocket roaring) - [Narrator] If the world were
to end in nuclear holocaust, these behemoths would survive it. Nuclear-powered submarines,
indestructible, undetectable, able to strike from anywhere
in the world's oceans. This was the logic of the Cold War. (ominous orchestral music) An era that has ended,
but whose deadly legacy threatens more urgently today. Nearly 200 Soviet empire
nuclear subs and their reactors are rotting away in the
fjords of northern Russia, an environmental nightmare and the perfect ingredient
for a terrorist bomb. A team of engineers must act
now to safely bring about... the end of Red October. (dramatic orchestral music) For 40 nerve-wracking years, the world lingered on the
brink of nuclear annihilation. It was called the Cold War, a constant game of military
and political one-upmanship between the Communist-dominated
Soviet Union and the United States. (missiles firing) All-out nuclear war wasn't just a threat. (sirens blaring) It could wipe out human
civilization at any moment. (sirens wailing) (bomb explodes) (wind roaring) The two superpowers engage
in a secretive battle of underwater titans. Bigger is better, especially when it comes to nuclear missile-carrying submarines, and Russia commands the biggest, longer than a football field,
with two nuclear reactors churning out more than
100,000 horsepower of thrust. Able to dive for months, each submarine carries more
than a dozen nuclear missiles, enough to annihilate the United
States several times over. (alarm blaring) But living underwater poses threats to more than just the enemy. Should the sub's nuclear
reactor melt down, there's little chance of escape. In this deadly standoff, nuclear submarines are
the strategic asset. Stealth is everything,
a game of cat and mouse to track and eliminate enemy
subs before they eliminate you. By the 1980s, at the
height of the Cold War, the U.S. and Russia
are in full preparation for the day no one ever wants to dawn. (missile roaring) (bombs booming) It's the possibility
of mutual annihilation that ensures peace and deters war. Cold War logic that
possessing such deadly power is itself insurance
against ever unleashing it. - Nuclear-powered missile
submarines became a key part of Western and Soviet deterrence. - [Narrator] Few Americans
know Russian subs better than Naval historian Norman Polmar. - You could never find and destroy all the nuclear missile subs. This couldn't be done on either side. Hence they became the reserve,
the strategic reserve, what both countries called
the deterrent factor. - [Narrator] The Soviet
Empire's nuclear arsenal was concentrated in the far
north, the Kola Peninsula, a landmass reaching out
into the Barents Sea. Nowhere else on Earth has
a greater concentration of nuclear material. And at its center, the world's
northernmost city, Murmansk. Two degrees north of the Arctic Circle, a hotbed of the Cold War. in the fjords flooded by the Barents Sea, the warm waters of the
Atlantic current never freeze. It's the perfect hideout. Anchored here around
Russia's most important, top secret, nuclear submarine bases are the pride of the Navy,
its mobile nuclear deterrence. (helicopter whirring) But overnight the mighty Soviet Union suffers a financial meltdown. - Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. (audience cheering) - [Narrator] The fall of the Berlin Wall marks the end of the Cold War. - With the end of the Cold War,
and the financial situation, Suddenly the military
were starved for funds. Of course, that included the navy. The navy suddenly found
they could not keep ships in commission, could not
submarines in commission, could not keep their personnel,
the numbers they needed. So the Navy, to some degree, fell apart. - [Narrator] The chaos of the 1990s still reverberates here today. These Arctic fjords, the
arteries of the Soviet navy, are clogged with shipwrecks, rusty reminders of a long-gone era, former legends, now
environmental liabilities. (forbidding instrumental music) It is a place still surrounded by secrecy and with good reason. These are the reactors of
Soviet nuclear super-subs, able to generate 190 megawatts each, enough to accelerate a 10,000-ton sub to a cruising speed of 50
miles an hour underwater. Now they are separated
from their by bodies, but still alarmingly radioactive, threatening an environmental nightmare, and the perfect ingredient
for a terrorist dirty bomb. - I think that took years for
the magnitude of the problem to sink in and their lack
of ability to handle it. In 1990, no one in the Soviet Navy expected in the next
year to decommission... to begin decommissioning
100 nuclear submarines. The thought just never occurred to them. So it's taken time to
realize we had to help, because it was a problem
that didn't affect just the Russian people,
but the whole world. - [Narrator] Murmansk, the epicenter of this nuclear nightmare, is one of the most forbidding
places on the planet. During winter, in the
eternal Arctic night, temperatures drop to more
than 40 degrees below zero. Such harsh weather is a huge impediment to cleaning up the nuclear
heritage of the Cold War. But in fact, it is just one
of several major obstacles for the team of uniquely
skilled German engineers tasked with this monumental job and led by Dedlef Mietann. (speaking in foreign language) - [Translator] We are operating
in a high-security area that is closed to the outside world. When we began our work here,
this had been a huge problem, but I think that we
have built enough trust so that the Russians don't suspect us spying for military secrets. Instead, they know that we
are here to get the job done. - [Narrator] The job: decommission over 200 nuclear
submarines and icebreakers, a multimillion dollar project in large part accomplished by hand, a fusion of crude and clever. These former East German engineers spent half their lives
within the Soviet empire. They know the language, the customs. The Germans bring unique
engineering know-how. (welder crackling) While the Russian contractors
put ideas into practice. And here, man cannot touch everything. (speaking in foreign language) - [Translator] Scrapping a nuclear sub presents two fundamental problems. First we have to see
the reactor compartment and find a way to store it. And second, we have to safely saw all the radioactive material that accumulates during
the scrapping process. - [Narrator] A submarine, in essence, is nothing more than a
submerged tube of steel. Large parts can be recycled, even resold. Welding through thousands of tons of steel is simply a question of labor. (welder crackling) The size of the job doesn't
worry Mietann's team, but something else does,
something invisible to our senses, emanating from these reactor
compartments: radioactivity, Cutting the reactor out of a nuclear sub isn't the challenge. Tightly sealed, the
compartment even floats, But floating nearly 200 of
these reactor compartments is no way to store radioactive material. What if they leak, or sink, or, even worse, fall into terrorist hands? For Mietann and the world time is ticking. At the height of the Cold War, Russian subs carried enough warheads to wipe out whole parts of the U.S. Today, these largest submarines ever built are nothing more than radioactive junk. Scrapping a nuclear sub
requires a unique set of skills. A team of German and Russian engineers has taken on this monumental job. (serious orchestral music) At this nuclear power
plant in Northern Germany, on the fringe of the
former Communist empire, the world's biggest decommissioning effort has been underway since 1995 Here Detlef Mietann and his company have learned how to handle the force hidden behind walls of concrete and steel: the nuclear reactor, a source of unimaginable
power and radioactivity. These are the highly contaminated parts of five Russian-style
nuclear power plants. They emit so much
radiation, decades must pass before they can be disassembled, a job that will extend
beyond Mietann's lifetime. (speaking in foreign language) - [Translator] Actually our
philosophy here, as in Russia, was to hand over something later generations could work with. - [Narrator] Mietann's unique,
Communist-era knowledge of Russian reactor design is a dying art. (speaking in foreign language) - [Translator] We must
solve the problem now. What we pass on can
then be safely finished by future generations. - [Narrator] Back in Russia,
winter's stark, snowy darkness has given way to lush green and sunshine during the brief Arctic summer. Mietann and his team head back to outer Murmansk's Nerpa shipyard in the high-security military zone. (intense electronic music) There's a ton of work ahead, literally, (speaking in foreign language) This is a nuclear-powered
Victor-class submarine, built to hunt and destroy U.S. subs. Today, these two men are
its chief undertakers: Mietann and Ross Deslavrim Djonog, his Russian engineer colleague. Before any work can begin,
there is a step so top secret, even these men are not
allowed to witness it. (speaking in foreign language) - [Translator] The first
really delicate steps are disarming the sub and
defueling the reactors. This has been done. - [Narrator] Next, the team will work around the reactor compartment, handling lots of radioactive material. (speaking in foreign language) - [Translator] Of course the
radiation protection team is monitoring very closely so
that no contamination occurs. (serious instrumental music) - [Narrator] This submarine had two layers of pressure resistant hulls. Both have been cut open, revealing the tangle of
steel pipes and cables in the stern section of the
sub, next to the reactor. But blow-torching this steel hulk apart brings the constant risk of fire. If not immediately dealt with, radioactive ash can poison the workers. (suspenseful instrumental music) The plan is to scrap this
submarine from both ends, steadily working towards the center, the compartment housing the reactor. It emits so much radiation that simply cutting it into
pieces would be suicidal. Handling the highly radioactive
core of a nuclear submarine presents the greatest
engineering challenge. - Without question, (chuckles) it is absolutely much more difficult to break down a nuclear-powered submarine than it is to build one. It's the fact that you
have all that radiation. The radiation, in the beginning of the nuclear reactor
process, is pretty negligible compared to the radiation that you have with all of the radioactive waste that was generated during its operation. - [Narrator] This is why
the engineers have come up with an ingenious idea. The submarine is dismantled so that only the compartment
housing the reactor and the two neighboring
compartments remain. The subs pressure hull is
turned into a container with enough room for all
the contaminated material. The closed bulkheads at
each end act as a seal. Nearly 200 of these nuclear submarines have been reduced to
such three-section units. There is enough air trapped inside for these several-hundred-ton
reactors to float. But this is no long-term solution. It is just a first step to secure the compartments
within a small area. (speaking in foreign language) The reactors of an entire nuclear fleet need a final resting site. Decades must pass for their
radioactivity to decay. - When it comes to the
factors that would govern how safe or unsafe the
dismantlement process is, it would probably be safe to say that it's a function of
the space that's available, because you have to have a
place to store this material. There's no question. The facilities that are available, how safe and how radiation
proof, if you will, are facilities, and the
security that's available. - [Narrator] There is no alternative. These 1,600-ton units must
be lifted out of the water and further reduced, so that
only the reactor remains. The bulk of radioactive material is concentrated at the bottom, so a sheet of concrete and
lead is attached as a shield. This is all that remains of Red October, ready to join the other subs
at their final resting site some 20 miles by sea from the shipyard. Here in in Saida Bay, the reactors are stored
on a concrete foundation three feet high, so that no
radio activity can escape. But the job doesn't end there. Next steps hope to decontaminate
any radioactive material once attached to the reactors. Valuable knowhow gained
in Eastern Germany. Another high-security zone few can visit. Sandblasting off radioactivity can often make components
safe for recycling. Or using chemicals. 60% phosphoric acid dissolves
sheets of contamination. It's labor intensive. Each radioactive part
needs special attention to salvage and recycle
as much as possible. (hose spraying) Saida Bay will become the autopsy lab for radioactive carcasses and
the graveyard for Red October. Back at the Nerpa shipyard,
dock workers are still gutting the colossal Victor-class submarine. These men will be the last
to remember its might, before it's reduced to mere heaps of junk. The sub is history. Few
will remember its role. Because even in death, Russia avoids talk of its nuclear fleet. - [Translator] Well, the
Russians surely won't tell us where this sub was operating
or what its role was. It surely roamed the world's ocean for more than two decades. Now, its last voyage
is to the storage site. - [Narrator] This is the
death of a Victor-class sub. But Naval historian Norman Palmer has access to Cold War
intelligence about its birth. - This is a Victor-class nuclear submarine that was just partially
completed in St. Petersburg, then Leningrad. It's launched into a floating dry dock, covered with camouflage netting, so that U.S. surveillance satellites can't identify features of it. The dry dock will then be towed to the Kola Peninsula to be completed. Again, just really
impressive, really impressive, the way the Soviets handled this. - [Narrator] Russia's atomic
fleet is disappearing fast. In less than two decades, the last nuclear submarine and its reactor will be dismantled, including the reactor of
Russia's most famous sub, whose disaster would ultimately sink the entire Russian navy. (dramatic orchestral music) It's summer of the year 2000. After a decade of political
chaos and economic meltdown, Russia, once again is flexing its muscles. With the northern fleet's biggest maneuver since the collapse of the
Soviet empire, Russia is back, and with it, the world's
most modern, gigantic, unsinkable nuclear sub: the Kursk. (forbidding orchestral music) Built post-USSR, it is the most expensive, most advanced nuclear sub
Russia has ever designed. (upbeat folk music) These are rare images
from inside the Kursk. Captain Lieutenant Dmitri Kolesnikov takes his wife, Olga, onboard. The sub is so big, it even
houses leisure facilities for its sailors. Dmitri Kolesnikov is proud
to serve on the Kursk, although his service earns
him a mere $1,000 a year. He and 117 sailors are on board during maneuver in August 2000. They're closely watched, not only by the Russian navy command, but also by their fiercest enemy. - U.S. navy was monitoring the exercise. We had one, possibly two,
nuclear submarines in the area. At the same time, the Soviets
had a ballistic missile sub that they were trying
to sneak out of the area without us following it. So there was a lot going on
you could say behind the scenes or, more accurately,
underwater than met the eye. (tense orchestral music) - [Narrator] The Kursk's
mission was to show that its torpedoes can be
fired with deadly precision, that destroying a U.S. aircraft carrier takes only a matter of minutes. At around 8:00 a.m.,
technicians in the bow section of the Kursk start loading torpedoes. For any submarine, its own torpedoes are its greatest danger. They contain an extremely explosive fuel. If not handled with care,
they are bound to explode. What the Kursk sailors did not know is that their torpedoes hadn't
been maintained properly. (suspenseful orchestral music) At 8:51 a.m., the signal,
"Ready for torpedo firing," is the last message sent from the Kursk. (suspenseful orchestral music) (explosion) There are two explosions of such magnitude that they are registered in
Alaska, 3,000 miles away. A truly seismic event, a Kursk to the bottom of the Barents Sea. - What was planned in the Naval exercise as a major demonstration that the Russian Navy
was still on the map, that Russia was still a great
military, international power turns just totally around
with a major disaster. (dramatic orchestral music) - [Narrator] Surprisingly,
the Russian Navy does not make much of the explosion. Only at the end of the day, after failing to contact the Kursk, do naval officers begin to worry. Hours are lost in search
of the stricken sub. After all, the Kursk was
built to be undetectable. Then, a sonar echo in shallow waters. The Kursk lies at a
depth of only 300 feet. Divers could quite easily reach it. But the Russians' rescue equipment is so old and badly maintained, it cannot make contact with the Kursk. If there are survivors,
every minute counts, but the Navy refuses to admit defeat and firmly rejects foreign help. - The Soviets in general
were able to bring their damaged submarines
up to the surface, and most of the people
were able to get off. The major exception was the Kursk, and that was because of the type of damage where a torpedo had exploded in the bow and just blown the whole bow section off. - [Narrator] Running out of options, the situation escalates. (woman sobs) The authorities try to silence
angry wives and mothers with very dubious methods indeed. (woman shouting in foreign language) (woman sobbing) It takes the President to intervene. The Russian military is still split whether to accept foreign assistance. Vladimir Putin's still young presidency is threaten by the crisis. There are rumors that some of
the sailors are still alive. Putin now wants help from abroad. (dramatic orchestral music) Almost a full week after
the Kursk was lost, divers from Norway are able
to reach the submarine. Everyone is shocked by the
scale of the damage to sub. The whole bow section is destroyed. But in the stern, there
is little destruction. There could be, still, some sailors alive. Maybe they are even
strong enough to respond. Divers are banging on the hull, eagerly awaiting a response
from the sailors inside. Captain, Lieutenant Dmitri Kolesnikov and 22 other sailors did indeed
survive the initial blast. We know this because he left a message, saying they had little hope. The sailors were alive
at least 24 four hours after the explosion and
possibly much longer. But by the time the divers
make contact with the Kursk, there is nothing but silence. Dmitri Kolesnikov, along
with 117 sailors, are dead. When the escape hatch is opened, a last gulp of air marks
the end of all hope. (somber orchestral music) This coffin of steel at the
bottom of the Barents Sea is a tragedy for the entire nation. - The irony of the Kursk being
lost during a major exercise is that the Russian Navy
was trying to demonstrate to the Russian leadership
how powerful it still was. And here, the second-largest
type of submarine in the world, suffers an internal disaster which kills the entire crew, 118 men. (explosion) And because it was drawn
out with some people alive in the stern section of the submarine, it showed how incapable
the Russian government, the Russian Navy, was with
handling a disaster of that type. - [Narrator] To save face
and retrieve the bodies. Russia decides to lift the Kursk. It is the heaviest object ever to be raised from the sea floor. Inch by inch, the Kursk
is raised to the surface. Over a year after the accident, the submarine, icy grave to
118 submariners, is retrieved. For the men inspecting the wreckage and retrieving the bodies,
it's almost too much to bear. Fear turns into certainty, had the Navy accepted foreign help, some of the sailors
could have been rescued. This is the worst of all possible outcomes for the once proud northern
fleet, its flagship lost, the crew left to die at the
bottom of the Barents Sea. The tragedy of the Kursk disaster still echoes across Russia today. It towers over the end of an empire's once giant nuclear age. Pride has turned into a
problem, a colossal problem, that now must be dealt with. This is the reactor
compartment of the Kursk, another dangerously rotting carcass. It must be scrapped and
prepared for its final journey, like all the other reactor compartments of Russia's nuclear fleet. This journey is the most
delicate, the most dangerous step, in the long end of Red October. At the shipyard, final
preparations are underway for the only reactor transport this year. (dramatic orchestral music) The worker's timeframe is short, a few weeks of summer when the
weather is less unforgiving and the seas are not so rough. (suspenseful orchestral music) Only a dry dock can move
such precarious cargo through the fjords of the high Arctic. Nerpa shipyard, where subs are dismantled is some 20 miles from the
Saida interim storage site. It is a treacherous route dotted with top-secret
military installations. Calm seas are absolutely crucial. If this dock sinks, these waters will forever be contaminated with highly toxic, radioactive waste. Any change in weather is
an invitation for disaster. (ominous orchestral music) Soviet nuclear subs, the invisible
terror of the Cold War... are today just problematic, rotting hulks. In a monumental effort, almost
200 subs are being scrapped, their reactors sealed and prepared for a final, dangerous journey. (dramatic orchestral music) The majority of Russia's atomic subs has been reduced to this, the unit housing the highly
contaminated reactor. Workers at the Nerpa
shipyard in Murmansk, Russia prepare for an extremely dangerous task: transferring these reactors over water to their final resting
site some 20 miles away. This dry dock will ship
seven reactors at once. It took a year to seal them to make the reactors safe
for their final journey. These compact nuclear power
plants are no ordinary cargo. Their radioactivity limits the time humans can safely spend in their vicinity. The outer steel layer of each
reactor is three inches thick. This puts the total weight of
each reactor at 1,600 tons, the equivalent of four jumbo jets. Moving them is a near impossible task. Even the most powerful tools,
hydraulics, sometimes fail. (tense orchestral music) At this stage, even
the most minute problem can endanger the whole effort For loading, tracks have
been laid onto the dock. The workers are doing double shifts to be finished and ready
for today's high tide. (suspenseful orchestral music) These last hours, the
culmination of a year's work, are a race against time. The biggest worry is the weather. In the high Arctic, nothing
is more unpredictable. It is a factor that rules
the decision makers, Detlef Mietann and his
Russian engineering colleague, Lada Gadjuchenko. They cannot ignore a bitter fact. The weather has started
to turn against them. (speaking in foreign language) - [Translator] We have
seen today how rapidly the weather can change here. It got very windy, and that is a big danger
for the transport. Movement is only permitted
to a certain wind force. - [Narrator] They have now
reached a critical point. If the wind doesn't subside, the transport won't happen today. (speaking in foreign language) - [Translator] As you can see, the dock has a huge area
where the wind can attack. This and the waves out in the fjords will prevent us from
transporting the dock safety. - [Narrator] A disaster. It
has also started to rain. But the workers carry on
anyway to finish their job and hope for better weather. (dramatic orchestral music) Massive steel buttresses will
keep the reactors in place, three on each side of every single unit. The buttresses are welded onto the dock, But even these structures
will start to crack if the sea is not totally calm, (banging on metal) The dock workers are racing
to meet their deadline. There are only a few left
before the tide comes in. (dramatic orchestral music) But still, the wind hasn't subsided. The sky's not cleared. Tugboats will pull the floating dock. The Russians' machines
are often in a dire state. Detlef Mietann's company
has brought tugboats abroad. He's also supervised the
modernizing of local ones. It will be his responsibility that the tugboats' diesels won't fail. But the decision about today's transport lies with the Russians. More tugboats are called in.
The transport will happen. It will take seven tugboats
to transport this dock, two to pull and five to stabilize, to help keep the dock and its
precious cargo from capsizing. This is the last chance for the contractors at the Nerpa shipyard to deliver the reactors fully
sealed and ready for storage. (welder crackling) Now, good news starts to arrive. The skies have cleared. But unless the strong winds subside, this dock and its dangerous cargo threat an environmental disaster. (dramatic orchestral music) The seaward transfer of seven
Russian nuclear sub reactors is about to begin. Water is pumped out of the dock. It starts to float on the high tide. Seven powerful tugboats most push and pull the huge, loaded floating dock
out into the arctic fjord. They can move only at a snails pace. At two knots, it will take
them almost nine hours to their destination some 20 miles away, the storage Saida Bay in far north Russia. Soon, it will be impossible to turn back. - Well, you really have
to know what you're doing when you're working with
one decommissioned reactor, let alone multiple, let alone on water, trying to transport them. That is a major engineering feat. It's one of those things
where, if things work out well, then you can take a sigh of relief, but if they don't go well, the consequences, of course,
could be pretty severe. Certainly if you wanted to say, "Well, let's go ahead and
try to pick them back up," well, that might not be too easy, trying to pick a reactor up
off the bottom of the sea. (dramatic orchestral music) - [Narrator] But at last,
the weather is on their side. Bright sun and calm seas promise safe passage for the reactors. After nine hours, Saida is in sight. The tugboats guide the
dock to the landing site. Inch by inch, the dock is
moved to its destination. The dock is secured, but not its cargo. A total weight of almost 12,000 tons must now be moved off
the floating dry dock and join the other 33
decommissioned sub reactors already moved here over
the last four years, as time slowly renders them all inert. (tense orchestral music) It is up to these men to
direct this final step, choosing the exact place for
each to permanently rest. 1,600 tons is not something to move twice. Vazgen Ambartzumjan is the
director at the Saida site and a former submarine officer. Among these reactors, there are two which Vazgen remembers very well. He has served on the
submarines they once powered. (speaking in foreign language) - [Translator] If I remember
correctly, it was back in 1982. This was a very good
submarine, very reliable. It was the best sub I ever served on. The service passed without
any major disturbance. - [Narrator] The former
submariner sees his duty in safely putting to rest what was once a menace
to the Western world, the giants of the Cold War stranded on a concrete foundation deep in the Arctic hinterlands. (birds cawing) This is the best of
all outcomes for Vazgen as much as the rest of the world. - I have the privilege of knowing several Soviet submariners, now retired, a number of Soviet, now
Russian, submarine designers. And these people as
individuals are talented, dedicated, and really nice guys. So when you talk about a
Soviet or a Russian submariner, you're talking about a real person that you could probably
get along with great. - [Narrator] Because of the complexities of decommissioning a nuclear sub, reactors arrive here to
Saida just once a year. It will take the remainder
of these men's careers to put to rest all of Russia's
once mighty northern fleet. In fact, the long story of Red October won't end for another 70 years. Only then will radioactive
levels have dropped enough for the reactors to be opened, handled, and fully disassembled, an inheritance for future generations. But will these casings last that long? (dramatic orchestral music) After decades of waiting
and dangerous indecision, these nuclear sub reactors have reached their final destination, but they cannot be fully broken
down for another 70 years, when their potent
radioactivity has diminished. Between now and then,
the burning question, are they really sealed, and
will they stay that way? Today, Detlef Mietann and
his team of German engineers will find out whether the Russian reactors are properly sealed... or emitting more radiation
than they calculated. It is not enough to
technically solve the problem to store the reactors. They also must be kept
safe from terrorists, and nobody should accidentally
take contamination out of this area. This is why every visitor
to this high security zone is carefully monitored. (device beeping) A dosimeter will register
the radioactive load accumulated in Mietann's body when he is inside the
nuclear storage site. Mietann and his Russian
colleague Vazgen Ambartzumjan, will limit the time they spend
right next to the reactor. Otherwise, they will accumulate more than their permitted dose of radiation. But going in and going close to measure the radiation
levels of each reactor is vitally important. (speaking in foreign language) - [Translator] We have 35
micro-sievert power here. That is almost a magnitude below the permitted maximum level. It means the units are absolutely tight. Still, we should leave this area now. We should not expose
ourselves unnecessarily to this level of radiation. - [Narrator] Nature
dictates that radioactivity decreases with distance. (speaking in foreign language) - [Translator] Here,
around 100 feet distant from the reactor units, we
have 170 nano-sievert power. That's a little more
than natural background radiation levers. You will find this in
most parts of Europe, even without reactors. In fact, this level of radiation you will measure in any town center. - [Narrator] The reactors are tight. If they are properly serviced, they will remain tight
for another century, when a future generation
will finish this job. But they might ask
about why so much effort was put into building these
nuclear subs in the first place. - I believe that missile submarines on both sides did have a role in preserving the peace through deterrence that neither side could
risk going to nuclear war or pushing the other to a point where it might go to nuclear war. - [Narrator] These
behemoths of the Cold War, able to destroy the world in seconds, now will take decades be destroyed. (dramatic orchestral music) But maybe these submarines
fulfilled their role. Perfect killing machines... maintaining peace with the threat of-
That is going to be an awesome watch. Thanks for sharing!
That was well worth waiting to watch on a big TV. Some great footage of older Soviet boats along with Nerpa and Siada.