Russia locates 'lost' Soviet-era nuclear graveyard in the Arctic

Russian researchers aboard the Akademik Ioffe have discovered a previously undocumented Soviet-era radioactive waste burial site in the Bay of Currents in the Barents Sea. This site was absent from all public records and Soviet nuclear inventories. The expedition aimed to locate the Likhter-4 vessel, scuttled in 1988 with 146 containers of solid radioactive waste and two lead-encased reactor vessels from the K-22 submarine. Using remotely operated submersibles equipped with gamma spectrometers, the team successfully mapped the Likhter-4’s actual position—deeper than archival data suggested—and conducted partial radiation surveys of the wreck and seabed. Additionally, the expedition precisely located the Nikel barge near Kolguyev Island, which contains about 580 tonnes of solid radioactive waste, refining its position after two decades of uncertainty. The team also inspected the nuclear submarine K-27 in Stepovoy Bay near Novaya Zemlya, a highly hazardous object due to its two liquid