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«Murmansk» almost gone

The upper photo of "Murmansk" was teken this week, while the lower one was taken two years ago. (Photo: AF Decom)

The wreck of the Soviet cruiser “Murmansk” will be completely gone by November. 14 000 tons of scrap metal has been removed in the unique operation on the coast of Finnmark.

Location

AF Decom, the company that won the NOK 328 million (€44,5 million) tender to remove the wreck, reports that the removal is going very smoothly after managing to resolve earlier problems with leakages in the jetties that have been built around the wreck. 

“There are still some parts left in the ground, but everything will be removed by the middle of November, before the winter storms set in”, AF Decom Director Eirik Wraal says to NRK

The sea bottom around the wreck has been drained using jetties and the vessel has been cut into pieces and removed. 

The whole operation is being filmed for a future documentary and you can watch the removal operation on-line here.

The 211 meters long cruiser ended its days in Sørøya in the rocks outside Sørvær on the coast of Finnmark in December 1994. The cruiser was being tugged southwards for scrapping when it tore away during a storm and has since been to a lot of nuisance to the local population.

A decision to remove the wreck was made in August 2008, after debris from the cruiser delivered for recycling revealed that there were traces of a radioactive source, PCB and brominated flame retardants in the vessel.