Editing Russian submarine Kursk (K-141) (section)

==Submarine recovery==
[[File:Kursk wreck.jpg|thumb|Submarine wreck after the disaster]]

A consortium formed by the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] companies [[Mammoet]] and [[Smit International]]<ref>Smit website on [http://www.smit.com/sitefactor/page.asp?pageid=148 Salvage project of Kursk] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121000847/http://www.smit.com/sitefactor/page.asp?pageid=148 |date=21 January 2012 }}, URL visited 12 February 2012</ref> was awarded a contract by Russia to raise the vessel, excluding the bow. They modified the [[barge]] ''[[Giant 4]]'' which raised ''Kursk'' and recovered the remains of the sailors.<ref name="Spitz, 2006">{{citation|last=Spitz|first=D.J.|title=Investigation of Bodies in Water. In: Spitz and Fisher's Medicolegal Investigation of Death. Guideline for the Application of Pathology to Crime Investigations |edition=4th|location= Springfield, Illinois.|year=2006|pages=846–881}}</ref>

During salvage operations in 2001, the team first cut the bow off the hull using a [[tungsten carbide]]-studded cable. As this tool had the potential to cause sparks which could ignite remaining pockets of reactive gases, such as hydrogen, the operation was executed with care. Most of the bow was abandoned and the rest of the vessel was towed to Severomorsk and placed in a floating dry dock for analysis.

The remains of ''Kursk''{{`}}s reactor compartment were towed to Sayda Bay on Russia's northern [[Kola Peninsula]], where more than 50 reactor compartments were afloat at pier points, after a shipyard had removed all the fuel from the boat in early 2003.<ref name="bellona">{{cite web|last=Kudrik|first=Igor|title=Defuelled Kursk will join submarine graveyard|work=Bellona Foundation |url=http://www.bellona.org/english_import_area/international/russia/navy/northern_fleet/incidents/28703|location=Oslo|date=3 March 2003|access-date=8 August 2007
  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071006082331/http://www.bellona.org/english_import_area/international/russia/navy/northern_fleet/incidents/28703
  |archive-date=2007-10-06
}}</ref>

Some torpedo and torpedo tube fragments from the bow were recovered and the rest was destroyed by explosives in 2002.