MOSCOW - A disgraced Soviet submarine captain played by Harrison Ford in the Hollywood thriller K-19: The Widowmaker has posthumously been put forward for the Nobel Peace Prize for averting a Chernobyl-style nuclear explosion at the height of the Cold War.
The nomination, for Captain Nikolai Zateev and the crew
of K-19, is being supported by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. He argues that the crew averted what would have been an appalling nuclear accident and possibly a war. Details of the accident, which took place on July 4, 1961, off the Norwegian coast, remained secret for almost 30 years and were disclosed only in 1990 under Gorbachev's policy of glasnost.
Large amounts of coolant leaked from the reactor that had overheated - which, unchecked, would have led to an explosion. Zateev, who died in 1998, ordered the crew to repair the leak. The situation was brought under control but not before many of the crew, who knew the risks they were taking, had received large doses of radiation. Eight died of radiation sickness and less than 60 of the 139-strong crew survive.
- INDEPENDENT
