Kursk periscope removed

Russian navy says the operation is not behind schedule

MOSCOW, Russia -- Divers working on the Kursk salvage operation have cut three telescopic devices from the vessel's hull to ease the task of raising the sunken vessel, the Russian Navy says.

The Kursk's periscope and two other telescopic instruments have been removed and lifted to the Norwegian diving support ship, Mayo, which is serving as a base for the operation in the Barents Sea, officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The last telescopic instrument was to be removed later Thursday, they said.

The Kursk sank last August after an explosion during a training exercise in the Arctic waters, killing all 118 sailors aboard.

During the salvage operation, the Kursk will be connected by steel cables to 26 hydraulic lifts anchored to a giant pontoon, and towed to the Arctic port of Murmansk.

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Divers have been cutting holes in the submarine's hull to attach the cables.

The chief naval spokesman, Igor Dygalo, on Thursday denied accusations that the operation was running behind schedule, AP reported.

"That's not true," he told Russia's ORT state television. "Some of the work was completed considerably ahead of schedule, for instance the clearing of silt around the vessel was done in two days instead of seven, as had been planned."

Sand and silt had to be cleared from around the submarine's front compartment before robots could cut it off from the rest of the submarine, the navy said.

The front compartment, which may contain unexploded torpedoes, is to be left at the sea bottom when the Kursk is raised.

The main fears are that the cables could break, sending the Kursk back to the sea bottom, or that the submarine could turn upside down.

Some experts worry about the ability of the Kursk's two nuclear reactors to withstand such shocks, AP said.

However, Nikolai Ponomaryov-Stepnoi, deputy chief of the Kurchatov Institute, Russia's leading nuclear research centre, said that all possible accidents had been studied, and that experts concluded the reactors would remain safe.

The main lifting phase of the Kursk is scheduled for mid-September.