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Eight nuclear submarines have sunk as a consequence of either accidental or intentional damage: two from the United States, four from the Soviet Navy, and two from the Russian Navy. All sank as a result of accident with the exception of K-27, which was scuttled with two reactors in Stepovov Gulf in the Kara Sea in 1982, when repair was deemed impossible and decommissioning too expensive. All of the Soviet/Russian submarines belonged to either the Soviet Red Banner Northern Fleet or the Russian Northern Fleet.

Apart from complete vessels, other nuclear reactors have been disposed of in oceans. The Soviet Union put decommissioned naval nuclear reactors in shallow water in the Eastern Arctic. Four submarine reactor compartments were dumped in the Abrosimov Gulf in 20 to 40 meters of water in 1965 and 1966. Three reactors from the nuclear-powered icebreaker Lenin were dropped into the Sivolky Gulf in 1967. In 1972 a barge carrying a submarine reactor was sunk in the Kara Sea. In 1988, a reactor was dumped in Techeniya Gulf. The US also disposed of a reactor in 1959.^[1]

References

1. ^ Soviet Nuclear Dumps Disclosed, Walter Sullivan, New York Times, 24 November 1992