The Submarine That Turned into a Ticking Nuclear Bomb

In September of 2021, a Russian expedition searching for radioactive waste pinpointed the exact location of the reactor compartment of the troubled Soviet submarine K-19, 60 years after she was deliberately thrown overboard in the Kara Sea.

K-19 was Moscow’s first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine and was launched in 1959 as the Russian's answer to the USS Nautilus. However, her production and testing were so rushed that even her captain did not believe she was fit for combat.

Two years later, during her first ever mission in the North Atlantic Sea, K-19's nuclear compartment suffered a malfunction. Already considered one of the unluckiest vessels to ever serve any nation and without a backup coolant system while hundreds of feet underwater, Russia's mighty vessel was now on the verge of turning into a nuclear bomb…