MOSCOW, Russia (AP) - An unmanned deep-sea vessel has been measuring radiation levels on the floor of the Barents Sea around the sunken Kursk

COMPLETE COVERAGE KURSK FACTBOX - Launched: Commissioned for service, January 1995; launched, May 1994. - Crew: 118 - Weight: 13,900 tons - Length: 500 feet - Speed: 28 knots dived, 15 knots surfaced - Diving Depth: 980 feet - Engines: Two nuclear reactors - Weapons: Up to 24 Chelomey SS-N-19 missiles with nuclear or conventional warheads; Torpedoes or anti-submarine Novator missiles with conventional or nuclear warheads. Interactive - Go to the message board Russian government site: - Offical Russian government Kursk site Helping the families: - RJ link to Kursk Fund - Kursk Foundation - Kursk page Accidents: - Peacetime Submarine Accidents - Nuclear Accidents: CNN report The Russia Journal coverage: - Articles in RJ weekly edition - Earlier Kursk coverage - Kursk crisis coverage from the daily news ticker Other international coverage: - CNN - BBC World - TIME magazine - Washington Post - The Guardian Russian defense links: - Russian navy - Russian navy weapons catalogue - 949 class Russian weapons catalogue? - Oscar submarine Project 949 - Russian military equipment Operation Kursk: Salvage company - Mammoet

nuclear submarine in preparation for a salvage operation, a Russian Navy spokesman said Monday.

The vessel from the Mayo, a Norwegian dive support ship, began radiation checks Sunday to make sure the area is safe for divers to begin the operation to raise the Kursk, Capt. Igor Dygalo said. The vessel was to continue the checks Monday, taking samples from the water and sea bed, he said.

The Kursk sank on Aug. 12, 2000, during a training exercise in the waters off northwestern Russia, killing all 118 crewmen aboard. The operation to raise the submarine, which has nuclear reactors and unexploded torpedoes aboard, is scheduled to last through mid-September.

Russia has maintained that no radiation has leaked from the wreck but says it is raising it to ensure it poses no future danger. But nuclear safety officials in nearby Norway have said the operation's tight schedule increases the risk of a nuclear accident in the Arctic.

So far, the data collected by the Mayo has shown no change in the radiation levels around the Kursk, Dygalo said.

"The radiation tests are showing that everything is normal," he said.

High winds and rain, expected to last until Tuesday afternoon, could hinder the preparations - as well as the view of dozens of journalists who are to arrive in the area by ship Tuesday for two hours of filming, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

In the first phase of the operation to bring up the Kursk, which lies under 108 meters (356 feet) of water, divers will examine the hull and then begin clearing away silt beneath the submarine, according to the Interfax news agency.

Later, Russian and foreign divers will drill holes in the hull and attach wires for lifting the vessel. The bow, which was damaged in the explosion that sank the Kursk, will be cut off so it can be raised separately.