revealing that radiation is leaking from a Soviet submarine 500 miles east of Bermuda, a top scientist said told The Royal Gazette .

Dr. Hugh Livingston, an expert in artificial radiation in the oceans, said Russian scientists were `scaremongering' to get western money to keep their oceanographic operations going.

"This alarmist talk is mostly driven by the Russians,'' he said from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Cape Cod.

"They get financial benefit from stirring up concerns. It's most unfortunate because it causes so much alarm, especially for the people of Bermuda.

"I hate to use the word scandalous, but that's what it is.'' Last week, the New York Times revealed a Soviet submarine that sank off Bermuda in 1986 was leaking radiation from its nuclear equipment.

The report, which said the boat had broken up in an area of strong currents, was based on comments by Russian scientists.

It said: "Under discussion is the possibility of East-West monitoring to try to learn whether radiation is moving toward fisheries of Bermuda.

"Though hundreds of miles from the site, the Island lies in the direction of the deep current flow.'' Dr. Livingston said the Russians really wanted American cash.

"They have the MIR subs that can go to that depth. They want to go down and look and they want to get paid for it in dollars.'' Dr. Livingston, who has been involved in ocean tracking of radioactivity from Chernobyl and from nuclear plants at Sellafield in the Irish Sea, said radiation leaking from the Soviet sub was a non-issue.

He said Russian claims of leakage were not based on any on-site measurements but drawing board calculations of nuclear equipment and missiles corroding in salt water over time.

"Things have been greatly overblown,'' he said. "I think there is a reason to go and do something (at the sub site) but not because there is a heavy environmental disaster looming.'' Dr. Livingston's comments were mirrored by Dr. Charles Hollister, a senior Woods Hole scientist. He told The Royal Gazette that if he was deciding for the Bermuda Government he would send a team down to examine the sunken sub site.

"If I was a Bermudian I would like someone trusted to go down there and take a look to see how much corrosion has taken place, how far the material has moved and to get samples.'' But he did not believe the leaking radioactive material was or would ever be a threat to Bermuda.

"It's not a major environmental disaster but I don't think we ought to walk away from it,'' he said.

Dr. Hollister, who said he had no doubt the nuclear warheads were leaking, urged the Bermuda Government to stay on top of the situation. There was a possibility governments could consider dumping more nuclear waste at the site if it proved no threat to marine life or mankind.

"There are a lot of warheads at the bottom of the ocean there (by the sub) and they don't appear to be damaging anything,'' he said.

"If that is true, there is a possibility other nuclear waste problems could be solved that way. There could be other dumping in that part of the world.'' Both scientists believe there is little threat to Bermuda from the radiation despite strong currents in the area.

They said any movement of radioactive material would be hampered by gravity and the perpetual "rain of particles'' falling through the water.

"Plutonium looks to stick to particles and looks to stay where it is, not to move,'' Dr. Livingston said, adding that Bermuda was a long way and a great height above the sub site. "The plutonium could have moved a little bit horizontally but it is unlikely it moved at all vertically,'' he said.

Dr. Hollister said any radioactive material reaching Bermuda would probably be immeasurable.

He thought the missiles and their deadly material were probably stuck in clay sediment on the ocean floor by the sub and would remain there.

An East-West monitoring of the site had been discussed and recommended but no decision has yet been taken.