Cold Bay bound for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union, where she entered service with the Soviet Pacific Ocean Fleet on 17 June 1945. After the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan on 8 August 1945, T-278 took part in the Soviet amphibious landings at Chongjin, Korea, on 18 August 1945 and at Maoka in the Japanese province of Karafuto on southern Sakhalin Island on 20 August 1945. In February 1946, the United States began negotiations for the return of ships loaned to the Soviet Union for use during World War II, and on 8 May 1947, United States Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal informed the United States Department of State that the United States Department of the Navy wanted 480 of the 585 combatant ships it had transferred to the Soviet Union for World War II use returned. Deteriorating relations between the two countries as the Cold War broke out led to protracted negotiations over the ships, and by the mid-1950s the U.S. Navy found it too expensive to bring home ships that had become worthless to it anyway. Many ex-American ships were merely administratively "returned" to the United States and instead sold for scrap in the Soviet Union, while the U.S. Navy did not seriously pursue the return of others because it viewed them as no longer worth the cost of recovery. The Soviet Union never returned Nucleus to the United States, instead converting her into a naval trawler in 1948 and renaming her Uragan. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy reclassified her as a "fleet minesweeper" (MSF) and redesignated her MSF-268 on 7 February 1955. Disposal The ship was scrapped in 1960. Unaware of her fate, the U.S. Navy kept Nucleus on its Naval Vessel Register until finally striking her on 1 January 1983. Awards The Soviet Union awarded T-278 the Guards rank and ensign on 26 August 1945 for her service during the August 1945 Soviet offensive against the Japanese. References Admirable-class minesweepers Ships built in Chickasaw, Alabama 1943 ships World War II minesweepers of the United States Admirable-class minesweepers of the Soviet Navy World War II minesweepers of the Soviet Union Cold War minesweepers of the Soviet Union Trawlers of the Soviet Navy Cold War patrol vessels of the Soviet Union Weather ships Ships transferred under Project Hula