Fire in nuclear submarine
No escape of radioactive material

MOSCOW – A fire broke out on board a Russian nuclear submarine that was in a shipyard in the northern region of Murmansk. The news was reported by Russian news agency Ria, citing the Ministry of Emergencies. No radioactive leak occurred, the level of radiation is normal and no one was injured.

“The nuclear submarine reactor was off and is currently in a safe condition,” said the Department of Defense, adding that “it is a practice in the case of revision of an atomic submarine”.

The submarine, the Yekaterinburg, a K-84 built in 1984 often used in exercises and tests in the presence of the authorities, is generally equipped with strategic missiles, but at the moment it is on a construction site for some repairs. The flames would have developed due to the wooden scaffolding around the hull. The spokesman of the Northern Fleet, Captain Vadim Serga, has assured that “it is not possible for the flames to go beyond the external body and there is no threat to the equipment on board”, for the reactor and the weapon systems.

The most serious incident to a nuclear submarine in the post-Soviet era is that of August 2000, when the Kursk sank in the Barents Sea and all 118 crew members lost their lives.

(December 29, 2011)