The Orel nuclear submarine is not believed to have weapons or nuclear fuel on board
A Russian nuclear submarine has caught fire at an Arctic naval shipyard, Russian media report.
It is not clear whether the fire on the Orel is under control, but its reactor does not appear at risk.
The blaze started at the Severodvinsk shipyard during repairs. The Oscar-II class vessel does not have weapons or nuclear fuel on board.
The sub joined the Northern Fleet in 1992, reports say, and on operations it is armed with anti-ship missiles.
"The foam attack being carried out to extinguish the fire is not bringing results," a source told Tass.
Preparations are being made to flood the dock with water in order to put out the fire.
The news agency said that the dock gates have been shut, the scaffolding cleared away, and firefighters were leaving.
A spokesman for the corporation which runs the shipyard, Ilya Zhitomirsky, told The Associated Press news agency that the critical parts of the submarine's nuclear reactor had been removed before the repair work started.
There have been no reports of casualties.
Thick smoke is still coming from the Orel submarine
Local media report that the blaze on the 155m-long (500ft) submarine began when some insulation material caught fire during welding work.
In 2011, the Yekaterinburg nuclear submarine was damaged in a huge fire during repairs in the northern Murmansk region.
Nine people were hurt fighting the blaze that started after the submarine's rubber-coated outer hull caught fire.
No comments:
Post a Comment