VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA- A fire burned for five hours on an atomic-powered submarine undergoing repairs near Russia’s eastern port of Vladivostok on Monday, but naval and shipyard officials said there was no risk of a radiation leak and nobody was hurt.
Black smoke poured from the submarine Tomsk, which is powered by two nuclear reactors, after it caught fire at the Zvezda shipyard in Bolshoi Kamen, about 25 km across a bay from Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan, authorities said.
The fire was the second on board a Russian nuclear-powered submarine in less than two years.
“There is no threat of radioactive contamination,” the state-run Itar-Tass news agency cited an unidentified official in Russia’s Pacific Fleet command as saying. Regional emergency officials said radiation levels in the area were within the normal range.
After the fire was extinguished, firefighters continued to douse the area to ensure it did not flare up again, the state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation, which operates the shipyard, said in a statement.
It said there were no casualties and both reactors had been shut off and were in “safe condition.” The firm also said there had been no weapons aboard the ship, which normally carries up to 24 guided missiles, when the fire broke out.
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