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Russian Navy denies nuclear sub blast.
MOSCOW, July 27 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Navy denied Friday media reports of an explosion aboard a nuclear submarine under repair in Severodvinsk, on the White Sea, Thursday.
Igor Dygalo, an aide to the Russian Navy commander, said one of the submarine's main ballast tanks at a dockyard was damaged due to "excessive air pressure," which "dockyard officials are treating as a routine occurrence."
Dygalo said no one was injured in the incident, adding that the damaged tank would be repaired.
The Russian Navy has been hit by several accidents involving submarines. The worst occurred August 12, 2000, when the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank, killing all 118 crewmembers, after a torpedo exploded onboard.
In August 2005, the Priz AS-28 mini-sub with seven sailors onboard became entangled in a fishing net at a depth of about 190 meters (about 620 feet) in the Berezovaya Bay in the Bering Sea.
It was rescued after three days with the help of an unmanned British deep-sea rescue vehicle, the Scorpio 45.
Small blast on Russian sub, no radiation leak-Ifax
27 Jul 2007 10]http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/ ... 61,00.html[/url]
Russian nuclear sub damaged
Article from: Reuters
From correspondents in Moscow
July 27, 2007 10:29pm
A SURGE in air pressure damaged a ballast tank on a Russian nuclear submarine during repairs but the incident was minor, according to an official.
The Interfax news agency had earlier quoted an official in the local administration as saying there had been a small blast.
Officials said there was no radiation leak but nearby Norway was checking for any increase in radioactivity in its region.
Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said there was no explosion and no one was hurt in the incident at a dockyard in the White Sea port of Severodvinsk.
“The management of the (dockyard) ... considers the accident as minor,†Interfax quoted Mr Dygalo as saying.
He said the damaged cistern will be soon repaired.
Interfax quoted the local environmental monitoring agency as saying that the background radioactive level in the area did not exceed natural levels.
The atomic safety authority in nearby Norway said it was checking for any increase in radioactivity in its region but had no further comment.
It is normal practice in the Russian navy for submarine reactors to be shut down and the fuel removed when they are in dry dock for repairs.
Russia's has a history of incidents - some of them fatal - in its submarine fleet.
Modernisation is under way, but many of the vessels have been in operation beyond their normal service life.
In the worst incident of the past few years, the Kursk submarine sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea on Aug 12, 2000, after two explosions on board.
All 118 crew members died.
In September last year, a fire on board the submarine St Daniel of Moscow, moored near the Finnish border, killed two crew members.
Additional reporting by Wojciech Moskwa in Oslo and David Cutler in London
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