It happened again: A Russian nuclear submarine caught fire. Reports said that the blaze was a result of welding repairs on the vessel, christened the Orel, which was parked in a shipyard for maintenance in the Arctic town of Severodvinsk. The rescue operation took hours, as people were evacuated while the Orel continued to burn. Luckily, the Orel’s reactor was shut off before the accident occurred, according to the Tass media agency, which reported that there were no weapons or nuclear fuel on board the sub at the time of the fire.
The Orel has the same design as the famous nuclear submarine the Kursk, which tragically sank in the Barents Sea in the year 2000, with a crew of 118 on board, as well as active reactors and combat weapons.
Read Full Article »