I wanted to end the year with something positive like I did the Friday before Christmas. But this has been a meditation on national environmental events and it would be impossible no matter what the topic to not post about this. I mean how inept must you be to erect a WOOD scaffolding in a shipyard let alone one around a rubber coated nuclear submarine. A shipyard where they do things like weld, work with rivets and cut steel. How could they not start a fire. The good news is that no exterior fire is ever going to get inside an nuclear submarine. The bad news is that the rubber is probably filled with top secret exotic toxic materials which could kill or sicken the workers and people who live in nearby towns. Welcome to 2012 everyone.
Jan M. Olsen contributed to this report from Copenhagen.
Russia says nuclear sub fire has been doused, no radiation leak
By Associated Press, Published: December 29 | Updated: Friday, December 30, 6:28 AM
MOSCOW — Firefighters extinguished a massive fire aboard a docked Russian nuclear submarine Friday as some crew members remained inside, officials said, assuring that there was no radiation leak and that the vessel’s nuclear-tipped missiles were not on board.
Military prosecutors have launched an investigation into whether safety regulations were breached, and President Dmitry Medvedev summoned top Cabinet officials to report on the situation and demanded punishment for anyone found responsible.
The fire broke out Thursday at an Arctic shipyard outside the northwestern Russian city of Murmansk where the submarine Yekaterinburg was in dry-dock. The blaze, which shot orange flames high into the air through the night, was put out Friday afternoon and firefighters continued to spray the vessel with water to cool it down, Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
Russian state television earlier showed the rubber-coated hull of the submarine still smoldering, with firefighters gathering around it and some standing on top to douse it with water.
Seven members of the submarine crew were hospitalized after inhaling poisonous carbon monoxide fumes from the fire, Shoigu said.
An unspecified number of crew remained inside the submarine during the fire, Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Igor Konashenkov said in a statement. He insisted there never was any danger of it spreading inside the sub and said the crew reported that the conditions on board remained normal.
Konashenkov’s statement left it unclear whether the crew were trapped there or ordered to stay inside.
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Go there and read. More next year.
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