Russia faced major nuclear disaster in 2011: report

Reuters via Yahoo! ^ | 2/14/12 | Guy Faulconbridge | Reuters

[SmithL]

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia came close to nuclear disaster in late December when a blaze engulfed a nuclear-powered submarine carrying atomic weapons, a leading Russian magazine reported, contradicting official assurances that it was not armed.

Russian officials said at the time that all nuclear weapons aboard the Yekaterinburg nuclear submarine had been unloaded well before a fire engulfed the 167-metre (550 feet) vessel and there had been no risk of a radiation leak.

But the respected Vlast weekly magazine quoted several sources in the Russian navy as saying that throughout the fire on December 29 the submarine was carrying 16 R-29 intercontinental ballistic missiles, each armed with four nuclear warheads.

"Russia, for a day, was on the brink of the biggest catastrophe since the time of Chernobyl," Vlast reported. The 1986 disaster in modern-day Ukraine is regarded as the world's worst nuclear accident.

Neither the Russian Defence Ministry nor the office of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who has responsibility for military matters, would immediately comment on the report. A spokesman for the navy could not be contacted.

[SmithL]

Oops!

[SmithL]

Ping ) ) ) ) ) )

[justa-hairyape]

They had a recent explosion near Moscow at a nuclear research facility. Here are some dashboard videos of the blast. Not something you expect to see on the morning commute. Also a video from a security camera with more detail on the explosion.

ЧП на электроподстанции на юге Петербурга
ЧП на электроподстанции на юге Петербурга

[Jonah Hex]

Carrying live rounds in the tubes while in drydock?

[rawhide]

The first video seems so peaceful. Soft music playing during an early morning drive. Can even hear a guy snoring while his buddy drives.
Then the sky explodes! Something terrible happened over there!

[GonzoGOP]

The fire sounds like it was forward as the sonar dome was destroyed in the blaze. The fire took place on Dec. 29 at a dry dock in the village of Roslyakovo. Reportedly, wooden scaffolding around the K-84 "Yekaterinburg" caught fire and spread to hull insulation. I imagine that much burning rubber had to release some nasty fumes. The vessel had to be submerged to put out the fire. Nine people were injured.

Repairs to the sub are expected to cost in excess of 30 million dollars (over a billion rubles) and take at least a year. That is one heck of an oops.

Doesn't sound like the missiles, even if they were aboard, were in much danger so long as the crew kept their heads.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Nuclear weapons cook off? Doesn’t seem very likely.

[ejonesie22]

Hello this is Peggy, just wanted to let you know we had a little boomski a few seconds ago...

[Psycho_Bunny]

Looks like a huge transformer explosion to me.

[justa-hairyape]

Did a little more research on those videos. Just saw them earlier on another blog comment post. Had them bookmarked. The explosion occurred south of St. Petersburg. The investigation determined it was A technical malfunction at an electrical power plant in St. Petersburg was the apparent culprit. It caused a temporary blackout and no injuries were reported.

[Tallguy]

There were pictures on the web a few weeks back showing sections of the pressure hull cut away It appeared that just about every forward compartment got flooded when they allowed sea water to fill the drydock.

[Cheburashka]

Nuclear weapons cook off? Doesn’t seem very likely.

---

The danger would be that the fuel in the 16 ICBM’s would cook off in one big boom. That explosion would send the nuclear weapon material in the 64 or more warheads on top of the ICBM’s far and wide, although not in a nuclear explosion.

Fortunately since they seem to have put the fire out by flooding the dry dock there doesn't seem to have been much danger of the missile fuel exploding.

[353FMG]

And what about us?

What do we know with certainty of that mysterious sea-launched object off the California coast that many witnessed but few know the details of?

[jimnm]

I think that’s from St Petersburg and it was a coal plant transformer blowing? If I’m remembering correctly from a post a few days back here.

[Capt. Tom]

I sent this article to my nuclear sub authority and got this answer;

Interesting - no American subs go into dry dock with nuclear devices onboard - Maybe they were short on funds - it's very expensive.
The big question still remains - why the BIG hole in the side of the ship?