Russia said on Monday 25 Dec that emergency workers had put out a fire
on a Soviet-era nuclear-powered cargo-icebreaker ship and the state company which runs the vessel
said there had been no casualties and no threat to the security of the reactor.
The fire broke out on Sunday in one of the cabins of the Soviet-made
Sevmorput ship, which is currently at dock in the northern Russian city of
Murmansk, the emergency ministry said.
The fire, which at its peak covered an area of
about 30 square meters (323 square feet), was put out with no casualties, the
ministry said.
“The fire was quickly liquidated,†Atomflot, which owns the vessel, said
in a statement. “There were no injuries.†“There was no threat to crucial
support systems or to the reactor plant,†Atomflot said.
Atomflot runs Russia’s fleet of nuclear icebreakers and is a
unit of the Rosatom state nuclear corporation.
The Murmansk region, in Russia’s northwest, shares borders with Finland
and Norway, as well as with the Barents and White seas.
The ship, which entered service in 1988 and went through an extensive upgrade a decade ago, is Russia’s only nuclear-powered icebreaking transport ship, according to Rosatom.