Russian nuclear submarine blaze injures nine after crew remain inside

president orders investigation into a fire on board the ship docked in the Arctic, but officials downplay fears of radiation leakage

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered an investigation after a nuclear submarine caught fire during repairs in the Arctic, injuring at least nine people.

The fire was reportedly started by a torch lighting and garbage wooden scaffolding next to the boat lasted for nine hours at a shipyard in the Murmansk region. Up to 30 crew members remained inside the submarine, but it is unknown if they were captured.

Russian officials were quick to announce that there had been leakage of radiation from the nuclear submarine, called Yekaterinburg, after the flames were extinguished. Conflicting reports said between nine and sixteen people were treated for smoke inhalation. Bellona, ??a Norwegian NGO that oversees compliance with the Russian nuclear fleet, said the toll could be higher.

Fire

Friday was the second military coup in Russia this week after it was learned that the blogger has published photos of a nocturnal visit to a secret rocket engine factory near Moscow. It is also the latest in a series of accidents befall submarine fleet Russian nuclear in recent years, the most notorious of the explosion that sent the Kursk to the bottom of the Barents Sea in 2000, killing all crew members on board 118. K-159 submarine sank in the same waters, three years after the loss of nine men and 20 people died after a gas leak in a fire-resistant K-152 Nerpa off the Pacific coast of Russia in 2008 .

The K-84 Ekaterinburg, released in 1984, is equipped with a maximum of 16 missiles and 12 torpedoes. Apparently, he was disarmed and in drydock when the fire started Friday afternoon and spread on the rubber around the ship. About 400 emergency workers struggled to contain the fire with helicopters and tugs, the vessel partially submerged off.

The 18 200 tonnes

, 167 meters from Yekaterinburg has been used twice this year would have passed the test of Sineva ballistic missile, also known by its NATO designation skiff.

• Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said that the reactor was out of Yekaterinburg at the time of the accident, which occurred in the spring, one Roslyakov major ports of Russian Northern Fleet, located about 900 km north of Moscow, near the city of Murmansk. "There is no danger of a radiation leak," he said.

prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into the accident. Medvedev ordered the Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, Igor Sechin, and examine the causes of fires and ensure that the ship is restored.

Fire

embarrass Medvedev, who approved 400 billion pounds this year arms spending for 2020.

the Murmansk region is desolate around the largest concentration of old nuclear reactors in the world, and since the Cold War, has become the world's nuclear waste dump. Murmansk is home to the Northern Fleet of the former Soviet nuclear submarines, many of atomic energy of Russia to break the ice and more than 40 years of age, civil reactors.

Ruzankin Alexander, director of economic development of the Murmansk region, says it has about 200 nuclear reactors work and 20,000 shops selective waste from radioactive water filled containers filled with decrepit buildings fuel rods.

Find best price for : --Russian----Igor----Murmansk--