Russia's military has said a fire in a submarine sparked by welding equipment did not compromise the craft's nuclear propulsion system.
The nuclear sub K-150 Tomsk was undergoing repairs near the Pacific port city of Vladivostok when the fire started Monday, RIA Novosti reported. Rubber insulation and paint inside the ship's main ballast tanks ignited, filling the sub with smoke for several hours until more than a dozen firefighters brought the fire under control. No one was injured.
Military officials told Russian media the cruise-missile-capable sub was not armed at the time, and its reactors were safely shut down. It had been in the shipyard since 2009 following problems with its reactor cooling system.
According to Rusnavy.com, the Tomsk is 154 meters long at the waterline. It was launched in 1996 and uses two 190 megawatt OK-650V reactors.