Information leak

An emergency occurred with a Russian nuclear submarine in the village of Rybachy

On the morning of January 11, a report was received of an emergency on one of the nuclear submarines in the village of Rybachy. According to Roman Baikalov, First Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Kamchatka Region, information was received at the duty station at about nine o'clock local time that the sensor for determining the maximum concentration of the rocket fuel oxidizer was triggered on the nuclear submarine. The submarine was located near residential areas, and residents of nearby houses observed scarlet smoke coming from the location of the submarines. The name of the submarine has not been disclosed.

Fire crews were immediately rushed to the scene of the incident. According to the head of the closed territorial formation of Vilyuchinsk, Alexander Markman, a few minutes after information about the incident was received, residents of the city and the village of Rybachy were warned that it was dangerous to be on the street. Hundreds of parents rushed to pick up their children from kindergartens and schools. At the same time, the work of educational institutions and hospitals was not officially interrupted. Vilyuchinsk lives as usual, educational institutions and kindergartens, etc. are working. As reported by the Kamchatka Hydrometeorological Center, the level of radiation recorded today in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Vilyuchinsk and other nearby settlements corresponds to the norm and does not exceed 11 microroentgens per hour.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the North-Eastern group of forces and means initially refused to make any comments or assessments of the situation. Around noon, Roman Martov, acting press secretary of the Russian Pacific Fleet, spoke in Vladivostok. He stated that there was no leakage of rocket fuel components, and the signal about a possible emergency was caused by a simple sensor malfunction. A little later, the official representative of the Russian Navy, Igor Dygalo, explained that the problems were caused by a malfunction of the gas analysis sensor of one of the nuclear submarine launchers.

According to Roman Baikalov, Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for the Kamchatka Region, the emergency vessel immediately left the waters of Krasheninnikov Bay. Initially, the emergency submarine was supposed to be sent to the open ocean to flush the launch shaft with water. But this was not done, the boat moved away from the pier, loaded up and went to the eighth pier, as far as possible from residential areas.

According to the hydrometeorological center of the Kamchatka region, the level of chemical and radiation pollution remains within normal limits.

Ilya SERGEEV, Kamchatka