2LT International News

MOSCOW, Russia: Russian officials said that emergency workers put out a fire on a Soviet-era nuclear-powered cargo-icebreaker ship currently docked in the northern Russian city of Murmansk, on December 25.

The state company that operates the vessel also said there were no casualties and no threat to the reactor’s security.

The emergency ministry said the fire broke out a day earlier in one of the cabins of the Soviet-made Sevmorput ship. At its peak, it covered an area of about 30 square meters (323 square feet), and was put out with no casualties, the ministry added.

In a statement, Atomflot, which owns the vessel, said, “The fire was quickly liquidated. There were no injuries.”

“There was no threat to crucial support systems or to the reactor plant,” added Atomflot, which operates Russia’s fleet of nuclear icebreakers and is the Rosatom state nuclear corporation unit.

Rosatom said the Sevmorput, which entered service in 1988 and underwent an extensive upgrade a decade ago, is Russia’s only nuclear-powered icebreaking transport ship.