Radioactive leak on icebreaker loss in the Arctic off Siberia

MOSCOW – A loss of nuclear material occurred on board a nuclear-powered Russian icebreaker in the Arctic, off western Siberia. Rosatomflot was forced to return to the port of departure in the Barents Sea, in the northwest.

According to the Federal agency for the nuclear fleet the escape of radioactive material would be “irrelevant” and the accident at “zero” level of the international scale of nuclear and radiological events (Ines). “A slight increase in radioactivity in the air was detected in the reactor room ventilation system,” says Rosatomflot.

Pavel Felgenhauer, independent military expert. speaks of a “serious accident”. “Such reactors are not a real threat to the environment, but a radioactive leak, even if weak, is a serious accident,” said Felgenhauer.

The escape of radioactive material to the Taimyr occurred when the ship was leaving the Siberian river Ienissei, which flows into the Arctic Ocean, forcing it to return to the port of Mourmansk, in the Barents Sea, home of the world’s largest fleet of nuclear-powered icebreaker. The cause of the leak, the federal agency suggests, could be in the sealing system of the first reactor casing.

“What worries us most of all – said Andrei Smirnov, head of Rosatom, quoted by the agency Ria Novosti – is being able to navigate without problem to the port of arrival which is two thousand kilometers away. If the situation worsens the reactor system will be stopped and the cooling process will begin “.

(05 May 2011)