Alert on Russian nuclear submarine

MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) -- A surge in air pressure damaged a ballast tank on a Russian nuclear submarine during repairs but the incident was minor, Interfax news agency quoted a navy spokesman as saying on Friday.

The agency had earlier quoted an official in the local administration as saying there had been a small blast. Officials said there was no radiation leak but nearby Norway was checking for any increase in radioactivity in its region.

Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said there was no explosion and no one was hurt in the incident at a dockyard in the White Sea port of Severodvinsk.

"The management of the (dockyard) ... considers the accident as minor," Interfax quoted Dygalo as saying. He said the damaged cistern will be soon repaired.

Interfax quoted the local environmental monitoring agency as saying that the background radioactive level in the area did not exceed natural levels.

The atomic safety authority in nearby Norway said it was checking for any increase in radioactivity in its region but had no further comment.

It is normal practice in the Russian navy for submarine reactors to be shut down and the fuel removed when they are in dry dock for repairs.

Russia's has a history of incidents -- some of them fatal -- in its submarine fleet. Modernization is under way, but many of the vessels have been in operation beyond their normal service life.

In the worst incident of the past few years, the Kursk submarine sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea on August 12, 2000, after two explosions on board. All 118 crew members died.

In September last year, a fire on board the submarine St. Daniel of Moscow, moored near the Finnish border, killed two crew members. E-mail to a friend

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