Russia puts out fire on old nuclear sub -Tass

MOSCOW, Aug 30 (Reuters) Russian emergency services have put out a small fire which broke out today as a nuclear submarine was being dismantled at a base in northern Russia, Itar-Tass reported, citing local emergency ministry officials.

The fire broke out at 04:36 Moscow time (0606 hrs IST) on a Typhoon class nuclear submarine at the Zvyozdochka enterprise in the city of Severodvinsk, on the White Sea, Tass said.

The submarine did not have a reactor on board when the fire broke out and no-one was injured, Tass said.

''The fire was put out within six minutes, no-one was injured,'' Tass quoted the local emergency official as saying.

A series of fatal submarine accidents has tarnished the reputation of Russia's navy and of the plants, mostly in northern Russia, which dismantle the ageing submarine fleet.

The worst Russian naval accident since the fall of the Soviet Union occured in August 2000, when the Kursk nuclear submarine sank in the Barents Sea. All 118 crew members perished.

A fire on board the submarine St. Daniel of Moscow, moored near the Finnish border, killed two crew members last September.

REUTERS SV PM1420