Monthly Highlights from the Russian Arctic, October 2024
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.
News
Publish date: January 9, 2007
News
The USS Newport News nuclear-powered submarine and a Japanese oil tanker collided near the busy shipping lanes of the Straits of Hormuz Monday night, the US Navy and Japanese government said early today. No one was seriously injured. Damage to the USS Newport News and the tanker was light, and there was no resulting spill of oil or leakage of nuclear fuel, officials from the U.S. Navy, the Japanese and the United Arab Emirates said.
The bow of the Newport News hit the stern of the oil tanker Mogamikawa as the vessels were passing just outside the Straits, causing minor damage to the Japanese vessel, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said. The tanker, operated by Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Ltd., was able to continue to a nearby port in the United Arab Emirates.
Commander Kevin Aandahl of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain confirmed that there had been a crash and that there were no injuries. Aandahl said the sub had surfaced and that its crew was evaluating damage. The Navy said the sub’s nuclear propulsion plant was undamaged.
The Newport News (SSN-750) of Los Angeles Class was launched in 1989. It has a crew of 127. The submarine is able to carry nuclear warheads onboard, but normally they are not carried. It is powered by the single 26MW reactor power unit. The fast-attack submarine is part of the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower strike group. The submarine is based in Norfolk, Va., and is part of a US-led multinational task force patrolling the Persian Gulf and nearby seas.
The Mogamikawa was travelling from the Persian Gulf to Singapore and was carrying a crew of eight Japanese and 16 Filipinos, Kyodo said.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
A visit last week by Vladimir Putin and a Kremlin entourage to Astana, Kazakhstan sought in part to put Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, on good footing with local officials.
Russia is formally withdrawing from a landmark environmental agreement that channeled billions in international funding to secure the Soviet nuclear legacy, leaving undone some of the most radioactively dangerous projects and burning one more bridge of potential cooperation with the West.