Via Bloomberg,
...The 14 sailors who died during a fire last week on a nuclear-powered Russian military submarine prevented a “planetary catastrophe,” a top naval officer said at their funeral, according to media reports.
...Russia broke three days of secrecy July 4 and confirmed that the stricken underwater research vessel was nuclear-powered. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin in a meeting shown on state TV that the nuclear reactor on board the vessel had been completely sealed off.
The details behind the incident remain few and far between. Initial stories were posted by annieli who asked Is nothing else going on as Russians have a nuclear sub incident, and Pakalolo who warned The Arctic will not survive Russia’s wave of industrialization; nuclear submarine in flames.
What we do know is that the Russians had an accident with a nuclear powered submarine of uncertain purpose and that 14 crew members died as a result. According to the Bloomberg report,
The fire was Russia’s most serious naval incident since 20 people died on a Nerpa nuclear submarine in 2008. The Losharik submarine can operate at a depth of 6,000 meters (20,000 feet), according to RBC. The craft reportedly was used to target undersea communications and other cables.
Russia’s worst post-Soviet naval disaster occurred early in Putin’s presidency, in August 2000, when 118 crew died on the Kursk nuclear submarine that sank in the Barents Sea after an explosion. The authorities were also accused of a cover-up.
It’s difficult to determine exactly what planetary catastrophe was averted, but presumably it referred to preventing some kind of reactor containment failure and consequent radioactive contamination.
While the sub has been described as a research vessel, there are also reports that it was part of the effort of Russian subs being used to tap undersea cables that carry so much data these days, including critical military links. It’s not a purely Russian activity either:
Washington is reportedly plenty worried about this fact, but can’t exactly get on its high horse about this activity, as U.S. submarines actually pioneered the art of tapping into submarine cables decades earlier. In fact, the USS Jimmy Carter, one of only three super-advanced Sea Wolf class submarines built, has been specially modified to perform such missions.
One of the ways Global Warming is manifesting is that the arctic regions are warming up faster than the rest of the planet. As Pakalolo warns, this is setting off a race to exploit resources that will no longer be locked up under the ice, and the sea lanes that will be opening up. Military and commercial interests are both involved as major powers all look for advantage.
It is more than a little ironic that the ongoing global catastrophe of the Climate Crisis may well unleash a geopolitical struggle for dominance in the arctic even as human civilization struggles to cope with all the other consequences of changing climate. There is a clear choice: either we will have international cooperation to deal with the Climate Crisis, or we will see the world descend into open conflict as the world enters an “Every man for himself” mindset.