THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 4, 1994 TAG: 9408040616
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: NEWPORT NEWS DAILY PRESS
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
A fire broke out Wednesday near one of the eight nuclear reactors aboard the Enterprise, the aircraft carrier that Newport News Shipbuilding began overhauling more than three years ago.
No radiation leaked out of the reactors and no one was injured in the fire, which was discovered by Navy crewmen on watch at about 6:20 a.m., said Cmdr. Kevin Wensing, a Navy spokesman in Norfolk.
It took Navy firefighters less than 20 minutes to put out the fire, Wensing said. While some of the carrier's eight reactors are running, Wensing said, the fire was confined to part of a pressurized compartment for a reactor that is not yet operational. The compartment holds the mechanical components that run the reactor, but not the nuclear fuel.
``There was no impact on the operation of the other reactors,'' he said. He declined to say how many of the ship's eight reactors are running.
Wensing said the cause of the fire is still under investigation, but early indications are that it was an electrical fire.
That worries one anti-nuclear activist, who said the nuclear fuel the Navy uses is highly radioactive and could release radiation or explode if conditions are right. ``All sorts of things can happen when short circuits get going,'' said Hans Kristensen, a research associate with Greenpeace.
He said that since the fuel is highly enriched, a small amount of radiation may be released even if the reactor isn't running.
Wensing said it was ``too soon to tell'' how much damage was done to the ship and whether the fire would delay the project, which includes refueling the reactors.
The Navy had expected the $2 billion overhaul of the world's second nuclear-powered warship to be completed in September, he said. That's at least five months later than the Navy originally anticipated when the 33-year-old carrier arrived at the shipyard in 1990.
Wednesday's fire isn't the first problem the shipyard has had aboard the vessel during the overhaul. Other problems include a rash of more than 30 arsons and a 1992 nuclear accident aboard the carrier that contaminated about 10 people. Work on the ship passed one milestone last week when it was turned around in preparation for testing. The ship will undergo dock testing - in which the yard secures the ship to the dock and turns the screw propellers - and one sea trial before it is returned to the Navy.
Wensing said it could be more than a month before the Navy's investigation of Wednesday's fire is completed.
KEYWORDS: U.S.S. ENTERPRISE FIRE U.S. NAVY
by CNB