Overdue Electric Bill Nearly Sparks Disaster

A power outage to a fleet of nuclear submarines off the coast of northern Russia nearly ended in disaster Thursday as their reactors threatened to overheat, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

The Kola Peninsula power company cut electricity to a Northern Fleet submarine base over the fleet’s failure to pay its $4.5 million bill, the report said.

Then the submarines’ backup power system - meant to keep the subs’ reactor-cooling systems going - failed, and could have overheated, the agency said.

Power was only restored after an urgent call to authorities, it said. It was not clear how long the reactors were without power.