lehtonenbobrovsky:

“Russia, for a day, was on the brink of the biggest catastrophe since the time of Chernobyl,” Vlast reported. The 1986 disaster in modern-day Ukraine is regarded as the world’s worst nuclear accident.

The respected Vlast weekly magazine quoted several sources in the Russian navy as saying that throughout the fire on Dec. 29 the submarine was carrying 16 R-29 intercontinental ballistic missiles, each armed with four nuclear warheads.

The rubber covering of the submarine then caught fire, sending flames and black smoke 10 metres (30 feet) above the stricken vessel. Firemen battled the blaze for a day and a night before partially sinking the submarine to douse the flames, according to media reports.

“K-84 was in dock with rockets and torpedoes on board,” the magazine said, adding that apart from the nuclear weapons the submarine was carrying torpedoes and mines as well as its two nuclear reactors.

The magazine said that if one of the torpedoes had exploded it could have threatened the nuclear missiles, leading to an extremely dangerous nuclear accident.