WSJ: Newest nuclear submarine sank in China (video)

Satellite images show that China's newest nuclear submarine sank, but Chinese authorities do not acknowledge the disaster.

The incident occurred approximately in late May-early June, The newest submarine sank near the Wuhan shipyard. It is unknown whether any of the employees on board survived. writes The Wall Street Journal, citing sources in the US Federal Government. A senior US defense official said the submarine sank near the pier during construction.

China's first Zhou-class submarine most likely sank in May and June, when satellite images showed the cranes needed to lift it from the river bottom. noted the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details. He said it was “not surprising” that the Chinese navy was covering it up.

It is unknown whether there was nuclear fuel on board at the time of the accident. The publication writes that American officials did not record the Chinese side taking water or environmental samples to determine a possible radiation leak. WSJ suggests that submarine personnel were killed or injured during the sinking.

The first signs of a possible disaster at a shipyard near Wuhan appeared in the summer, when former US submarine officer and senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) Thomas Shugart drew attention to unusual activity of floating cranes on commercial satellite images. Sugar later reported that the cranes were used to salvage a sunken submarine.

The submarine was built by the state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corp. and was spotted berthed on the Yangtze River in late May 2024 while undergoing final rigging before setting out to sea. Shugart said that risk of radiation leakage is probably lowsince the submarine had not gone to sea and its reactors were not operating at high power levels.

China is expanding its navy at a rapid pace, and the United States considers China's rise to be one of its main security concerns.

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