MOSCOW, Aug. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- There was no nuclear reactor aboard the submarine where a fire broke out at a shipyard in Severodvinskon Monday, Russian Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said on Monday.

    The reactor core had been removed from the submarine before the scrapping work started, Dygalo told the Itar-Tass news agency.

    "This project (Victor III by NATO's classification) does not belong to the Navy. The submarine was handed over to the Atomic Energy Ministry last year for scrapping at Zvyozdochka," the spokesman said.

    The fire started in the morning when the submarine was being cut for scrapping, the North-Western office of the Emergencies Ministry told Itar-Tass by telephone.

    According to the office, there was no explosion, but a fire killing one person and injuring another one. The fire started during welding aboard the submarine at the defense shipyard Zvyozdochka on Monday morning.

    "As a result, one worker died and one was hospitalized with burns," said Igor Grigoryev, the chief spokesman for the Emergencies Ministry's office in the Arkhangelsk region.

    He stated "There was no leak of radiation. The level of radiation at the submarine and the plant is normal."

    Russian prosecutors are carrying on a criminal investigation into the incident, the Interfax news agency said.

    A three-section unit with a reactor had been carved out earlierfrom the submarine and moved to the Kola Peninsula, a shipyard official told Interfax. Enditem