USS New Mexico docks in Tromsø as Norway, U.S. bolster Arctic military ties

The nuclear-powered Virginia class fast-attack submarine is the first to make port call to the civilian harbor just north of Tromsø in northern Norway. “We have been working hard with the preparedness and monitoring ahead of this port call,” said Inger Margrethe Eikelmann, head of the regional department of Norway’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (DSA). The radiation watchdog is now intensifying measurements of radioactivity in the air and near the harbor. “There are obviously several challenges for our monitoring- and emergency preparedness work as the submarine stays in port for several days so close to the city, compared with a…