deichman@cod.nosc.mil (Shane D. Deichman) (12/03/90)
From: deichman@cod.nosc.mil (Shane D. Deichman) Re: a question on unclassified nuclear safety records: Perhaps the most telling difference between the two navies (i.e., U.S. and Soviet) and their respective safety records is the fate of the _Komsomolets_, or "Mike" SSN, which is presumed to have been sunk by a fire in the reactor hold. Norman Polmar, in the Sept. 90 issue of _Naval Institute Proceedings_, gives an excellent examination of the events leading up to this April 89 tragedy. For instance, Soviet computations for a speed regime of 36-38 knots submerged would require 41,000 to 45,000 shp (shaft horsepower). According to Polmar, such an achievement would be remarkable for a reactor within a pressure hull of less than 29.5 feet in diameter. Initially, Western analysts believed the Mike to be powered by two reactors with lead-bismuth heat exchange media. Quoting from the Polmar article: "...[T]he Soviets have concluded that the cause of her loss began with an electrical fire in the aftmost (7th) compartment. Remote control activated the freon fire-extinguishing system. Freon has long been used in Soviet diesel-electric and nuclear submarines for blanketing fires. It would have done so in the _Komsomolets_, but an electric arc burned through the side of the side of the high-pressure main ballast blow system. A high- pressure jet of compressed air overwhelmed the freon blanket and fueled the flames; the compartment was now like a blast furnace. A series of other failures followed on board the _Komsomolets_ until, flooding and with holes blown in her hull (possibly by some of the seven surfacing charges), she went down. "There are two views of the underlying cause of her loss: 'The positions of the parties have become quite clearly polarized: the shipbuilders say the ship was good, the crew was poorly trained; the Navy says the ship was defective, the crew was adequately trained. "The crew who sailed the _Komsomolets_ on her fateful voyage was her "second crew." The "first crew" had taken the submarine through her trials and extensive evaluations. The second crew had taken her to sea on her first operational cruise (which lasted 39 days when she was lost). The first crew, under Captain 1st Rank Yu. Zelenskiy, was considerably more experienced than the second.... "[However,] the _Komsomolets_' demise appears to have been caused by material failures, which have plagued Soviet submarines, the Soviet Navy, and the Soviet society...." -shane