

Collision leaves two nuclear-armed subs badly damaged










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RE: Here we go
By djc208 on 2/17/2009 8:57:52 AM , Rating: 3
Um, this is a WAR machine. They are built to operate under extremely demanding conditions, such as actual enemy attack. So asside from the extremely high safty factor engineered into them because they are nuclear reactors, they are usually even more heavily designed in order to allow them to survive wartime conditions, such as enemy attack.

I'd be surprised if the reactor even SCRAMed from the collision. Wouldn't be much of a war machine if the power went out the minute you had any trouble. Remember the US fast attack sub than ran into the underwater mountain? That was much more severe than this collision and the reactor was fine.

As for the health of the men and the oceans creatures well significant radiation leakage would only be a concern if you had issues with the fuel cladding that released core material into the reactor compartment, which is a VERY unlikely event, and even then the shielding in the RC is such that a sailor on a nuclear submarine recieves less exposure during a tour than you do on the surface in that same time period. Remember these vessels can set peir side while critical and people can walk all over the topside of the ship with no special requirements.

As for sea life, there is still the shielding provided by the hull. If the boat is on the bottom part of that radiation is facing toward the sea floor. As for the rest well water is a wonderful radiation barrier. The 10th value is about 24". So the sea life on the hull might see higher levels but fish in normal habitable zones wouldn't be affected. Again, this is all assuming actual leakage of the core material, which is extremely unlikely. Otherwise the reactor would SCRAM and you'd be left with the much lower shutdown radiation levels outside the hull.


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