3 ms·

Warships have a “battle short” on some critical equipment, which will bypass safety equipment like fuses. If your gun turret traversal motors pull too much curr

Warships have a “battle short” on some critical equipment, which will bypass safety equipment like fuses. If your gun turret traversal motors pull too much current in the middle of a battle, you’d rather risk damage or fire to have them keep working rather than disable themselves to protect from a fault. Total speculation here, but it would make sense for military reactors to have something similar, to put them in a mode where the threat of a reactor accident due to a malfunction is less than the threat from the enemy if it goes down. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleshort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleshort

sitharus 2mo ago
Likewise commercial aircraft have bypasses on the fuel and oil filters in case they get clogged in flight. The engine will need a thorough inspection if this happens but it's better to damage the engine if it gets you to the nearest airfield.
rogerrogerr 2mo ago
I’ve never been in the Navy or on a submarine, but my impression is that SUBSAFE is about never ever having a reactor accident, at least partially for PR reasons. It wouldn’t surprise me if there simply are not procedures to deliberately put the reactor in a dangerous state. The Navy may have done the math and determined the loss of a boat to the enemy is a less bad thing than the loss of a boat to a “nuclear accident”. I desperately hope for and welcome anyone with experience in the space to correct me.
- pmontra 2mo ago
  Wouldn't a nuclear powered ship sunk by enemy fire be a nuclear accident on its own? There would be a nuclear reactor on the seafloor, possibly a turned on one, surrounded by failed systems. I don't think it ever happened at war, but while I was looking for [1] I found a number of other incidents. I list them below [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursk_submarine_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursk_submarine_disaster [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0029549321003927 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00295... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-19 [4] https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/soviet-nuclear-submarine-sinks-atlantic https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/soviet-nucle... [5] https://gizmodo.com/sunken-soviet-submarine-is-quietly-leaking-radiation-decades-later-study-finds-2000737006 https://gizmodo.com/sunken-soviet-submarine-is-quietly-leaki... [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_incident_off_Kildin_Island https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_incident_off_Kildin_... [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_incident_off_Kola_Peninsula_(1993) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_incident_off_Kola_Pe...
  - noduerme 2mo ago
    If you find the story of the Kursk interesting, you should read "Darkness at Dawn" (Satter, 2003)
  - rurban 2mo ago
    The nuclear incident in a sub would be less problematic than stealing the nuclear missiles out of the sub. Like a Titan out of the Kursk sub.
preisschild 2mo ago
They initially didnt have quick restart procedures for that and it contributed to a nuclear sub sinking. After that they added those procedures and improved the technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Thresher_(SSN-593)#Cause https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Thresher_(SSN-593)#Cause > After the accident Rickover further reduced plant restart times, which had already been gradually improving with new technology and operating experience, in addition to limiting factors that could cause a shutdown.[26]

sitharus 2mo ago

Likewise commercial aircraft have bypasses on the fuel and oil filters in case they get clogged in flight. The engine will need a thorough inspection if this happens but it's better to damage the engine if it gets you to the nearest airfield.

rogerrogerr 2mo ago

I’ve never been in the Navy or on a submarine, but my impression is that SUBSAFE is about never ever having a reactor accident, at least partially for PR reasons. It wouldn’t surprise me if there simply are not procedures to deliberately put the reactor in a dangerous state. The Navy may have done the math and determined the loss of a boat to the enemy is a less bad thing than the loss of a boat to a “nuclear accident”. I desperately hope for and welcome anyone with experience in the space to correct me.

pmontra 2mo ago
Wouldn't a nuclear powered ship sunk by enemy fire be a nuclear accident on its own? There would be a nuclear reactor on the seafloor, possibly a turned on one, surrounded by failed systems. I don't think it ever happened at war, but while I was looking for [1] I found a number of other incidents. I list them below [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursk_submarine_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursk_submarine_disaster [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0029549321003927 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00295... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-19 [4] https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/soviet-nuclear-submarine-sinks-atlantic https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/soviet-nucle... [5] https://gizmodo.com/sunken-soviet-submarine-is-quietly-leaking-radiation-decades-later-study-finds-2000737006 https://gizmodo.com/sunken-soviet-submarine-is-quietly-leaki... [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_incident_off_Kildin_Island https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_incident_off_Kildin_... [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_incident_off_Kola_Peninsula_(1993) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_incident_off_Kola_Pe...
- noduerme 2mo ago
  If you find the story of the Kursk interesting, you should read "Darkness at Dawn" (Satter, 2003)
- rurban 2mo ago
  The nuclear incident in a sub would be less problematic than stealing the nuclear missiles out of the sub. Like a Titan out of the Kursk sub.

preisschild 2mo ago

They initially didnt have quick restart procedures for that and it contributed to a nuclear sub sinking. After that they added those procedures and improved the technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Thresher_(SSN-593)#Cause https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Thresher_(SSN-593)#Cause > After the accident Rickover further reduced plant restart times, which had already been gradually improving with new technology and operating experience, in addition to limiting factors that could cause a shutdown.[26]