USS Texas (SSN-775)

The USS Texas (SSN-775) is a nuclear submarine from the Virginia-Class.

* Texas at sea during the first test runs
History	*
Order	30. September 1998
Laid	12th July 2002
Launch	9. April 2005
Commissioned	9. September 2006
Displacement	7925 tons submerged
Long	115 m
Width	10,4 m
Draft	9,5 m
Crew	134
Drive	A S9G reactor nozzle ring propeller
Speed	25 + knots
Arming	4 torpedo tubes, 12 vertical missile launch tubes

History

The order, the Texas build fared, 1998 at the Newport News Shipbuilding . The keel laying took place in 2002 at the yard of the company to Northrop Grumman heard their shipyard in Newport News , Virginia instead. The boat was of First Lady Laura Bush in the name of Texas baptized, according to the U.S. state of Texas . The speech at the ceremony on 31 July 2004 by the Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison held.
In 2005, the boat was launched and began its first trial runs, called initial or Alpha Sea Trials . This ended the Texas in May 2006, whereupon followed a dockyard time, were eliminated in the last mistake. On 9 September 2006, the boat was officially used in the United States Navy commissioned. Since 2009 it is in Pearl Harbor stationed Hawaii. In October 2009 appeared toTexas to near the North Pole. Thus it was the first boat in its class, which operated in Arctic waters. The first regular use led the U-boat from May to August 2010 in the eastern Pacific, where, under command of the Joint Interagency Task Force South acted. In June 2011, the submarine moved into the western Pacific, on the way it went, among other ports in Japan and South Korea.

USS Nautilus (SSN-571)

The USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was the first nuclear-powered submarine in the world. It was the sixth ship of the United States Navy that this name was. In ancient Greek means ναυτίλος Nautilos as noun "sea", "sailor" or as adjective "belonging to the shipping industry".

*

Ship data Flag * United States Type of ship Atom-U-Boot Launch 21st January 1954 Commissioned 30. September 1954 Decommissioning 1979 Removal from the register of ships 1980 Whereabouts Ship Museum in Groton

Ship Dimensions and crew Long 97.5 m ( turkish delight ) Width 8,5 m Draft max. 7,9 m Displacement Standard: 2.980 ts Maximal: 3.520 tn.l. Crew 105 man

Machine Machine Nuclear-powered Machine performance 13,400 hp (9856 kW) Speed max. 23 kn (43 km / h)

History

Construction

U.S. President Harry S. Truman took the occasion of the ceremony of her keel was laid on 14 June 1952 at the shipyard Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics in Groton , Connecticut in part. The naming ceremony took on 21 January 1954 Mamie Eisenhower before, the wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower . After her commissioning on 30 September 1954 was Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson first commander.
Before the Nautilus but could set sail, she first had to remain for some time in the dock to perform final work and tests. On 17January 1955 at 11 clock, she passed and finally sat down for the first time on their own and with atomic power in motion. In the coming months, a test program was completed before the Nautilus on 10 May under took its first real use drive to the south. During the whole route to Puerto Rico , they remained immersed and put it back 1381 miles in 90 hours, which was at that time the longest submerged voyage of a submarine while still represented a speed record for submerged boats. Between 1955 and 1957 by boat, the tactical implications of radically increased diving speed and duration were investigated. Nuclear submarines presented the traditional strategies to combat submarine units on its head. Aircraft and radar , with those in the Second World War were fought submarines, proved ineffective against a boat that did not show up, leave an area in record time and was able to flexibly change its depth.

Rides

On 4 February 1957 laid the Nautilus its 60,000. nautical mile back, what with the duration of the fictional Nautilus in Jules Verne'snovel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was consistent. In May, she left her home port to the Pacific coast to the fleet exerciseHome Run participate, which was first performed with nuclear submarines.
Between 21 July and 19th August, the Nautilus in New London , Connecticut, at anchor before their first trip under the polar ice broke up with 1383 miles in length. Then she participated in a NATO exercise in the eastern Atlantic and part-attended various French and British ports, where she was visited by defense experts from those countries extensively. On 28 October she was back in New London, was just waiting and then undertook until next spring operations off the coast.

The North Pole crossing under

On 25 April 1958 she set out again on the way to the west coast. After stops in San Diego , San Francisco and Seattle began the Nautilus their historic polar travel (OperationSunshine ), as on her ninth June, the Port of Seattle left. On 19 June they reached the Chukchi Sea , but had to because of too much drift reversed. On 28 June she arrived in Pearl Harbor , where they waited for better conditions. On 23 July sat Nautilus again northward course. On 1 August she went near Point Barrow ( Alaska ) dive down, and on 3 August 1958 it reached at 23.15 clock (EDST) was the first ship to the geographic North Pole (Point Barrow - North Pole 2072 km/1.287, 48 miles). After 96 hours and 1,830 miles under the ice they appeared northeast of Greenland on again and had completed the first successful crossing of the Arctic ice. As the Nautilus arrived in Portland (England), the ship and its crew from the American Ambassador JH Whitney was awarded a medal. On 29 October she was back in her home port in New London. This trip had a major impact on the strategy of nuclear deterrence , because the U.S. thus demonstrating the possibility of nuclear weapons - support systems up to the front door of the Soviet Union to bring. The warning of a nuclear attack was shortened considerably. The reaction of the Soviets was only years later by the first nuclear counterpart in submarine, the Leninsky Komsomol .

Further deployments

After naval exercises in the spring of 1959 which ran Nautilus the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery , Maine to, to get their first complete overhaul (28 May to 15 August 1960).Between 24 October and 16th In December 1960 she was with the 6th U.S. fleet in the Mediterranean .
The Nautilus was operating some time in the Atlantic, to support field testing of improved techniques for combating anti-submarine and take part in NATO maneuvers. In autumn 1962, she supported the naval blockade against Cuba . After completion of the Cuban missile crisis in August 1963, she took a further two-month tour to the Mediterranean and then took part in fleet exercises before it was in January 1964 for the second time in Kittery overhauled from the ground up.
As of 2 May 1966 was the Nautilus again the Atlantic fleet available. Shortly after, she put her 300,000. Mile on the lake back. Until August 1967, she went on unspecified special operations.
In November 1966, the North Atlantic were held U.S. Seekriegsübungen. For the 10th November a torpedo school shooting was planned when the Nautilus and the aircraft carrierUSS Essex took part. The security of the aircraft carrier were some destroyers to. When the Nautilus at startup to mock attack was, there was a collision between the submarine and the aircraft carrier . After the Nautilus was in the immediate vicinity of the aircraft carrier reduced its depth to just below the water surface, they came under the foredeck. The collision of the front panel located on the tower of the submarine deployable and equipment was destroyed. The Essex was a leak below the water line. The ships were at this time about 360 miles off the coast of the U.S. state of North Carolina . Immediately after the collision appeared the Nautilus , and ran into a destroyer escort for the damage to New London. The damage on the Nautilus were fixed on special instructions quickly. The aircraft carrier was on the other hand to remove his damaged a few months in the shipyard.

The end

In the spring of 1979 was the Nautilus of Groton from their last trip. She reached the Iceland Mare Naval Shipyard in Vallejo on 26 May 1979. There she was decommissioned on 3 March 1980 deleted from the register of ships and subsequently restored.
The Nautilus was on 20 May 1982 by the U.S. Department of Interior to a National Historic Landmark explained. After an extensive renovation that was Nautilus towed back to Groton, where they are on 6th July 1985 arrived. The following year it was opened to the public as a museum ship.

Nuclear Submarine

A nuclear submarine is a submarine , the energy to propel the vehicle and its onboard systems of one or more nuclear reactors relates.With the American USS Nautilus (SSN-571) on 30 September 1954 made ​​the first nuclear-powered submarine in service. Six nations currently operate nuclear-powered boats, which are the United States , Russia , France , the United Kingdom , the People's Republic of China and India .

Nuclear submarines to the usually smaller and cheaper submarines with conventional drives, such as the diesel-electric drive , especially the advantage of an almost unlimited range and the fact that in nuclear submarines, the duration of dives only the food supplies on board is limited.

History

Development History

The development of nuclear-powered submarines began after the end of World War II in the United States . The American physicist Philip Hauge Abelson was concerned with marine propulsion technology and in this framework with the ability to accommodate a reactor in a submarine. At the same time in this area were the United States Atomic Energy Commission and the Bureau of Ships of the U.S. Navy operates. In these authorities is especially the later Admiral and so-called "Father of the Nuclear Navy" Hyman Rickover , the idea of a nuclear-powered submarine.On the basis of research results Abelsons a group designed to Alvin M. Weinberg finally a reactor for submarines.  The United States Congressapproved in July 1951, eventually building a first, fully operational prototype suitable for the Navy. Under the direction Rickover was so until 1954 the first nuclear-powered submarine in the world, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) , was constructed. On 17 January 1955 put Nautilus for the first time from using the atomic drive from the pier. In the summer of 1958, she demonstrated with the first tunnel under the North Pole, the advantage of its novel propulsion system. The USS Triton (SSN-586) was in 1960 the first submarine that circumnavigate the globe completely under water.
With several years in the residue began Soviet Union , the development of a number of nuclear-powered submarines. In late 1952 a corresponding decree was signed, reactors were for some time under the direction of Nikolai Dolle scarf in development. The first Soviet nuclear submarine, the Leninsky Komsomol , was in September 1955 in the shipyard of Severodvinsk and built in the summer of 1958 for the first time powered with nuclear-generated energy. The boat with the tactical number K-3 crossed first time in 1962 under the North Pole.
1969 ran at Electric Boat , the smallest nuclear submarine launched. The only about 45 meters long, so far only nuclear-powered research submarine NR-1 has also been given by Hyman Rickover in order.

Classification

Nuclear submarines in the coming years mainly used in three different roles. The names follow the nomenclature of the U.S. Navy and NATO .
As Ship Submersible Nuclear or short SSN (to German as "submersible ship nuclear-powered") called the attack and hunt submarines are called. Its main task is the secret tracking enemy submarines and operations close to the enemy coast, for, among other electronic monitoring or the discontinuation of special forces, with mainly a silent underwater journey is important not by enemy sonar to be perceived.
Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear or short SSBN (German about: submersible ship with nuclear propulsion and ballistic missile) submarines that are under water abschuss capable ballistic missiles can carry and shoot. This SSBN drive usually in the vastness of the oceans, in the event of an enemy nuclear first strike out of reach of the enemy. Thus, they constitute the most important part of the second strike capability .
A Ship Submersible Guided Missile Nuclear or short SSGN (German about: submersible ship with nuclear propulsion and cruise missiles) carries cruise missiles and / or anti-ship missiles . The object of this type exists in tactical attacks on some aircraft carrier battle groups and land targets.

Use history

USA

After completion of the Nautilus and a second prototype, the USS Seawolf (SSN-575) , started in the U.S. mid-1950s with the skate-class mass production of four boats. All of these boats still had the classic, designed for driving on the surface wedge shaped bow. By 1960, the U.S. Navy began using the Skipjack class for the first time the hydro-dynamically optimized Albacore hull in the form of drops, the speeds of up to 30 knots allowed, which was around 50% above the rate of the first U.S. nuclear submarines. Parallel with the first rocket-powered submarines were developed. The George Washington class was there still a modified Skipjack hull, the later boats of classes Ethan Allen and Lafayette but already independent designs.
In the 1960s, eventually followed by a rethinking of the U.S. Navy. Not the speed but a low noise emission while driving were brought to the fore. This developed into the Thresher- and Sturgeon-class . In the 1970s, the submarines were planned, even in the 21st Century still form the backbone of the submarine fleet of the United States. These are the boats of the Los Angeles-class submarines as hunting and the Ohio class SSBN in the. Only after the end of the Cold War more hunting submarines were completed, these units of classes Seawolf and especially Virginia are among the most advanced nuclear submarines in the world.
The first dedicated SSGN emerged only in the 21 Century reconstruction of Ohio class . Until that time only had to Vertical Launching System SSN tipped the Los Angeles-classaccomplishes this task.
The last diesel-electric powered boats of the Barbel-class were in the 1950s, parallel to the skate-class built in 1990 and went out of service. Following this class, the U.S. Navy placed exclusively on nuclear submarines. 2012 There are 71 nuclear submarines, including 14 SSBNs and four SSGN, in the fleet of the U.S. Navy.  The peak figures were around 140 active nuclear submarines from the mid-1960s.

Soviet Union / Russia

The Soviet Navy was the stockpiling of nuclear submarine fleet after the completion of the first nuclear submarine, the Leninsky Komsomol , before pretty quickly. Between 1958 and the mid-1960s, she built twelve other boats of Project 627 , and the K-3 was a member, also eight SSGN the Hotel-class SSGN and 34 of the Echo class . This rapid development, which should catch up to the numerical result of the Soviet Union to the United States was, at the cost of more accurate tests and trials of the boats and reactors, so that a second generation had to follow soon, which could perform better than the first boats. But because only a few yards could develop complete the difficult to be built nuclear submarines and, went to the Soviet Union also continues to build conventionally-powered boats.
In the 1960s and 1970s still many nuclear submarines were built. Modern SSBN Class Project 667A and 667b project followed, the latter production was in a modified version until 1992. In addition, the SSN were Victor-class SSGN and the Charlie-class manufactured. Until the 1990s, 142 boats of these two classes have been completed. In the last decade of the Soviet Union were then with the boats of theTyphoon class , the world's largest submarines in service, also followed the more modern SSN Sierra and Akula-class SSGN and theOscar-class . These submarines were of the Russian Navy adopted and partially producing. Under Russian auspices then the SSGN were Granay-class SSBN and the Borei-class developed that are currently in production.
In 2012, the size of the Russian nuclear submarine fleet is estimated to be around 30, 15 SSN, 10 SSBN and SSGN five. [4] In addition to the nuclear submarines of the Russian Navy also operates modern conventionally-powered boats Classes Kilo and Lada .

Great Britain

The Royal Navy had been exploring the technology after World War II, but never decided the concrete construction of nuclear-powered submarines. Only when the performance of the Nautilus was known, the United Kingdom began planning. The British were among the nuclear-submarine forces finally in 1963 with the commissioning of its first vessel, the HMS Dreadnought (S101) at. Under the First Sea Lord Louis Mountbatten while American reactor technology has been fitted in a British body. Soon followed with the Valiant-class but the first fully British SSN, with the resolution class then in the 1960s, also the first SSBN. The Royal Navy ordered but still conventional submarines.
In the 1970s, two more SSN classes, namely, the three-boats Churchill class and twice the Swiftsure class . In the 1980s, finally came the modern Trafalgar -class fleet, the SSNs are the largest in Europe. From 1993, four new SSBNs were commissioned by the Vanguard-class members. Currently under construction are the boats of the Astute Class , the Trafalgars replaced piece by piece. The type of ship was service in 2010.
1994 with only a few months old boats were the Upholder-class diesel-electric the last submarines of the Royal Navy out of service, so that now the British Navy has an exclusively nuclear-powered submarine fleet. 2012, the size of the fleet is seven SSN and four SSBNs.

France

The French Navy has been using the commissioning of Le Redoutable in a 1971 nuclear-powered submarines, beginning just under then uclear forces . The French developed the drive system without the help of other states completely alone. To 1980 was followed by the Le Redoutable five SSBNs the Redoutable class after, in 1985, the classless boat L'Inflexible . Up to 1983, hunting submarines of the French all driven conventionally, but then came to 1993, the six boats of the Rubis and Améthyste-class fleet.

Since 1997, new SSBNs are under construction, the Triomphant class includes four boats and replaced the old SSBN. As a substitute for the SSN is the Barracuda class scheduled that will have six units from 2016 to 2026.
In 2001, the last diesel-electric submarine was decommissioned. The size of the French submarine fleet is 2012, to be at six and four SSBN SSN.

China

The Navy of the People's Liberation Army is to India so far penultimate armed force that built nuclear submarines, with their boats on relatively little is known. The program for the planning began in the late 1950s, a plea for help to the Soviet Union was rejected. Because of this, it took years before results were visible: between 1974 and 1991 were the five SSN of Han-class in service. From 1981, then the first SSBN the People's Republic went into service, if known, two Xia built, one of which might have been lost later, the other seems to stand still in service. At least one source also reported the loss of a Han .
In the 21st Century was the Shang-class (Type 093), the first new SSN China launched, more boats of the improved Type-095 class are planned. What this class will be is unknown. As with the new SSBN of Jin-class (Type 094), the first boat seems to be in service, this time Russian shipyards and designers have played in the construction of the submarines play an important role.
The exact size of the Chinese submarine fleet is not due to imprecise and dubious, sometimes contradictory information is known, but is likely 2011 will be in the single digits and consists of booting the Jin-and Shang-class. Whether older boats are still in service is unclear.Thus, the Chinese fleet of diesel-electric submarines that are from their own, Soviet and Russian production, numerically much larger. It is 2011 at about 60

India

India itself began in 1985, the program Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV), which has to build their own nuclear submarines to the goal. Between 1988 and 1991, the Navy of the Soviet Union leased the boat Charlie-class one. The boat K-43 , which in the Indian Navy as INS Chakra was known, was controlled by Soviet sailors anlernten the Indians. There were since the turn of the millennium again media reports about the leasing of two Russian submarines of the Akula class . in January 2012 took over the Indian Navy a newly finished boat of the Russian Navy for ten years. This is one of the Akula-II class and is called back to India at INS Chakra . The cost will amount to 650 million U.S. dollars.
Im Juli 2009 wurde the INS Arihant as Résultat des ATV Programms vom Stack gelassen, the Indienststellung ist für planted in 2012. Dazu wird Atomrakete Sagarika gebaut eine Reichweite von bis zu 750 Kilometres besitzen Soll und von getauchten U-Booting gestartet were kann.

Drives

General

Technically, there are between conventional and nuclear submarines little differences. With the French Rubis-class has been proved that the reactor must cause no significant increase in the boats, with just under 73 meters, they are no bigger than modern diesel-electric boats such as the Kilo-class . However, this is more the exception than the reactor and the reactor shield represent a high additional weight, which is why most nuclear submarines are over 100 meters long.
A submarine with nuclear propulsion has a nuclear reactor as it ashore as in nuclear power plants is used, however, far less because it has to fit into a shell with a diameter of less than ten meters. The reactor heats a fluid in the radioactive primary circuit. This in turn gives its heat in a heat exchanger in high-purity water from the non-radioactive secondary circuit. The resulting, highly pressurized steam drives a turbine. A connected to the turbine generator generates the power for the on-board systems and charges batteries, which deliver power at a reactor failure. The turbo-electric drive , the propeller shaft is driven by an electric motor. Frequently, however, is geared turbine used which drives the shaft directly to the power of the turbine.
Today's submarines exclusively use pressurized water reactors . Both the United States on the Seawolf and the Soviet Union with the Alfa class , however, have experimented with liquid metal cooled reactors. While the Americans with the sodium-cooled reactor because of excessive security concerns very soon replaced by a pressurized water reactor, operated the Soviets, who used lead-bismuth alloy for cooling, their six boats around ten years with liquid metal reactors.
While western designs only have a nuclear reactor on board, and have had especially the Soviet boats often two reactors, for boats with two screws in part a separate reactor for each shaft is operated. On the other hand, the second reactor can also serve as an emergency reserve. Today's submarine reactors provide about 150 megawatts .

Pros and Cons

Diesel-electric powered submarines draw their energy from the on-board fuel. Using diesel generators to charge large batteries that power the drive motors during diving and onboard systems with power. In order to charge the batteries, which must be of snorkels are sucked from the surface of fresh air for the diesel engines, where the risk of detection is high.Notwithstanding this is only the case with modern patterns with non-nuclear air-independent propulsion outside process, such as drives by fuel cells , which the German Type 212 Aimplemented. However, these units have to be refilled after a comparatively short time.
The reactor of a nuclear submarine can contrast with nuclear fuel can be filled for several years. Since the air is conditioned to breathe on board nuclear submarines can stay as long at great depths, such as food for the crew on board. Thus, the duration that a submarine spends under water, limited primarily by the human factor. Also needs to nuclear submarines are not gehaushaltet with energy and are thus able to maintain sustained high speeds.
However, there are also disadvantages. While a diesel-electric boat ride on pure, battery-fed from the electric drive at low speed is almost silent, the nuclear reactor always causes minimal noise. Especially the coolant pumps that maintain the circulation of the reactor coolant play a role and are of enemy sonar perceptible. Some nuclear submarines such as the Ohio-class cooling the reactor at low load regimes may, however, without pumps solely by natural convection must be ensured.
Also in the reactor is formed of radioactive waste that has to be removed after a few years from the reactor and then securely stored. In addition, each boat is a potential environmental hazard, because a discharge of radioactive material by accident or attack could have unforeseen effects on the environment.

Application profile

Nuclear submarines are mainly used for blue water operations used, so for missions beyond the continental shelf . In the vastness of the oceans, they can show their permanently higher speed and long underwater endurance far better than in the flat, narrow coastal areas.
Responsibilities of the SSN are the protection of so-called " offshore and "about aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships , but also to hunt enemy submarines and surface ships, and the extraction of intelligence information about the results of weapons and ship tests of another nation. However SSBN patrol in remote areas as possible in order in the event of a nuclear war to remain undetected for long enough and can fire their ICBMs. Make a mixture of these strategies, the SSGN own. They can be used to track and attack enemy convoys about, but also to wait in a long distance to the coast and cruise missiles, long-range fire on land targets.
While the U.S. Navy in the Second and Third Gulf War nuclear submarines has used massively as a cruise missile platforms, the Royal Navy is the only navy, which has experienced a sinking by a nuclear-powered submarine: The HMS Conqueror (S48) sunk during the Falklands War , the Argentine warship ARA General Belgrano (C-4) . The use of SSBN was previously required only in exercises.

Dismantling

Procedure

Nuclear submarines during the Cold War, produced in large quantities. Since every warship has a limited service life, until it is forced by technological innovations and their own age to the sidelines, there is the problem of disposal. When scrapping here special measures must be taken, as each reactor nuclear fuel and contains the entire primary cycle is heavily contaminated. These measures have to be carried out by specialists in specific shipyards and require a large financial outlay.
In general at the beginning of the nuclear fuel and contaminated liquids removed, the reactor section is separated from the rest of the fuselage.This residue can be recycled normally, so for example, sold as scrap metal. The contaminated parts of the reactor, so the reactor chamber and the pipes have to be placed in storage. In the U.S., this happens underground in the Hanford Site , the spent nuclear fuel will be in the Naval Reactors Facility at the Idaho National Laboratory incorporated. The cost of disabling and dismantling of a nuclear submarine were in the U.S. Navy in 1998 at around 40 million U.S. dollars.
The U.S. Navy has for the dismantling of nuclear-powered warships, the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program was launched. Under this program are in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton , Washington , including nuclear submarines professionally exempt from radiation-contaminated parts and then canceled. By 2007, more than 100 nuclear submarines have been dismantled, 17 were waiting to go through the program. Of these 17, the last until 2017 will be canceled.  By the beginning of dismantling the U.S. boats are in the Reserve Fleet of theUnited States Maritime Administration waited on, to avoid problems with the shut-down reactors or as a rust through the hull .
By 2007 the UK has only one decontaminated his 14 retired nuclear submarines and converted into a museum, while the remaining 13 are deflated with reactors still in Rosyth and Devonport stored. France supports the reactor department after the removal of nuclear fuel for about 20 years in a special hall adjacent to the dry dock in Cherbourg-Octeville one and will then further subdivided.

Problems

Had far more problems with the environmentally sound dismantling of the hulls and the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel and has the Russian Navy, has inherited the large numbers of nuclear submarines of the Soviet Navy. But since Russia after the collapse of the USSR could barely raise enough money to maintain the still seaworthy vessels, the proper disposal of the submarines was attached scant value, many rusted in Russian naval bases. In the late 1990s, the Russian Navy had accumulated about 130 old nuclear-powered submarines, which had been partially made ​​20 years ago out of service and only pumped into the hull compressed air and on the pages linked pontoons not decreased.
The Soviet Union had hardly taken care of the old, from the mid 1980s, decommissioned nuclear submarines, but spent more funds for emergency repairs to the old and building new boats. Reactors and the resulting extracted, consumed, but still radioactive nuclear fuel from vessels that were broken, were stored at the coast in some inadequately protected sites. Sometimes, however, was in these camps is not enough space available, so that all the reactors, some with, some without nuclear fuel, on the coast of the Kara Sea , mainly in the fjords of Novaya Zemlya , dumped were  . Which up to eleven reactors still contained spent radioactive fuel. Among these are also two experimental liquid metal cooled reactors of the submarine K-27 , in 1968 had a serious accident and in 1981 became completely sunk there.
Alone in the ports of the Far East fleet are (as of 2006) 30 to 40 decommissioned nuclear submarines.To meet this problem under control, Russia is now dependent on international aid. And so, the fleet in 2006 by Japan 171 million dollars to dispose of only five of these units properly can.  But by 2006 Russia received from abroad over a billion dollars for the dismantling of submarines and offered even 200 million dollars. The funds will support all decommissioned submarines are canceled professionally until 2010. One of the largest contributors are the U.S. with its Cooperative Threat Reduction Program.

Intermediate and accidents

Sunken Boats

So far, seven nuclear submarines are confirmed legally dropped, two of them. Side with the U.S. and five from the Soviet Union / Russia It should be noted that some of the submarines, for example, the Soviet K-429 suffered severe flooding though, the hull itself, however, remained intact, the boat was lifted later. Therefore, the figures vary in part depending on the source. Also, it is unclear whether nuclear submarines of the Chinese People's Liberation Army may be dropped.
The first lost nuclear submarine was ever in 1963, the USS Thresher (SSN-593) , which was lost in deep-diving tests with the entire crew of 129 men. Five years later dropped the second U.S. boat. The reason for the explosion, which in 1968 aboard the USS Scorpion (SSN-589) occurred, has never been resolved safely. Today it is assumed that a faulty torpedo battery could have triggered this. 99 sailors lost their lives.
1970 aboard the Soviet broke K-8 , a fire. The boat was taken in tow, during which it sank with 52 men. 1986 on board the Soviet detonated K-219 , the fuel tank of an intercontinental missile after a leak in the Siloabdeckung. The ship held over two days on the water surface, but ultimately declined. The crew was able to advance to disembark. Less than three years later came the K-278 Komsomoletslost after a fire, in which 42 crew members were killed. 2000, the Russian submarine sank K-141 Kursk after a torpedo explosion, killing all 118 crew members. In 2003 we did the most recent nuclear submarine, the K-159 lost. The boat had been put out of service in 1989 and was to be towed for scrapping. During the tow the boat was full, however, and went under with nine sailors on board. Of these five, only the boats was Kursk raised.
A report by the International Atomic Energy     Agency from September 2001 gives the results of water testing in the area of the sunken graves of the submarines. Accordingly, little radioactivity was measured, not from the fallout of former nuclear weapons testing results.Close to the American boat was only an increased level of 60 Co measured near the Komsomolets of 137 Cs . This indicates that the reactor chambers in all cases, even after some 40 years previously under the tap tightly.
In addition, some sources from a loss of a Chinese SSBN the report Xia-class .  The American author and former Marineattacheé Peter Huchthausen further reports from being a Han in 1983 after a collision with a Soviet Victor III should be dropped. Accordingly, the two boats were 100 kilometers southeast of Vladivostok crashed and the Han out in a mile-deep water lost with its entire crew. The Russian Academy of Sciences 1989 there have radiation levels of up to 1000 x measured per hour. Furthermore, the existence Huchthausen the accident with a mass which appeared obituaries for submarine engineers in Chinese newspapers during the relevant period.

Other incidents

Particularly the Soviet nuclear-powered submarines of the first generation were involved in accidents that were directly associated with the new Engine. In 1961 there was a near catastrophe on the K-19 , in which a meltdown could be avoided only by that eight men directly into the contaminated reactor chamber went and took an impromptu emergency cooling system going. After this incident was the boat of Soviet sailors the nickname "Hiroshima".  But by 1970 were to reactor problems aboard five other boats crew partially contaminated so badly that they died shortly thereafter.  In particular, relative to the first Soviet boats there are reports of such low safety standards that prescribed in western boot radiation limits have been exceeded many times over. This was especially the technical aspects of construction, because the most part composed of lead shielding reactor increases the weight of a boat strong. For this reason, the early boats were very prone to problems.
But even in the Soviet boats of later generations, there were other disasters such as the outbreak of fire on board and difficulty of maintenance or refilling of reactors. An example of the latter is the K-314 , in 1985, tried to replace the fuel caused a massive explosion that killed 10 people and the boat is irreparably damaged.
On the part of Western navies, however no serious incident is known, would result from a reactor malfunction and would have led to contamination of crew members. About some small problems, however, was reported. This includes problems with the (now no longer performed) dumping depleted deposits, such as, inter alia, in 1975 on the USS Guard Fish (SSN-612) done appeared or the faulty opening of valves of the primary circuit, so escape that radioactively contaminated water can, so 1978 on the USS buffer (SSN-652) . The Royal Navy had, among other problems with the loss of convection in the reactor of HMS Tireless (S88) in 2000, after which the boat a year in the port of Gibraltar was stuck. The explosion of 1994 in the engine room of the French nuclear submarine Émeraude , the ten seamen had cost her life, like any relationship to a reactor damage.
Especially at the time of the Cold War, when the two superpowers with nuclear submarines spying each other, there were several collisions. These were regularly also politically sensitive, since they often occurred in territorial waters. One example is the underwater collision between the American USS Tautog (SSN-639) and the Soviet K-108 , in 1970 before Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky took place or that the the aforementioned K-19 in 1969 in the Barents Sea with the (USS Gato SSN-615) had. The journalists Sontag and Drew report more than ten collisions between boats of the USSR and the USA, as well as of two between British and Soviet submarines alone between 1960 and the end of the Cold War.
Not unusual are also collisions with surface ships, was known primarily the accidental sinking of the Japanese fishing training vessel Ehime Maru by the American USS Greeneville (SSN-772) off Hawaii 2,001th
Recently it came in February of 2009 in the Atlantic Ocean in a collision between the French Le Triomphant (S 616) (named after the Triomphant class ) and the British HMS Vanguard . Both vessels were only slightly damaged and could continue their journey on their own.