Komsomolets

The Komsomolets was a Sous-marin Soviet Nucléaire registered K-278 , sadly celebrates for the catastrophe of the April 7th 1989. This day, a fire was declared inside the submarine, causing the death of 4 submariners, then 38 submariners at the time of the stranding of the submarine by 1600 meters basic, off the coasts of Norway. The event caused a wave of consternation in the Soviet Marine, and great concern in the ecologists mediums, for the nuclear character of the wreck. This one indeed contains two nuclear reactors and two nuclear torpedes containing of plutonium. Since the catastrophe, the Russian authorities accepted the international cooperation in the event of shipwreck. The massive use of the oceanographical submarines was a first.

Description of the building

Its name means young member of the Komsomol . It is launched in May 1983 with Severodvinsk, a Soviet top secret city located on the edges of the Mer of Barents. It makes 400 feet length, 37 feet height a draft of 27 feet with a displacement of water of 8.000 tons. Komsomolets is equipped with two nuclear reactors for its revolutionary propulsion for their cooling system. Its titanium hull makes then him to it underwater being able to plunge most deeply in the world, with an operational depth of 3000 feet. Its crew includes/understands 70 men, and can transport torpedes and cruise missiles, conventional or nuclear. He belongs to the Mike class, supposed to become the first of a broad class of underwater nuclear of attack. He becomes operational at the end of 1984, but the specimens built on the same plan will never be born. After having passed the stage of prototype, it takes share with the underwater patrols of monitoring. In May 1989, it is described like a submarine of fight against the underwater war.

The catastrophe of April 7th, 1989

This day, Komsomolets sails with 1250 feet of depth close to the Norwegian coasts, to 180 km in the south-west of the island of Medvezhy, for a started patrol 39 days ago.

Shortly after 11:00 of the morning, a fire is declared in compartment 7, undoubtedly with an minor amount of oil flowing on an extreme surface, in this place where pass from the flows of compressed air connected to the ballasts to control the depth. The command center then orders to extinguish fire by the use of freon, an inert gas likely to choke fire, causing the asphyxiation of the Bukhnikashvili submariner being in the compartment. But the command is unaware of the flow of air which flows in the compartment, transforming it into genuine furnace. Fire is spread then in all the building. Fearing a nuclear catastrophe, the engines are stopped. The submarine is found without energy source.

The command orders the increase of the building then, by the draining of the ballasts. Arrived on the surface, the commander sends an encrypted S.O.S to the Soviet army. However, the crew is far from being drawn from business. The fire, which is propagated by the cables, releases an intense heat, and the carbon Dioxide, poison, threat its survival. The men become unconscious, the CO₂ is detected too late. With 11:41, the S.O.S is received and the air force is in state of alert. The hecatomb is already largely started, and the attempts of ventilations, re-startings of the diesel engine will be vain.

With 12:19, the commander Vanin gives up the protocol of safety, and sends a nonencrypted S.O.S by indicating his name, his position and the circumstances of the catastrophe. The Admiral Chernavin orders the immediate help of the submarine, including the possible assistance and desired Norwegian fleet. But this one was not alerted. The helps are completely disorganized, and too late.

With 14:40, the building is located by the air helps. Water is very cold, the visibility is not very good, and the majority of the crew left, pushed back by smoke. Only the command and some technicians are still on board to try to save the building. The helps are planned for 18:00. In spite of unfavourable conditions weather, a protocol of defective safety, attempts at rescue of the submarine last during 4 hours. But at 4 p.m. 42, the order to give up the ship is marked.

The men then take place in the lifeboats, and a rescue raft is launched by a plane. Komsomolets starts to sink towards 17:00. 6 men are then inside, of which the commander. 5 men succeed in escaping from the submarine by a capsule of help, but only one succeeds in joining surface. The rescue rafts, not many enough, leave about fifty men to the sea. The lifeboat arrives little before 18:00, leaving behind him 38 drowned, and 4 missings.

Reactions after the catastrophe

The catastrophe is then known by all the world press. The calculation of died and the sequence of the events are revealed by the newspapers Komsomolskaya Pravda and Sovetskaya Rossia. One decorates the crew with Komsomolets, and one sends oceanographical missions on the site of the épave.
The catastrophe then causes a reaction of the Soviet authorities, which orders a 2 weeks investigation, without any result. However it benefits from the important oceanographical means of the USSR. The oceanographical ship Akademik Mstislav Keldysh is charged to inquire, the Russian authorities fearing new a Tchernobyl. An internal survey on the accident proceeds then during 7 years, carrying out 9 expertises and identifying the responsible parts. Missions on the wreck are led into 1991,1992,1993, each time increasingly directed towards the effects of radioactive pollution. Sediments are taken, analyzed by various countries. But the investigation was abruptly stopped by the prosecutor before it can lead to a lawsuit and the results were kept secret.
The agitation caused by the catastrophe started the construction of the ékranoplane Spasatel. The nuclear Ogive S which the submarine contained feeds the polemic on the state of the Russian nuclear submarines and pollution innérente in Norway, and more generally the problem of the nuclear waste abandoned at sea. However, according to the investigations, in particular that of 1993, the Césium 137 from the engines caused only one tiny pollution. In September 1993, Tengiz Borisov, with the head of the Russian special Committee for the control of oceanographical work, announces that it decides to withdraw the nuclear warheads contained in the submarine, because the contamination makes fear an impossibility of sinning for the 600 next years in the Norwegian sea.
Only remainders of the wreck of the submarine, the clock of Komsomolets is preserved at the naval museum of Leningrad. It is stopped with 17:43.

Sources

the catastrophe of Komsomolets
Investigation of Center for Non-proliferation Studies

Information on the propulsion, torpedes, and the phase of prototype in general were revealed by a discussion with the author of the Jane' S Fighting Ships 1989-90 on October 21st, 1993 and Igor Spasskiy, one of the originators of Komsomolets.

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