The Russians are going to (try to) raise two nuclear submarines without killing everyone and everything within miles. What could possibly go wrong?

THParent

Founder - Service Academy Bacon Forums (SABF)
5-Year Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2017
Messages
6,723
K-159 was lost while being towed to a ship-breaking yard in 2003 in bad weather. Several sailors were lost as well.
Here's a photo from 2003 of the rusted POS being towed:

1633528390305.png



K-27 (below) was dumped in the the Kara Sea (deliberately scuttled because it was too costly to scrap) back in 1982 and is leaking radioactivity from its reactor. For decades, the Soviet Union used the desolate Kara Sea as their dumping grounds for nuclear waste. Thousands of tons of nuclear material went into the ocean there. The underwater nuclear junkyard includes at least 14 unwanted reactors. A rotting submarine reactor fed by an endless supply of ocean water might re-achieve criticality, belching out a boiling cloud of radioactivity that could infect local seafood populations, spoil bountiful fishing grounds, and contaminate a local oil-exploration frontier.

The BBC raised concerns of a “nuclear chain reaction” in 2013 (Yeah, that was 8 years ago), while The Guardian described the situation as “an environmental disaster waiting to happen.” Nearly everyone agrees that the Kara is on the verge of an uncontrolled nuclear event, but retrieving a string of long-lost nuclear time bombs is proving to be a daunting challenge for the Russians.

Chernobyl, the sequel. :rolleyes:
1633528498190.png
 
I don't think so. For the most part, the 1950s and 60s were really great for losing track of nuclear weapons. By the time the 70s rolled around we had decided that maybe we should be a bit more careful with these things. By then, we had accidentally dropped at least ten nukes (that were reported) into the ocean in eight different incidents. We had lost one in a Carolina swamp and had almost accidentally nuked Greenland. There have been nine (9) nuclear submarines lost at sea. They were: Thresher (SSN-593), Scorpion (SSN-589), K-27, K-8, K-219, K-278, K-429 (sank twice), K-141, and K-159. In addition to 9 decaying nuclear reactors on the sea floor, there were non-nuclear detonations of bombs and nuclear warheads also lost.

Non-nuclear detonations:
  • Pacific Ocean, near British Columbia (February 13, 1950): A B-36 Flying a simulated combat mission encountered mechanical trouble and flew out over the ocean to jettison its payload, which detonated. The weapon had a dummy warhead installed and only carried conventional explosives. The aircraft wreck was found three years later during an unrelated search for the downed plane of a Texas oil tycoon.
  • Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec, Canada (November 10, 1950): A B-50 Superfortress experiencing engine trouble jettisoned its weapon over water near Quebec. Though it didn’t carry a plutonium core, the conventional explosive detonation scattered about 45kg of uranium from the neutron reflector.
Nukes lost at sea:
  • Mediterranean Sea (March 10, 1956): A B-47 Stratojet vanished during refueling operations over the Mediterranean Sea carrying two “capsules of nuclear weapons material in carrying cases”. Neither the aircraft nor the capsules were ever found.
  • Atlantic Ocean, near US East Coast (July 28, 1957): A C-124 experienced mechanical trouble and two unarmed weapons were jettisoned over of the coast of New Jersey. Neither detonated and both were subsequently lost at sea.
  • Savannah River, Georgia (February 5, 1958): A B-47 on a simulated combat mission collided with another aircraft. Unable to land with the unarmed weapon, it jettisoned the device several miles east of the Savannah River. Though news reports claimed it was recovered, the weapon has not been found.
  • Pacific Ocean, near Oregon Coast (September 25, 1959): A Navy P-5M aircraft crashed in the Pacific Ocean near the Oregon coast carrying an unarmed nuclear depth charge. Neither plane nor weapon have ever been found.
  • Pacific Ocean, undisclosed (December 5, 1965): An A-4 Skyhawk carrying a 1-megaton warhead rolled of the deck of an aircraft carrier in the Sea of Japan. The weapon and the plane are presumably still sitting on the seafloor, 5000m below.
  • Mediterranean Sea, near Spanish Coast (January 17, 1966): This is probably the most notorious at-sea Broken Arrow incident. A B-52 collided with its refueling plane and crashed near Palomares, Spain. It carried 4 nuclear weapons. One was recovered on land, two exploded on impact, and the other one was lost in deep water. The search by DSV Alvin proved that DSVs could be used for deep-sea salvage operations. Fifty years later, the USA is still cleaning up contamination from the crash.
Other notable incidents:
  • Carolina swamp, Goldsboro, North Carolina (January 24, 1961): We lost part of a nuke in a swamp in North Carolina. But it’s cool, because the Air Force now has an easement.
  • Thule, Greenland (January 21, 1968): We almost nuked Greenland. Oops!
You may notice a pattern there. There are no reported incidents of anything like the above happening in the former Soviet Union, China, Israel, India, France, Britain, or anyone else with nuclear weapons capability. I guess they don't want anyone to know. Solid plan there.
 
Last edited:
Maybe someday scientists and engineers can find a way to concentrate nuclear waste enough that it will be light enough to send into space, or to bury in deep mines on the Moon. Worth investigating.
 
Did you all read “The Sum of All Fears.” It’s about terrorists obtaining the plutonium (although it may have been uranium it’s been a long time since I read it) from a lost bomb and using it to make their own weapon. It could happen. The key was making the shaped charge to implode the core and create critical mass.
 
Last edited:
I did. As I recall, Tom Clancy made that a nuke lost by Israel in the Arab–Israeli war of 1967. Certainly plausible.
 
I did. As I recall, Tom Clancy made that a nuke lost by Israel in the Arab–Israeli war of 1967. Certainly plausible.
1973 war, when Israel was close to defeat before it rallied. Fighter/bomber (I think F-4) with a tactical nuke was shot down. A Syrian farmer plowed up the bomb and sold it to an arms dealer
 
Ah yes, the Yom-Kippur War.
 
The Russians have always been a little lackadaisical (fatalistic?) in their safety. I saw this in the 1990s while operating with Russian pilots in Africa. Their military helicopters only had lap belts, not shoulder harnesses. The crew chief had nothing and sat on a folding metal jumpseat in the cockpit. In an accident he was going out the window.
Performance planning was fatalistic. “If good we takeoff. If not good we not takeoff.”
 
I can’t wait for the Russians’ new nuclear torpedo. Another “gift that keeps on giving”
 
Back
Top