A Brief History
On April 30, 1961, the Soviet Union was proud to commission their ill-fated nuclear powered submarine, the K-19.
Digging Deeper
The Soviet Union and the western democracies (led by the United States) engaged in a Cold War arms race, with nuclear weapons and nuclear powered ships that could carry those nuclear weapons a key element in the race for military superiority. The submarine K-3 Leninsky Komsomol was commissioned in 1958 as the Soviet Union’s first nuclear submarine, but hardly the last.
Called K-19: The Widow Maker in the 2002 film, another Soviet ship was actually known informally within the Soviet Navy as Hiroshima and was, according to the BBC, “Russia’s first nuclear-armed submarine”.
Barely over 2 months from commissioning the nuclear reactor suffered a coolant leak, dangerously raising reactor temperature. With the radio system inoperative, the ship and crew were in peril.
Although Captain Zateyev had argued the reactor needed a back up cooling system, none was installed. That lack led to the dilemma the captain faced: lose the ship or have men expose themselves to radiation while cobbling together an emergency cooling system.
Eight sailors heroically volunteered to do the job, and the jury rigged cooling system was completed. Unfortunately, the 8 men on the repair team died within a month of saving the ship, and later 15 more of the crew died from radiation. Not only had the crew and parts of the ship been irradiated, but even the nuclear armed ballistic missiles were contaminated as well.
Sending short ranged radio messages for assistance from other Soviet submarines, US Navy ships monitored the distress call and offered to assist, but Captain Zateyev refused American assistance. To discourage a crew mutiny, the captain had all small arms thrown overboard, except for 5 pistols entrusted only to select officers.
The sub was towed to port by another Soviet submarine that had taken the crew aboard, and the repairs took 2 years before K-19 was back in service. The sub served until decommissioning in April of 1990. Cracked fact: The damaged reactor was just dumped into the Kara Sea, with no regard for environmental responsibility.
Troubles were not over for Hiroshima after the reactor disaster, as a collision with US Navy submarine USS Gato occurred 200 feet below the surface in 1969 and a fire claimed 28 lives in 1972. Cracked fact: A former crew member of the K-19 bought the ship in 2006 with the intention of making it a “Moscow based meeting place” for submarine sailors from around the world. No work has been done as yet to make that happen.
Question for students (and subscribers): Are nuclear powered ships safe for people and the environment? Should they be banned? Tell us what you think in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Huchthausen, Peter. K-19 THE WIDOWMAKER: The Secret Story of The Soviet Nuclear Submarine. National Geographic, 2002.
