[Delhi Rebels]

You can argue the safety of asbestos till the cows come home and that doesn’t change the fact that not only did the Navy drop its use but it obviously replaced it with something suitable that isn’t causing any problems with overheating the boilers. I’m just surprised that India and Russia didn’t use whatever the U.S. is using. Unless, of course, the Russian excuse is all BS and the engineering failure is due to sloppy workmanship or poor design. And I’m not willing to discard that possibility either.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I agree, but the decision to abandon asbestos it was *not* based on engineering or safety concerns. It’s an old story by now, but the World Trade Center used asbestos up to the 66th story, at which time “safety” (read fear of the plaintiff bar) made them switch to a less effective alternative. This at least contributed to and hastened the structural failure of the upper stories.

[DaveInDallas]

Unless, of course, the Russian excuse is all BS and the engineering failure is due to sloppy workmanship or poor design. And I’m not willing to discard that possibility either.

Back in the day when the Soviet Union had a couple of submarine incidents, some comic strip ran a cartoon titled "Soviet Submarine Race" with all of the contestants diving straight down to the bottom.